A Great Day in Silicon Valley
Curating the We Power Tech experience at re:Invent has been a thrilling ride.
The pivot to virtual created an unprecedented opportunity to meet and collaborate with global influencers who are thinking critically about tech for good and minimizing harm as we innovate our way into the future. From removing bias in product design to building equitable community economic opportunity in disinvested innovation hubs, these past two months have deconstructed the limits of space, geography, and even time in order to “re:Invent” We Power Tech as a virtual global community and metaverse, enabling curiosity, intention, and solutions-building across the intersections of tech and Inclusion, Diversity and Equity (ID&E).
In addition to content, I was inspired to leave a legacy — an artifact of this rare and unique opportunity to shift culture at the world’s largest cloud learning conference, a platform that shapes the culture of our society through the marketplace of tech products that operate on its infrastructure. Not only did I want to say we’re here, but that we also built something special in a year marked by both trauma and accelerated possibilities.
The launch of AWS Uptown — a new program that brings cloud to the community, and helps Black, Latinx, and Native American founders accelerate their businesses with tech — is one legacy that I’m proud to be a part of. Through this initiative, at least metaphorically, we’ve migrated the concept of Silicon Valley to the cloud as well, to help next generation founders from underrepresented backgrounds see that they don’t need to move to a fixed place in order to be a tech founder, and that with access to cloud tools, services, skills, and platforms - Silicon Valley is wherever you are, including communities like our first program site — Harlem, New York. There are already so many great organizations leading this work there, and we’re excited to join that ecosystem.
I invite you to be a part of our shared legacy by exploring the We Power Tech Community at re:Invent and learning more about our global community of diverse builders!
Designer t-shirts are part of re:Invent’s peculiar culture, so I designed my own this year to commemorate this renaissance, in the likeness of the iconic “A Great Day in Harlem” photograph.
While I am a proud member of AWS’ builder community, I am also an entrepreneur and founder of the sustainable lifestyle brand, Products of our Environment.
You can pre-order your very own printed shirt on my site here and if you’re interested in being a part of the real-time photograph, share your details here and I’ll contact you once we can safely meet in-person.
Watch the launch of AWS Uptown with A$AP Ferg, Lenore Champagne Beirne, Jarman Hauser, Tony Weldon, Sharene Wood, Louis Johnson, Jr, Doll Avant, and Angelina Howard (and me) below. From hoods deep to worlds wide, I’m enthusiastic to continue building, connecting, and moving forward.
