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Making Technology a Cultural Institution in Chicago
How a sexist event like Techweek is bad for Chicago and what to do about it
By Melanie Adcock
How the technology industry converges with urban culture is important. While Chicago doesn’t have our version of anti-tech protesters, we do have signs that similar indignation is brewing. Negative press swirled around an event that took place recently in Chicago called Techweek that was not only an embarrassment for Chicago, it alienated the existing values of inclusiveness in the already established local tech community. As our city approaches a rapid expansion of technology to secure our economic future, it is important to think about how to avoid egregious errors such as these. In so doing we not only safeguard our financial future, we protect the very thing that makes Chicago great, its unique culture and identity.
Thankfully, Chicago has escaped the extremes on either coast massacring local cultural vivacity-- for now. In San Francisco importing talent for tech startups has resulted in skyrocketing rents and a slew of new residents without a connection to the neighborhoods they are colonizing. So much resentment has built up toward these disliked intruders pushing out long time residents that they are referred to as start-up douchebags. The gentrification doesn’t stop in the West Coast. The death of hippie culture in San Francisco is echoed in New York and illustrated in an insightful essay by artist, David Byrne, of the Talking Heads. He asserts that New York’s wealthy are killing the inclusiveness that makes the city vibrant and replacing it with an unhealthy attitude of arrogance. As a city, Chicago may have gentrification when artsy bohemian types make a neighborhood fashionable like Wicker Park, but hasn’t yet seen the extreme real estate hikes and widespread greed of a tech boom. Just this month a San Francisco landlord attempted to evict a 98 year-old woman who has paid her rent on time for the last 50 years.
Techweek’s substantial blunders mortify the city of Chicago, a city that already thinks less of itself as the nation’s third largest city. The tech community has barely recovered from the humiliation of Groupon's failings, and now we have to lick our wounds over the incompetence of Techweek to appropriately view and depict women, a heated topic in technology. Techweek is coordinated by a venture capital firm called Guild Capital, licensed with a Delaware LLC and headquartered at 22 W. Hubbard Street in Chicago. Techweek also runs events in Miami, Detroit. Los Angeles, and New York. Next year Guild Capital might have great difficulty doing their event in their own city because of their “it’s not us, it’s you” attitude, inability to listen to the community, insensitivity, and overall crisis mismanagement.
Chicago’s technology industry does a lot of things right. We don’t have private buses for Tech Execs here. They take public transportation like everyone else. They are disinterested in special treatment, and part of the fabric of the city. Chicago is a fantastic place to live. I have a low-income friend who just moved here from San Francisco and saw a dramatic improvement in his quality of life. Chicago is in the Midwest, a place where people aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. Located in the state of Illinois where the company with the largest revenue is ADM, a company based in agriculture, Chicagoans pride themselves on their hardworking Midwestern values.
These elements make Chicago the perfect location to reboot a new industrial revolution in the United States. With a $320 Million Digital Manufacturing Lab in the planning stages to be constructed in Chicago on Goose Island, it appears Chicago is on the brink of expansion in technology. And it is here where we need to pause and have an important conversation about technology’s place in Chicago culture.
Difficulties are created when for-profit entities are left in charge of citywide events and interests without city or community involvement. The city runs the risk of the event suddenly disappearing, creating a feeling of failure and discontent. Leaders and sponsors of Techweek are finding that it takes a lot more than a puffed up sense of confidence and entitlement to speak for the Chicago tech community as a whole. The ill will they have generated has done a lot of damage, distressing many. Four years ago I was on an advisory board in Chicago for a mobile app conference that failed because the for-profit coordinator backed out citing fears about making a return on investment. This left a sour taste in the mouths of all who helped galvanize the community to support it. Corporations will screw over communities when all they care about is money. Additionally, the Chicago high tech scene has lost a great deal of events that did have the promise of longevity and respect of the community like Social Dev Camp, an event that completely disappeared. It is tough to maintain the level of work it takes to execute a large-scale event over a long period of time without both permanent backing and authentic passion for the community. Over time this struggle has a negative impact.
