LTX Fest 2020 delivers stellar crash course conversations on Tech & business on day 2 of four-day experience
By: Gabriela Luz Sierra
It is no secret that the Latinx and Black communities are the least represented groups in the Technology industry. Today, the #LTXFest dissolved barriers to entry by offering a comprehensive three track schedule to tackle the topic of Tech and make it palatable for those of us who are less familiar with the industry while expanding the toolbox for those who are active techies today.
The complete day of programming opened by featuring profiles of only a few of the many LTX people who have made it and are thriving. Namely, Maria Cuba, Director of Diversity and Inclusion at AirBnB and Elias Torres, Founder and CTO of Drift.
“I didn’t ever think I was going to end up in Tech,” Cuba said.
What Cuba said proved to be a common theme among the stories of so many of the now successful LTX Tech business owners and employees presenting at the Fest. The truth is that most of them hardly knew that the roles they now hold even existed. The Festival did it’s part to create programming to expose attendees to a world of opportunities ushering us all through the theme of the day: to transform and embark on new pathways to success.
“We have to have the courage to be ambitious,” Elias Torres, founder and CTO of Drift said in conversation with Maxeme founder and CEO of Caribu.
Torres was the start of a conversation designed to let audience members in on how one goes about building a multi-million dollar company like he did. Like many other immigrants, after moving to the United States from Nicaragua, his first job was at a cleaning company with his aunt. His reality changed and evolved as he continued to act with courage and curiosity over the years.He ended up partnering with David Cancel to build Drift, a multi-million dollar revenue acceleration platform.
“You have to decide early on if you want to be a slice of the watermelon or if you want the whole grape,” Maxeme Tuchman, founder of kids and family playdate platform Caribu, said. Both Torres and Tuchman went for the whole grape and their insights were so inspiring that attendees were prepared to break out into three different sessions. Rising techies, Business and Tech.
The theme for the first panel at Rising Techies was fitting: Diverse Pathways into Technology.
Hosted by Carolina Castro, Community Tech Officer at the Boys and Girls club, the conversation expanded on the idea that you can continue to do high impact and social justice work to serve the Ltx community in tech.
“My personal mission is to continue to create a world for us and by us online, like I am doing now which is working with Code For America to help clear criminal records,” said Symonne Singleton, a software engineer at Code For America.
The conversation developed and each person offered candid knowledge about the many different ways to break into the industry through start-up bootcamps and apprenticeships, to networking groups like Techeria.
“Fall in love with the problem, not the solution,” said AJ Huaranaca, Product Manager at Audible who is also a painter.
From what we can see the main problem is representation, but through these conversations we prove that #Unitedwerise is a true mantra to bring to our everyday workplaces and social networks.
Under this hashtag, members of the larger LTXFest community chimed in as they tuned in to the second day of sessions from across the globe — — like Marina, who took the business track.
As the day progressed, Rising Techies got to learn about how to best perform at an interview for a Tech company and how to format a resume to stand out at a conversation hosted by John Canela of Outco.
“Every single interview is about telling your story to prove that you can add value to the company and role you are applying for,” Canela said.
To close out the business track offered a deep dive on Artificial Intelligence. It is difficult to imagine how AI works to benefit our community but the panel taught us otherwise.
Pilar Manchon, Senior director of Research Strategy at Google AI shared her thoughts on working during the pandemic.
“With every single revolution there has been a transformation into different styles of employment,” Manchon said. “AI can help to democratize many different industries, like education.”
All attendees headed back to the main stage to engage and learn about an important topic to end the day: Building the Future as Engineering Leaders. To elaborate on how to create change in a space usually reserved for white men, 3 heavyweights in the industry came together to share insight.
Michael Montano, VP of Engineering at Twitter, Ester Peña, VP of Software at Travelers and Joshua Encarnacion, Tech Industry Consultant discussed and compared the different ways in which they are driving inclusivity and change in their organizations.
“If we are not white CIS men, how do we combat that, [in the Tech industry] ?” Encarnacion, asked when tackling the topic of privilege.
The response was broad.
“I played a white man for a long time,” said Ester Peña. “But it didn’t bring me joy. I have learned that when you trade out your authenticity to play a role, it’s not worth it — -which means that we need to practice integrity.”
Outside of identity, the idea of the need to further enrich Tech environments with our presence sounded loud and clear throughout the day of outstanding and educational conversations on Tech and Business.
Today, on day 3, the conference continues with programming that elevates latinx entrepreneurship and investments. Alli nos vemos!
