Collective Black Women Talk Tech announced that they will be bringing back “Roadmap to Billions,” a conference dedicated to uplifting Black women in tech.
Set to take place on Oct. 5 and Oct. 6 in Toronto, “Roadmap to Billions” will be supported by partners such as Nobellu, PitchBetter and Black Ambition. Known as the second iteration of the Toronto event, the conference will help Black women in tech with their mission to build companies by providing programming opportunities and networking options through community engagement.
The event will begin with a welcome reception before attendees get the opportunity to join in on panels, keynotes and a Mentor Marketplace. The Mentor Marketplace will connect the women with leaders in venture capital and law.
Keynote speakers include Kay Layne, the founder of Kayambi; Melisa Ellis, the founder of Nobellum; Nkechi Nwafor-Robinson, the Founder of Empowered in My Skin; Amoye Henry, the co-founder of Pitch Better and Yolanda Biswah, the President of Canadian Black Book. Chief Privacy Officer Dina Maxwell and Faithlyn Hemmings, the Vice President of Canada, General Motors, will also take part in “Roadmap to Billions.”
The conference will also allow the women to join in on a Pitch Competition. Black Women Talk Tech will be offering monetary funds to support the ideas of the winner of the competition.
“We’re excited to return to Toronto with even more momentum, deeper partnerships, and new opportunities for Black women founders to access capital, mentorship, and community,” said the Co-founder of Black Women Talk Tech, Regina Gwynn, per a statement. “With Accelerate Auto as our presenting sponsor, we’re accelerating our mission to ensure Black women are at the forefront of tech innovation in Canada and beyond.”
Established officially in 2017 by Gwynn and Esosa Ighodaro, the first Black Women Talk Tech retreat was unofficially held in 2015. Since then, the collective has consistently provided opportunities for Black women in tech to learn the skills they need to succeed with their own businesses.
More than 150,000 Black Women tech founders and tech professionals are now part of the Black Women Talk Tech collective, joining together to help combat the barriers to entry into the tech world for Black women. Overall, per the Harvard Business Review, only 3% of all computing roles in the U.S. are held by Black women. Amongst tech startups, Black women make up an even smaller percentage, comprising less than 1% of fast-growing tech startups.
“Our conference is now the largest convening of Black women tech entrepreneurs and technologists,” said the Black Women Talk Tech founders on their website.
“Today, our mission is to help Black women dream big and build the next billion-dollar tech or scalable company.”