A good example of a citywide event having a negative impact on an entire industry is a lost city event called The Chicago Art Expo, an event that took place for over thirty years run by a series of private companies that went bankrupt. The inconsistency of the Art Expo in Chicago helped accelerate the decent of Chicago in the pecking order of where collectors prefer to buy art. After a massive failure of then event coordinator Thomas Blackman and Associates in 2005, the event was ultimately dropped by the Merchandise Mart in 2012. Another event called Expo Chicago has taken its place but it’s questionable whether or not it recaptures the former glory of the old expo, and by then the damage was already done. If the Chicago Art Expo had been run by the city of Chicago it might still be around. Will Guild Capital and Techweek be around for thirty years? Probably not-- even next year looks dicey! Better companies than Guild Capital and Techweek have gone belly up for lesser reasons. In looking at what has happened with other large-scale events, it doesn’t appear that a consistent Tech conference is in the cards for Chicago as long as it’s in the hands of the private sector, and that ultimately does not bode well for elevating our city in the area of technology.
The groundwork for instability seems written in the Techweek conference’s DNA. Techweek was taken over by Iain Shovlin after the initial founders of the Chicago MidVentures Launch event, Jon Pasky and Geoff Domaracki, separated. Most of the original staff bailed at that time as well. This change came shortly after their event changed their name to Techweek and around $400,000 in funding was obtained according to some reports. It seems everything has gone downhill after Iain Shovlin’s sketchy takeover. The entire Techweek staff was unavailable to the press during the whole Techweek event. Their limited press outreach was a huge missed opportunity for all those who participated to get wider recognition for their work. Moreover, Iain Shovlin hasn't bothered to insert himself into the tech community to show support or gain respect, yet thinks he can run an event that speaks for Chicago's tech community.
So why allow dubious entities like Techweek to profit for the short term with citywide events if in the long term they will ultimately fail and short change residents out of a valuable resource? They clearly make a bad megaphone for the local industry. We need some new cheerleaders and not the kind Techweek would select! In spite of the damage done to Chicago’s reputation in the arts by the loss of the Art Expo, one consistent arts event Chicago has is Chicago Artist Month, an event in its 18th year coordinated by the city. The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, (DCASE) coordinates the event. DCASE manages events that are cultural institutions the city can be proud of, and they don't go away in a couple years. City run events like Chicago Artist Month, Chicago Blues Festival, and Taste of Chicago are fun, they never get bad press, and everyone is included and invited. I can't imagine events like these being left in the hands of disputable for profit entities. That would certainly spell an uncertain future for events we have come to see as vital to the fabric of Chicago, and it would make our city less livable. I assert that the same will be true with fishy leadership presiding over a citywide technology event.
Now is the perfect time for the city of Chicago to engage the Department of Cultural Affairs to create events that celebrate the unique ecology of Chicago’s Technology community, and ensure all city residents are welcome to take part in Tech---not just a few rich ones. To avoid the nasty protests and squabbles other cities currently endure, we must integrate inclusiveness and diversity from the very start as we grow our tech sector. This year the Department of Cultural Affairs in Chicago saw a $500,000 increase to their budget. With all the federal money pouring in for technology in Chicago, how difficult would it be to get another half million and entrust this department to do a free annual educational technology conference for the entire city? Say what you will about politics, this department outlasts mayors and political regimes, and at least people get to have a say in how things turn out, whereas they have no guarantee their voices will be heard with a private company like Guild Capital in charge.
Techweek’s failure to have sensitivity or leadership around the issue of gender equality in technology clearly does not speak for Chicago and the kind of future we want for our tech industry! Techweek’s feeble attempts at fashion shows and community engagement doesn’t begin to stack up to the highly respected class act over at DCASE. Over a decade ago I worked with this department to help curate an artistic fashion show called Crowning Glory, an event designed to celebrate Chicago’s range of multicultural variation. I was deeply impressed with the professional process and effective procedures at DCASE. That combined with their passion for serving the community made a lasting impact on me as a person and the quality I strive to accomplish in my professional life. It took us 6 months to coordinate a one-night event, and prior to beginning, an advisory board meeting was held to get insight and feedback on cultural diversity and inclusiveness of the event. The attention to detail, professional press coverage, and polished ability to dot i’s and cross ts in the event execution gave artists in under served communities a chance to shine, and shine they did. It was one of the most well attended events ever to take place in Preston Bradley Hall, and it was mostly due to providing a great opportunity for members of diverse Chicago communities. An accomplishment of this caliber will forever elude the for profit entity of Guild Capital and Techweek, who when left to their own devices earlier this year made a tech fashion video complete with racy clothing and music lyrics about women’s “booties”, and the year before they had issues as well. So why reinvent the wheel? Why not have the very best event planners in the city working on a citywide event for the most important part of Chicago’s economic development? I don’t know anyone who works over at DCASE these days like I did ten years ago, but I did briefly speak to Mary May via phone in the DCASE press office before publishing this article. She said that my idea is not impossible and they do look at ideas for new events all the time. She said the best way to start would be to send a letter to the mayor’s office. (I will be sending them a copy of this article with hopes they’ll read it.) Even in the brief time I spent on the phone with DCASE I felt accepted, encouraged, and they didn’t shut the door on me. That attitude is what we need across the board to help take the city of Chicago to the next level with technology.
I remember several years back when Bill Gates posted a question on LinkedIn asking how to get more young people in the United States involved in Technology. A few years into a tech career myself, I was quick to answer that tech needed more women. This year I’ve seen his company, Microsoft, sponsor Techweek and continue to give their financial support to what is obviously a sexist organization. Microsoft’s continued sponsorship hinges on improvements the Techweek staff will make to their now shameful event. Microsoft wrote a letter addressing the Chicago Tech Community’s concerns, but it only addressed the Chicago event and not the Techweek franchise as a whole. To help Techweek collect ideas for improvement they hired an ombudsman person named Kelly Stickel to give them objective feedback to be unedited by Techweek and published on their blog. Many feel this still isn’t enough and comes a day late and a dollar short after Techweek Chairman, Iain Shovlin’s poorly received non-apology that caused Crain’s Chicago Business to pull out as a media sponsor for the event. A better apology was issued from a similarly offending tech company called Atlassian last month that allowed an engineer to deliver a presentation at a conference in Berlin with offensive comments toward women. But even this better apology seems to only come out of a desire not to lose business. So far it seems the best way to force sexist tech organizations to see the light is to threaten profits.
Did Bill Gates not read my answer to his question in 2008? Why can't Microsoft donate money and resources directly to the city of Chicago and other cities where Techweek is held instead of Guild Capital for a tech event? It would be a much better investment and further the establishment of a long-term cultural involvement with technology. The long-term damage that will be done by supporting a bigoted event will far outweigh the short-term cancellation of Techweek's New York event where participants still have plenty of time to make other plans for their marketing outreach. By canceling their sponsorship as Crain’s Chicago Business has done, Microsoft will be able to put their resources into better opportunities that will help even more people in the long term because they are taking a stand against an institution that fosters inequality.
Further supporting my stance that a hit to the bottom line is the only thing that gets results, Iain Shovlin, Techweek’s Chairman, doesn’t show any acceptable public accountability. He failed to appear at a roundtable event held by a women’s group called Ms. Tech. where he could have been part of the solution, and has conveniently hidden from the press. No male employees from Techweek attended Ms. Tech’s roundtable event. It was as though they think sexism is an issue for women to be solved by women and they are not accountable. I asked one man who works at Techweek why he did not attend and he sheepishly told me that he thought the event was for women only. Perhaps these men should take a leaf from Jackson Katz’s playbook, an anti-sexism activist who calls gender discrimination a men’s issue and claims men, as the dominant power structure, conveniently erase themselves from conversations that need to be about them and their behavior. I attended the Ms. Tech roundtable discussion along with my best girlfriend who works in the financial services industry. She was absolutely appalled at the 1950’s mentality in tech and said that if marketing teams messed up that badly at her firm they would all be fired. She was further unnerved at the lack of real metrics available for tracking Techweek’s improvement. At this time Techweek has no comprehensive diversity or community outreach plan, and Ms. Tech’s discussion timidly skirted around the issues brought on by Techweek’s offensive imagery. I was saddened when a member of the discussion suggested more training for women so they can learn to talk to leadership. What about training men to be less sexist?
