Tuesday, January 06, 2015

SXSW Interactive Trans Tech Panel

Not too early to get started thinking about what conferences and conventions you'll have an opportunity to attend in 2015 and get your trans learn on.

If you're attending the SXSW Interactive event in Austin, TX from March 8-17, know that transpeeps will be in the house.

One of the fascinating panels that will be taking place during the SXSW Interactive portion of it will be entitled Transgender In Tech: Past Present and Future.

Unfortunately, this will also be the ONLY trans themed panel at SXSW, and that's another issue we need to discuss in another post.

We have a long proud legacy in the tech industry that we can trace back to Dr. Lynn Conway. who has served a role model to many trans peeps currently in the tech industry. 

The panel will bring together three people who have helped forge the path toward trans inclusion in tech spaces.   Dr. Kortney Ryan Ziegler will be in the SXSW house to talk about Trans* H4CK, his innovative hackathon and speaker series that highlights transgender created tech and entrepreneurship and has had successful sessions in Oakland, Las Vegas, Chicago and most recently Boston. 

Dr Lynn Conway will also be there.   IBM fired her after she transitioned in 1968, but Dr. Conway went on to achieve international fame as a pioneering researcher in computing and VLSI microelectronics.

The third panelist will be Brielle Henderson.  She is a user interface engineer at Facebook who helped create and implement the custom gender options that you can select on your Facebook profiles.

The facilitator of this fascinating panel will be Allyson Robinson, the VP for Knowledge and Impact with the LGBT Technology Partnership based in Washington, DC. 

She'll facilitate a conversation amongst the panelists that will focus on the trajectory of trans inclusion in technology and what it will mean for an industry that struggles with diversity and inclusion.

So if you are planning to be in Austin for the SXSW Interactive event, you may wish to be there for this fascinating panel. 

This panel brings together three figures who have helped make history advancing transgender inclusion in tech spaces. Lynn Conway was fired by IBM and nearly ended up on the streets when she transitioned in 1968, then went on to achieve international fame as a pioneering researcher in computing and VLSI microelectronics. Brielle Harrison, a user interface engineer at Facebook, helped create and implement that platform's industry-leading custom gender options. Dr. Kortney Ziegler envisioned and built Trans*H4CK, a hackathon and speaker series that spotlights transgender created tech and entrepreneurship.
Allyson Robinson, Vice President for Knowledge and Impact at the LGBT Technology Partnership in Washington, D.C. and a transgender pioneer in her own right, will facilitate a conversation among these trailblazers about the trajectory of transgender inclusion in tech and what it might mean for the future of diversity in the industry.
- See more at: http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/39695#sthash.lAYHcBET.z50gWX0o.dpuf

No comments: