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‘Tis the season for AFROTECH™ Conference 2024! This year, the highly anticipated annual event for Black techies will be touching down in Houston, TX, from Nov. 13-16. The new stages announced are as follows: Cybersecurity Stage On the Cybersecurity Stage, speakers will discuss topics such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), security, and governance. AI Stage View this post on Instagram A post shared by AFROTECH™ Conference (@afrotech.conference) As AI continues to be one of the biggest trending topics in technology, the stage discussions will focus on quantum AI and automation, ethical AI, and regulation across job sectors. Data & Engineering Stage The Data & Engineering Stage is set to provide insight into career development for software engineers, data scientists, product managers, and others. AI Hackathon Speaking of AI, AFROTECH™ is calling on all diverse developers, coders, builders, hackers, and technologists for an upcoming...
Amid the 2024 presidential race, Donald Trump is singing a different tune regarding a certain technology. On July 27, 2024, the former president stated during the Bitcoin Conference hosted in Nashville, TN, that he is set on transforming the U.S. into a “Bitcoin superpower,” The New York Times reports. “I’m laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world,” Trump said, per the outlet. He continued, “…America will once again be a nation that protects property rights, privacy, freedom of transaction, freedom of association, and freedom of speech.” At the conference, Trump also claimed that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are part of “an anti-crypto crusade.” Moreover, he promised the conference’s attendees that he would end the “persecution” of cryptocurrencies. “Sadly, we see the attacks on crypto,” he said. “It’s a part of a much larger pattern that’s being carried out by the...
The Israeli government reportedly commissioned a campaign in 2023 that included social media accounts targeting Black U.S. lawmakers. The New York Times reported that, in October 2023, Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs paid $2 million to Stoic, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based political marketing firm, to push pro-Israel content on social media at a time when many Americans were concerned for Palestinian civilians during the war in Gaza. The outlet details that Stoic created fake accounts in support of Israel across X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram that focused on over a dozen majority Black and Democrat U.S. lawmakers, including Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York and U.S. Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia. ChatGPT was mainly used to create the fake accounts’ posts, which asked for the politicians to fund Israel’s military, per the outlet. In addition to fake social media accounts, Stoic reportedly created fake websites and articles. In May 2024, NBC News reported...
This Black women-founded company has accepted an acquisition deal four years after its founding. Clutch, a digital marketing marketplace co-founded by Madison Long and Simone May that connects creators to businesses looking for content creation, was acquired by Plaiced, a self-serve platform for advertisers, TechCrunch reports. “The creator economy is growing rapidly, we knew to remain competitive and really be able to take over market share, an acquisition would be the strongest next step,” Long explained, according to TechCrunch. The outlet details that when Long met Plaiced CEO Kaaveh Shoamanesh in May 2024, the idea of his company acquiring Clutch started brewing. Multiple factors came into play to sign off on the deal: Long was on her own, helming Clutch after May’s departure in June 2023, and trying to keep up with the times of the creator industry with generative AI coming into play, TechCrunch reported. So, joining forces with Plaiced was the right fit for Long. “The...
Many people first came to know Keke Palmer as the pre-teen spelling whiz in “Akeelah and the Bee” in 2006. A few months before the drama film’s release, “Madea’s Family Reunion” began showing in theaters. Directed, written, and produced by Tyler Perry, at age 11, Palmer played the role of Nikki, a young girl who became Madea’s foster daughter. Nearly two decades after “Madea’s Family Reunion” was released, Palmer is continuing to show gratitude to Perry for the acting gig. While the media mogul was a guest on the longtime actress’ podcast, “Baby, This Is Keke Palmer,” she recalled the movie set and cast feeling like a family. “Everybody felt like my aunties and uncles and cousins and just family and friends,” Palmer expressed to Perry. “That was a great experience.” Palmer also recalled how Perry went above and beyond when it came to the check she received from the film. “That was the first time that I have ever been in a movie, and it introduced this for me in business,” Palmer...