Meanwhile, Techweek seems bewildered and mystified at why the community won’t help them fix their problems so they can continue to have annual events and stay in business. It’s as though they still haven’t gotten the message and have put the onus on those they have oppressed to educate them about their needs. Let’s back the train up a second---wouldn’t it in fact be easier if the community partnered with the existing Techweek management and worked together to drive and steer change? The answer is not so simple. People work at their best when they feel supported. Suggesting the community should unite around Techweek after their errors is a sorrowful attempt to delegitimize the very real upset they caused, and it’s not going over well. Progress toward inclusivity doesn’t mean a nicer, kinder, less sexist Techweek. For many it means the wholesale dismantling of Techweek’s entire operation in favor of elevating those more capable of being all-embracing. According to the women who lobbied Microsoft to end their sponsorship of Techweek, the framework of Techweek’s institution has an “organizational and cultural problem.” This strong group of Chicago women and all who agree with them are not going to settle for lip service and phony P.R. containment, they want real change. Unfortunately, when institutions like Techweek absorb feedback and try to improve, they repeatedly minimize the bigger picture of structural inequality, and as a result never break free of their pattern of attraction toward similarity, still blocking progress toward wider acceptance of others. A segment of Cathy Cohen’s book, “The Boundaries of Blackness” reads, "Let's not fight each other, we need unity!" is exactly what abusers say to minimize hurt and create secondary marginalization.”
By Techweek suggesting the community mobilize around them and take focus off differing opinions and disagreements effectively creates a second marginalization of tech community members. This ultimately discourages beneficial variation within the tech community. Fostering richness and vitality of a community isn’t so much about agreeing, but including, encouraging and welcoming everyone. The spunk of Chicago’s technology community is a rare and special thing because technology isn’t as much of a cause of division and hatred between the haves and have-nots in Chicago as it is on the coasts. Whether by design or by accident Chicago is doing something right with the technology community—and that is something we can be proud of. On the verge of a large tech expansion, we can’t afford to lose this important distinction that makes our city unique just because some insensitive blowhards coordinate an event positioned to speak for the whole tech community. Continued partnership with Techweek, on a deeper level, is condoning a system that will create long-term divisions and resentment. Though all of this may seem small now and easy enough to minimize, imagine this issue magnified 1,000 times, imagine ongoing cultural strife like in San Francisco, and what is similarly underway in Seattle. These small complications eventually lead to very big headaches for city identity and culture, and as tech grows in Chicago, so too will these problems if unaddressed.
Outside of those responsible for Techweek’s uneasy quandary, the Chicago tech community does a lot of things very well. Earlier this year Samsung hosted a successful, free educational event in the dead of Chicago winter. The space they used in the AON building was packed to the gills for their first Chicago based Samsung Office Hours event. I spoke with San Francisco based event coordinator, Mike Nabers, Sr. Partnership Marketing Manager at Samsung, on what he felt were some positive attributes of the high tech scene in Chicago as compared to the coasts. He felt the developer community was warm and welcoming, highly skilled, and had a strong appetite for learning. Whereas the coasts are saturated with events, Nabers says the Chicago developer community embraces companies who provide them with opportunities for hands on learning. Most attendees stayed for the entire event, wrote lines of code, and plenty were on hand to talk about their experience. Samsung received quite a bit of feedback on their mobile sdk (software data kit) for developers in their educational tracks for both beginning and intermediate coders, and the event was praised by techies for being a great opportunity for learning.
