Thursday, March 28, 2024

Inaugural Silicon Valley Black Tech ERG Summit Brings Together Over 80 Tech/STEM/Recruitment Firms To Address Diversity, Tech Pipeline

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*OAKLAND, CA  – The Inaugural Silicon Valley Black Tech Employee Resource Group (ERG) Summit will be held Tuesday, August 18, 2015, at the Mission Campus of Intel Corporation (Santa Clara).

The summit, which has attracted more than 80 companies and organizations, is the first-ever gathering of this size nationwide of black tech employee resource group leaders.

Organized by the African American Employee Network (AAEN Bay Area) in association with UNCF, and the UNCF-led HBCU I.C.E. (Historically Black Colleges and Universities’ Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship) initiative, and the Kapor Center for Social Impact, it will be attended by some of the largest companies in tech. btes2015.aaenbayarea.org

The half-day event, which begins at 2pm and culminates with a networking mixer and reception from 5:30 pm to 7pm, will introduce the development of the National Tech Diversity Pipeline (NTDP) as well as local efforts on a parallel initiative to strategically engage ERGs at larger tech companies in the growth and sustenance of the tech ecosystem in Oakland, CA.

The NTDP is an effort to build a vibrant ecosystem of relationships between those entering the career pipeline and those professionals already there to both support students pursuing careers in the tech industry while continuing to build the community of African American tech professionals.

“African Americans make up more than 13 percent of the U.S. population, yet represent less than 2 percent of the tech-workforce in Silicon Valley and the tech-industry as a whole,” said Michael DeFlorimonte, AAEN Co-founder and Technology Chair. “The summit was planned specifically to galvanize black tech ERGs, and add a collaborative, sustainable, measurable and impactful pipeline component to the tech ecosystem. Our role is to act as a connector and manage the relationship between students  and ERGs.”

One of the Summit’s key presenters is Chad Womack, Ph.D., the national director of STEM Initiatives for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). He also is co-founder/co-lead of HBCU I.C.E.(the Center for Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship, organized by the Historically Black Colleges and Universities group), and a co-organizer of the summit.

“We envision the collaboration with AAEN as an extraordinary opportunity to connect the African-American talent in STEM/computer science and engineering that exists at our historically black colleges and universities with networking opportunities in the Silicon Valley tech-industry,” said Womack. He said that for the first time, black students interested pursuing careers in the tech-industry will have opportunities to network, be advised and mentored by black tech professionals as part of a structured network, and be able to envision a future at these companies. “This is a tremendous opportunity to seed and build a vibrant human capital ecosystem for the tech-industry that is rooted in the fertile soil of our HBCUs.”

The HBCU I.C.E. initiative started several years ago as a collaborative platform-based initiative to build an HBCU innovation ecosystem with enhanced capacities in STEM R&D, commercialization and tech-entrepreneurship. Working with its partners — including the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), Stanford University and the Kapor Center for Social Impact — HBCU I.C.E. has focused on developing HBCU campuses as vibrant hubs of innovation and entrepreneurship where STEM pipelines feed into the innovation ecosystems like Silicon Valley.

A similar pipeline model is in the works locally in the Oakland area, said Cedric Brown, chief of community engagement for the Kapor Center for Social Impact.

“Oakland, which is home to the majority of blacks in the Bay Area as well as a growing technology ecosystem, has tremendous potential for the two to intersect,” said Brown. “The center works to diversify the info tech pipeline and innovation economy.”

The National Tech Diversity Pipeline, administered by AAEN,  is planned to be launched and piloted through the HBCUs, and later expanded to colleges and universities nationwide.

The summit, partially sponsored by the San Francisco-based cloud communications company Twilio, targets ERG leaders, executive sponsors and program managers and will also be attended by diversity/HR professionals, academics and technologists (IT Managers, coders, engineers and STEM support/training organizations). For more information and a complete list of registered companies and organizations, visit the summit website at btes2015.aaenbayarea.org

 

INAUGURAL SILICON VALLEY BLACK TECH ERG SUMMIT 2015

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

  • Summit: 2:00pm – 5:30pm
  • Networking Mixer & Reception: 5:30pm – 7:00pm
  • Location: Intel Corporation (Mission Campus) – SC12 Auditorium 3600 Juliette Lane, Santa Clara, CA

 

AAEN Co-Founders
Michael DeFlorimonte, Technology and Individual Memberships Chair, African American Employee Network (AAEN Bay Area); Principal, michaelD. Communications

Dela Weeks, Corporate Relations and Career Development Chair, African American Employee Network (AAEN); President, Black ERG @ PG&E

David Spencer, Sponsorship and Financial Management Chair,  African American Employee Network (AAEN); Senior Financial Advisor, Merrill Lynch Wealth Management

About UNCF / HBCU I.C.E.
The UNCF and its partners including the White House HBCU Initiative and the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) have established the HBCU Innovation, Commercialization and Entrepreneurship (or ICE) initiative – as an open source, enterprise-based platform initiative to scale up STEM education pipeline and tech-workforce solutions across the HBCU landscape. HBCU ICE will have impact at the student, faculty and institutional levels and to date has engaged over 30 HBCU member institutions, held 3 Silicon Valley summits and has raised over $40M in support of STEM education/workforce development and tech-entrepreneurship, and is poised to rapidly scale.

www.uncf.orgwww.hbcuinnovation.org

About Kapor Center for Social Impact
The Kapor (pronounced KAY-por) Center for Social Impact relentlessly pursues creative strategies that will leverage information technology for positive social impact. They primarily work with underrepresented communities, focusing on gap-closing endeavors, and are particularly interested in social impact for communities that have historically been on the periphery of access to opportunity, participation and influence in the United States. They believe that when the community of tech leaders reflects the diversity of the United States, tech will play an integral role in closing gaps and disparities that exist in this country. Via proven methods from the for-profit and non-profit fields, Kapor works in partnership with a diverse set of stakeholders to maximize social impact (www.kaporcenter.org)

About African American Employee Network (AAEN Bay Area)The African American Employee Network (AAEN) Bay Area is a collaborative network of African American corporate employee resource groups, often joined by professional organizations, businesses and individuals from the private, public and education sectors. AAEN’s primary areas of focus are Career Development, Technology, Financial Management, Mentorship and Work/Life Balance. Focus on these areas results in corporate and employee advances in recruitment, retention, talent development, market research and outreach and best practices (www.aaenbayarea.com)

Media Inquiries and Event Access: African American Employee Network at (415) 203-9801 or [email protected] Phone Number: 415.203.9801

 

 

source:
jenaya mathews
Email: [email protected]
Website: https://btes2015.aaenbayarea.org

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