Da’Vinchi, 28, has been on quite a roll in Hollywood. From shows like “Grown-ish” to “All American,” the Haitian-American actor has been stacking roles. However, Da’Vinchi’s starring role and portrayal as Terry “Southwest T” Flenory on 50 Cent’s “BMF” (or “BMF: Black Mafia Family”) on Starz is his biggest gig to date. Although Da’Vinchi, born Abraham D. Juste, has made a name for himself in the acting world, he is transparent about coming from humble beginnings. In an interview on REVOLT’s “The Blackprint,” the Brooklyn, NY, native was open about the way he grew up. “I grew up in poverty,” Da’Vinchi told host and REVOLT CEO Detavio Samuels. “A very normal situation that most of us grow up in, but of course while you’re in it you don’t really know it because everyone else is like that around [you] until you switch environments. And then, you start realizing the depths of the lack that you were in.” He added, “The poverty that I faced was you don’t have all the meals throughout the...
Rene McLean, partner and founding advisor at Influence Media Partners, has a new music venture to share. Influence Media and McLean have announced SLANG, a new independent front line label under the music and entertainment company, according to a press release shared with AFROTECH™. One of the label’s first signees is Will Smith. Prior to the announcement, the winner of both Grammy and Academy awards debuted his single “You Can Make It,” featuring Fridayy and Sunday Service Choir, at the 2024 BET Awards, per Variety. Marking Smith’s first time performing at the award show, he was joined by Kirk Franklin, Chandler Moore, and Sunday Service Choir. “Through some of my darkest moments, music has always been there for me – to lift me and help me grow. It’s my humble wish that it can do the same for you and bring you all the joy and light you deserve,” Smith wrote in an Instagram post ahead of dropping the single, according to Variety. Along with Smith, SLANG’s roster includes...
The movement behind Avante Price and Eli Taylor-Lemire’s POSH has yet to lose steam. In April 2023, the co-founders and event planning professionals shared with AFROTECH™ their unified mission for the live events platform. “ POSH was born to democratize the ability for any fan with a passion for live events to get involved in the space with as little friction as possible,” Price, co-founder and CEO of POSH, told AFROTECH™. “ Simply put, our mission is to democratize the ability for anyone to earn capital through live experiences.” POSH raised $5 million in a seed round in 2023, as previously reported by AFROTECH™. New investors are now joining in on its movement to disrupt event management. POSH has raised $22 million in a Series A round, Forbes reports. The round was led by Goodwater Capital, and additional investors included FirstMark Capital, Companyon Ventures, and Epic Ventures. In addition, Day One Ventures was an existing investor. “We believe that the next social platform...
Seattle, WA, AFROTECH™ is on its way back! Last year, the “Emerald City” was one of the cities where the AFROTECH™ Executive was held. The event featured a fireside chat titled “Sustainable Leadership: Thriving in Your New Role” with Laxman Narasimhan, the CEO of Starbucks. Now, Starbucks and AFROTECH™ have joined forces once again to create a space for Black techies and creatives to commune. The final stop this year of The Meetup series’ in-person events is Seattle. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, The Meetup series is an in-person and virtual networking event series where tech innovators, trailblazers, creatives, and more get the chance to mingle within their cities. The Meetup series kicked off in April 2024 and has made its rounds so far to Miami, FL; Nashville, TN; New York City, NY; and Cincinnati, OH. Photo Credit: AFROTECH™ On August 15, AFROTECH™ Seattle Meetup | Presented by Starbucks is heading to The Collective Seattle, where the local Seattle tech talent and community...
Longtime supporters of advancing Black tech talent have publicly announced they’re backing Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential race. The Information reports that Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz disclosed to their employees that the leading VC firm is set “to make large donations to political action committees supporting the election of Donald Trump.” In addition, the outlet reports that prior to Andreessen and Horowitz’s announcement of donating to Trump’s PACs, the two hadn’t publicly shown support for him. According to TechCrunch, Andreessen was previously a long-time Democrat. However, he departed from the Democratic Party and sided with Trump based on the former president’s tech policies. Moreover, Horowitz co-signed the reasoning during the duo’s podcast, “The Ben & Marc Show,” per TechCrunch. “I wish we didn’t have to pick a side,” Horowitz said. “We literally [believe] the future of our business, the future of technology, and the...