Samsung embraced all Chicago community groups related to their mobile Android platform like Mobile Mondays, Chicago Android, several colleges, and local mobile companies with a strong community presence to help promote their event. Many of these entities were not included at Techweek. Techweek fell short on their ability to provide valuable learning experiences in coding at their conference that compared in any way with Samsung’s successful gathering. Distressingly, Techweek failed to learn from or connect with local organizations in their own backyard that Samsung was able to engage from their San Francisco office. Moving forward, with the right direction, new leadership, and collaboration I believe the city of Chicago and DCASE could work with companies like Samsung to hold a free city wide tech conference with educational opportunities for every age group and skill level from kids to senior citizens. This is what we need instead of more from the same people at Techweek who instead of focusing on education spent their time creating shallow images symbolic of systemic misogyny.
Sadly, many women with heartbreaking stories of negative experiences with sexism in the tech industry won't speak up. They are too afraid of harming their oftentimes hard won social standing in their community or place or work. Worse yet, they are afraid of being seen as problematic for their views on gender equality. Adding to the fear are memories of public scorn faced by trailblazers like Anita Hill who dared to speak out only a short time ago when women’s issues in the workplace failed to register on anyone’s radar screen. Anything that might hinder women’s opportunities for approval and acceptance by leaders they hold in high esteem sends them spiraling into submissive silence. Further complicating this issue is the threat that other women will potentially chastise them for speaking out against sexism so that they can gain greater social currency for themselves. For example, in Techweek Chicago’s women’s panel discussion, one woman speaker was quoted as saying, “I don’t think that Techweek is the villain in this, and I don’t think they are going to drive the change," she said. "I think the people [at this conference] are gong to drive the change.” That statement again puts the responsibility on event attendees to fix Techweek’s poor decision making in a clear endorsement of abuser dynamics that keeps people marginalized. Counter to what Techweek’s women’s panel had to say, I think it will be the people who do not attend Techweek, and do not back their institution who will drive change nationwide by finding a better solution or supporting others who are more on track.
Tech Entrepreneurs like Katie Lettie, Ethan Austin, Sean Johnson, and others have taken the time to speak their truth no matter how uncomfortable it might be in order to confront those in power. They are paving the way for oppressed women to speak out without consequence to their already fragile social standing in a predominantly male tech community. People with views who challenge established and outdated ideas are not problematic, nor should they be conveniently disposed of to sweep conversations under the rug. Increasingly, members of the Chicago tech community publicly refuse to be complicit in the overt oppression of others. Outrage over misrepresentation of women in technology is not on the fringe of popular thought, as those who favor the status quo would have you believe. It’s become center stage. The conversation is changing and Chicago’s tech community is finding unity through shared views, inclusivity, and equality, which leave Techweek behind. In the week after Techweek, I went to a local Social Media event that was predominantly attended by women. I was told leaders at the event were not receptive to helping members of Techweek interact with their community groups, and many attendees had proudly boycotted the Chicago Techweek conference. If women can’t speak up, they are certainly voting with their feet.
It is encouraging to see our community speak up about breaking institutional sexism in Chicago’s tech industry as it seems the whole country seeks the key to achieving this much needed turning point. However, Chicago is hankering for something more to be proud of in our technology community. The Midwest is a place where people aren't afraid to work hard, and don’t think they're too good to take a factory job. There is a lot riding on how Chicago will handle their next phase of economic growth. The seeds that are planted now could affect our culture for the rest of this century. Why entrust a company who has become the butt of jokes and comics? A couple weeks ago someone on Twitter even asked to give Techweek a quarter so they could buy a clue.
