I am fortunate enough to work with many brilliant and creative people as colleagues at Palantir, as clients, and in the community. However, I recognize that they are just a small subset of brilliant, creative people who have found a way to put up with our industry as it stands now.
Our industry is not as healthy, balanced and productive as it could be or as it should be. There are serious, systemic problems that result in a culture that often marginalizes women and underrepresented minorities and this holds back all of us. The more the tech industry reflects the people who buy our products and use our services, the better our work becomes and the more successful we all will be.
On Tuesday, Techweek Chicago sent out an e-mail invitation to a charity event with sexualized imagery in violation of its own code of conduct (a code that George and I had encouraged them to adopt before agreeing to participate in the event earlier this year).
As a featured speaker at Techweek Chicago, I was very troubled by the messaging that accompanied the e-mail promotion for the charity event and said so both publicly and privately.
I was notalone. The email was roundly condemned by many of the leaders of Chicago’s tech community. The message was very clear: Techweek failed to live up to our expectations.
However, as we often like to say in this industry, failures create the opportunity to learn from what went wrong and quickly pivot.
While its initial responses were inadequate and clumsy, I appreciate that Techweek has opened up a dialog with its roundtable Wednesday evening as well as backchannel discussions with those of us who could not be there, such as George and myself.
Techweek seems to have developed an understanding of the impact that type of message has on the entire community as well as a genuine commitment to do better. While I do not accept, condone or excuse their previous actions, I am encouraged that they’re learning from what went wrong and that they're not done trying to make the conference better. This week was undoubtedly very painful for the Techweek folks, but it has allowed the conference to achieve more (and faster) progress toward building a culture of respect than it would have otherwise.
Moving forward, I hope that Techweek will be even more open and transparent about its efforts to foster and promote a more inclusive and diverse program and community and to demonstrate that the values outlined in its code of conduct are embraced at all levels of the organization.
I want more of the best and brightest people in tech and events like Techweek are a key part of that. The best conferences inspire and challenge us. They recharge our batteries. That’s why I believe that more can be gained by helping Techweek reform and transform itself than by boycotting the event.
But this effort is not limited to TechWeek alone. All of us have a responsibility to help make our community and our industry a better and more welcoming place. It’s just as important to mobilize those that are aware of the problems as it is to persuade those who don't realize they exist.
I'm one of many willing to help make Techweek (and the rest of our industry) a healthier, more balanced, and more welcoming environment for everyone. Will you join us?
"Let's make better mistakes tomorrow" print in Palantir President Tiffany Farriss' office. Mike Monteiro, artist. Photograph by Andrew Natale.