Black actors and actresses’ public display of gratitude for Tyler Perry’s support is ongoing. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Meagan Good shared on NBC’s “Today With Hoda & Jenna” that Perry was the first person to properly compensate her throughout her three-decade career. While Good was anxious to share with Perry what she desired to earn for her leading role in his “Divorce in the Black,” she says that the media mogul was already set on that offer. “He [Perry] was like ‘You deserve this’ ’cause I was already thinking in my head like, what I was going to ask, and I was like, ‘Oh, is this too much?’” Good recounted. She continued, “I was like, ‘I don’t want to lose the job.’ ‘Cause I come from that generation when you’re working in the ’90s and 2000s when women ask for something you are perceived to be a certain kind of way or when you show up a certain way. When you’re assertive, you’re perceived to be a certain kind of way… But that’s what I love about Tyler, ’cause he was...
Storytelling uses a plethora of mediums, and animation is one of them. During the 2023 AFROTECH ™ Conference, director and animator Chaz Bottoms and singer Dawn Richard led a session called “World Builders: The New Storytelling Frontier” to discuss how the technologies within the animation industry are creating revolutionary ways for people to tell stories. In their respective career journeys, Bottoms founded CBA Studios — one of the few Black-founded animation studios globally — and has worked with companies such as Disney, Hulu, and Adult Swim, per Forbes. Aside from Richard’s music career, she has a passion for animation. She created a comic book series called “Danity Kane” and works with Adult Swim as a creative consultant, as AFROTECH ™ previously reported, to amplify and create opportunities for Black animators in the space. “We are a beautiful people to draw, but we are a difficult people to draw in the sense that for people who aren’t us, they don’t know what they’re doing,”...
Overcoming barriers is one thing, but creating opportunities for others to do the same is another. After nearly two decades of working as an executive at JPMorgan Chase, Thasunda Brown Duckett became the president and CEO of TIAA, which works to close gaps in retirement and provide equitable opportunities for investment. At the Global Black Economic Forum (GBEF) Business Summit during the ESSENCE Festival Of Culture presented by Coca-Cola, Duckett spoke about how the impact she’s making extends past the financial retirement services company and how her serving as a Black woman CEO can provide inspiration for young Black women. When it comes to the imposter syndrome that those who look like her often face entering corporate spaces, Duckett shared guidance with AFROTECH™ for how future Black executives can navigate such challenges. “When you think about imposter syndrome, which we all have at certain points in our life, I think the most important thing is as you’re going through life,...
Betting on himself took Newark, NJ, native Vaughn Crowe from initially wanting to be more involved in finance as a career to being a managing partner of a VC firm. During his time working at philanthropist Ray Chambers’ family office, Wesray Social Investments, Crowe was a founding limited partner in Newark Venture Partners (NVP) — founded by Audible’s Don Katz — on behalf of the family office. At AFROTECH™ Executive Newark, Crowe recalled investing in NVP as he had a desire to be an entrepreneur. “ When the opportunity presented itself to go and run a fund and run a firm that I had backed as an investor, it was a natural transition for me doing what I was doing inside of a single-family office to becoming a fiduciary of a number of different investors and having responsibility for catalyzing next-generation software businesses and backing extraordinary founders,” Crowe shared in an interview with AFROTECH™. NVP focuses on health tech, industrial, and fintech with plans to build “a...
In June 2024, AFROTECH™ Executive Newark engaged attendees on several of today’s hot topics in tech and business including AI. Helming the discussion “How Harnessing AI Could Potentially Future-Proof The Workplace” at the Newark, NJ, event were Sam Caucci, founder and CEO of 1Huddle; Michele Alcazar, vice president of workforce transformation strategy at Prudential Financial; and Daniel Adeyanju, director of partnerships at The Knowledge House. During the panel, Caucci shared a Gallup report, which estimated that 70% of skills and the tasks that make up work will change over the next decade. While there is set to be an increase in reskilling, Caucci believes that AI could not only help organizations improve skills mapping but also improve low rates of employee engagement. “I think the opportunity we have in this moment when I think about the opportunity for AI is, how do we tackle these really big community labor workforce opportunities that organizations have always struggled with?...