As I search my pockets for a quarter, I am reminded of another great thing I love about Chicago. Chicagoans are not afraid to show people how they feel when an outsider ruffles their feathers in their town. Chicagoans love a good insult almost as much as a good Chicago style hotdog. My friend Tony Fitzpatrick, who is about as Chicago as you can get, did not have nice things to say about Donald Trump (who is not from Chicago) and his recent “stamp” on our skyline in his Newcity Magazine column. He referred to Trump as, “A cartoon and cautionary tale rolled into one unfortunate haircut.” Iain Shovlin, the person in charge of Guild Capital and Techweek, is Scottish, and also not from Chicago. If he thinks he can screw up as badly as he has and not be laughed out of town, he may be in for a surprise. Unsurprisingly, a few satirical accounts on Twitter popped up spouting off about Techweek's errors. Using the hashtag #MeanTweets, inspired by Jimmy Kimmel's Mean Tweets television segment, it appears Techweek has been pummeled with enough put downs to make their office look like swiss cheese. One particularly “mean” tweet called Iain Shovlin, Techweek’s Executive Chairman, a few puppies short of a pet shop, while another asserted the opinion that he was a few tacos short of a fiesta platter. Insulting the establishment is a relished pastime in Chicago, a city that has historically fought for unions, labor laws, and the underdog. As immature as it may seem, jovial mockery of this type is a way for oppressed people to use what few tools they have to speak out and create a balance. It’s part of how things work around here.
Say what you will about our mayor, he knows how things work in Chicago, too. Last year, before Techweek’s sexism scandal, Rahm Emanuel attended Techweek, made a speech, and congratulated winners of the Techweek Launch Competition. This year, however, he didn’t attend, with good reason. Even Rahm Emanuel doesn't want to lower his reputation by associating himself with an event that can't promote equality and inclusion. Our mayor has spoken at length about the importance of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) Education. Both he and his deputy mayor make strong statements in support of being inclusive in technology, most recently at a public discussion on Digital Manufacturing, an event held by the Illinois Humanities Council. The broader theme at work here is Chicago has a chip on its shoulder when it comes to comparing itself to the coasts. Most Chicago industries know what it’s like to feel less than, and rally around those who feel put down or bullied. Numerous well-respected members of Chicago's technology community boycotted Techweek because it didn't make them proud of their city. Their absence speaks volumes.
The importance of setting the right tone for technology and culture in Chicago can mean the difference between a few satirical insults and an angry mob showing up outside of an entrepreneur’s home like what happened to Kevin Rose in San Francisco earlier this spring. Protesters showed up with banners, fliers, and created a blog called Kevin Rose is a terrible person. Chicago, the place where Al Capone once called home, could very well do worse if regular citizen’s lives are disrupted by the technology industry. If these issues are not addressed from the get go, this town is a ticking time bomb for protests of all sorts. It should not be forgotten what the people of Chicago are capable of when it comes to addressing injustice in labor laws and rights of those suffering from oppression. As much as I admire the deep convictions of Chicagoans to fight the system, how about we start now to make a good system as technology expands, so that we don’t wind up with start-up douche bags, people like Kevin Rose, and more exclusion and oppression from events like Techweek?
Techweek’s profound deficiency in community building made them come across like outsiders parachuting into their own city. Will New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Detroit continue to allow a company with such a history of epic inadequacy to enter their city limits and run an event claiming to represent technology in their respective geographic areas? It sounds really stupid to me. If Techweek's staff lives and works in Chicago, they likely don’t have resources or skills to amass the good will and insider connections needed to sufficiently congregate so many communities. Why trust them to do such an important task, especially if they screwed it up in their own city? Hopefully, each city will have the insight to take back their power to be in control of their own citywide technology events. One terrific example of a local and independent citywide technology event is in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is the only city in the United States that has a Tech Week, independent of Guild capital. The Philly Tech Week event uses two words and not one (Tech Week vs Techweek). They predate Guild Capital’s Techweek event franchise, and have done it far more successfully. Philly’s weeklong tech conference is run by a news outlet called Technical.ly. I spoke with their Co-Founder, Christopher Wink, to discuss what they are doing so well. Firstly, the Philadelphia Tech Week event is not run not by a venture firm like Guild Capital. Instead, the Technical.ly news outlet runs their event, and reporters take the time to get to know the tech scene in depth and have extensive community connections. Their event helps fund and support what they love doing year-round, which is covering local tech. By contrast, Guild Capital’s Techweek seems to swoop into cities once a year with no additional community presence. Wink explained how Technical.ly’s passion for outreach into the community helps them achieve broader coverage in their reporting to include not just start-up activities but social justice, activist issues, workforce development, and government policy. With their wider range of topics, inclusivity is like second nature to them. They got their start by connecting with individuals in tech and embraced a spirit of collaboration that exists among open source developers. Connections with larger institutions came later, and were important, but were not the biggest influence on their mission. A great data point for their successful inclusivity and community engagement is that they have more than 100 partner organizations (fellow event organizers, event hosts, and sponsors) that took part in their fourth annual event. One of the things they are proud of is their code of conduct for their events which eliminates the possibility of harassment of women. They created this not because of any one thing that happened in Philadelphia, but because of their awareness of national issues. What a great organization! I can only hope Iain Shovlin’s troubled Techweek crew doesn’t wreck their positive brand recognition due to the similarity in event names.
So we’ve seen a few examples of what Chicago is doing successfully, and what other cities like Philadelphia are doing right, but what about fixing the problem of gender bias in technology across the board? Is there an answer? Important insight germane to the subject of gender bias can be found in Malcolm Gladwell's book Blink. In it he discusses how gender bias in the music world was addressed. Pages 245-254 of his book outline how women were excluded from selection in orchestras due to gender bias. To solve this issue a screen was added to auditions so that the judgers could not see who was auditioning. When musicians were selected based on their merits, women were selected more than 35% of the time (a big increase). Here is a brief story from those pages that clearly illustrates the power of merit based selection:
"When Julie Landsman auditioned for the role of principle French horn at the Met, the screens had just gone up in the practice hall. At the time, there were no women in the brass section of the orchestra, because everyone "knew" that women could not play the horn as well as men. But Landsman came and sat down and played-- and she played well. "I knew in my last round that I had won before they told me," she says. "It was because of the way I performed the last piece. I held onto the last high C for a very long time, just to leave no doubt in their minds. And they started to laugh, because it was above and beyond the call of duty." But when they declared her the winner and she stepped out from behind the screen, there was a gasp. It wasn't just that she was a woman, and female horn players were rare, as had been the case with Conant. And it wasn't just that bold, extended high C, which was the kind of macho sound they expected from a man only. It was because they knew her. Landsman had played for the Met before as a substitute. Until they listened to her with just their ears, however, they had no idea she was so good. When the screen created a pure Blink moment, a small miracle happened, the kind of small miracle that is always possible when we take charge of the first two seconds: they saw her for who she truly was." (Gladwell, 254)
So why can't tech have a "screen"? It seems like it would be a great solution. Judging based on merit is one thing, and making everyone feel welcome is another. As I mentioned earlier, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) has years of experience putting together stellar events for Chicago in other areas. They excel at bringing together diverse communities, listening, including everyone, and giving opportunities to people who wouldn’t otherwise have them. Their passion for what they do make them easily trusted with merit-based decision-making. A big part of the mission at DCASE is to foster economic growth, and a free citywide technology educational conference is right up their alley. It would do wonders for enabling all of Chicago’s communities to learn about and celebrate technology. By working with the city instead of private companies an event of this importance would have the consistency and longevity it needs to make itself a permanent part of the city’s culture. With something like this in place, perhaps Chicago won’t have to import talent as their tech industry expands? Maybe new companies could hire everyone they need from right here?
As we discuss exciting new ways to move forward, it makes sense to say a few things about technology leaders. Who our leaders are and the roles they serve matter. If anyone has been in the Chicago tech industry for a long time, they know of a few key players who serve as advisors to Techweek. So many young aspiring people in technology depend on these individuals in their various positions throughout our tech industry to elevate them, give them opportunities, and lift them up. The city of Chicago is depending on them, and the entire nation depends on them and people like them to help forge the future of our nation's competitiveness in the tech industry. The fact that such a large group of advisors all failed to help the Techweek staff make better decisions and Techweek failed to listen are both epic oversights. It’s not due to the personalities of any one particular individual, but rather their collective mentality that reflects biases they don’t consciously realize they have.
The future of tech belongs to a fundamentally different group of people than those with socio-economic privilege, like many on the board of Techweek. This demographic of people supplants gender, race, sexual orientation, or anything else people might fancy looking down upon. Good ideas come from people who are frustrated with the limitations of their everyday surroundings and look to technology to create a solution. People with ability to imagine things that don’t yet exist and suffer the pain of their ideas not being realized are bursting with new tech inventions. We cannot afford to exclude the next generation of good ideas. The future of Tech needs to belong to everyone with good ideas: the talented, the creative, inventive, strange, eccentric, outsiders, the fearless, the misunderstood, the elderly, the mentally and physically impaired, people who've messed up and aren't perfect, and people with imaginations. It’s the people who are secretly tinkering away on delightful contraptions in their kitchens, garages, and home offices around the country that will drive the next generation of innovation. Yet, when exclusion happens like what we see at Techweek, it ultimately creates a nasty cultural divide that hinders authentic local sparkle and curbs innovation. The future of tech should belong to everyone, and the future of tech in Chicago should not belong to sexists.
Despite everything I’ve said so far, there will also be support for inaction. Besides, what better thing to do when you don’t know what to do, than do nothing? That seems to have been the solution of choice for Techweek’s repeat offenses of sexist behavior over the years. There are heavy downsides for passivity. When being sexist is okay, it opens the door for even more aggravating monkeyshine the community has to contend with. Unfortunately, some of Techweek’s negative attitude is already having a bad influence. A long time mobile developer and community enthusiast, David Allen, recently identified a duplicate Android Developer group hosting an event the same day as an already established group with his comment on Meetup.com, “…The two Chicago Google/Android meetups should not be in competition, but should complement each other. You've selected a date when GDC Android Chicago already have a meetup scheduled.” The duplicate event was scheduled in 1871, a local tech incubator with a financial barrier to entry of more than a few hundred bucks to host an event open to the public. The original group’s event took place in a free venue. With Techweek setting the tone for exclusion, their ties to 1871, and 1871 charging too much for community gatherings, the seeds are sewn for transgressions and exclusion based on financial status. The practice of elevating bullies and the wealthy is the same problem David Byrne says is killing the culture in New York. The extended chain reaction from unchecked inequality and unfair entitlement is community decline that ultimately leads to a city being a less interesting place to live. Who wants that?
As for me, it breaks my heart to see companies like Microsoft idly standing by while clueless people at Techweek's C-level drop the ball and perpetuate gender inequality. Those outdated ideas will impact me decades later when I have smaller retirement benefits than my male peers. With Chicago's goals for tech involvement and economic development at stake, Techweek should not be allowed to screw up again. After the embarrassment Techweek has caused Chicago, the city should take action and start planning their own Technology conference using better teams to foster community involvement that they already have at their disposal. Chicago does a lot of things well outside of Techweek, and with new leadership and city involvement of the Department of Cultural Affairs, there is a lot of hope Chicago can create something wonderful as well as avoid the declines in cultural identity that have plagued the larger coastal regions of the United States. Techweek is a for-profit entity that’s unable to create a citywide event in Chicago without causing controversy and long-term negative impact on the local technology industry. With any hope New York City will get wise to Techweek and head them off at the pass before they have a chance to goof up there later this fall. The quick and dirty translation of Chicago’s blow up at Techweek amounts to: Get these assholes out of our city! Take notes, America. Don’t let them ruin the tech culture in your town.
Arrivederci, Techweek. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way to bankruptcy.
Melanie Adcock is a tech writer who lives and works in Chicago. @melanie_adcock 312-259-0610. E-mail: [email protected]
Cover photo: Circuit Board Image provided by Martin O’Shield windycitysdr.com
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