When it comes to conferences, Collision 2017 was content overload, but in a good way. In its fifth year, Collision is a techie’s dream convention, covering everything from fake news to space travel to VR and the future of venture capital, to the United Airlines debacle and Trump’s presidency. To be sure, one of the Collision’s biggest themes was the advancement of women in business, not just because of the widely-heralded financial benefits enjoyed by firms with women at the helm, but also to help the world center itself in an uncertain and anxiety-filled era.
2 May 2017; Alpha booths at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Stephen McCarthy / Collision / Sportsfile
“Even if you don’t subscribe to why this is important – even if you don’t believe we have to make up for decades of years of oppression, of decades of subjugation of women in the workplace, you should just do it because you’ll make more money,” said billionaire investor and Collision speaker, Chris Sacca, adding that his only condition for joining the Shark Tank cast was if the producers would bring on more women and minorities. “We don’t teach our girls to negotiate as a society. We don’t teach our girls to pitch. Guys grow up knowing the difference between bullshit and lying. Society encourages them to have some swagger. I love that the girls who watch this show want to start their own company.”
Held at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans from May 1 to 4, this year’s Collision iteration brought 19,732 people from 119 countries, with 42.6 percent of attendees coming from Collision’s female-focused Women in Tech program. It also featured a vast array of forums, panels, pitching competitions, a robot named Pepper who greeted attendees, and plenty of well-known faces like Sophia Bush, Wyclef Jean, Terrell Owens, and of course, Sacca, who handed out beers to the audience while delivering the first day's unofficial keynote speech.
2 May 2017; Chris Sacca, Founder & Chairman, Lowercase Capital, on the Centre Stage at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Stephen McCarthy / Collision / Sportsfile
Despite being slated for only 45 minutes, Sacca spoke for more than two hours to a captivated crowd about everything from Trump’s presidency to diversity in Silicon Valley, to Uber’s recent media firestorm, and his own retirement and new mission to give back.
“I’d rather take that energy and teach what I know about building and scaling, raising money, converting, organizing, to the next generation of activists, who might take this country back,” he said, underscoring an omnipresent sense of activism that permeated the three day event. “One of the biggest challenges in my life is raising three kids. I need to teach these kids empathy and service and gratitude. I’m going to consider it one of my biggest failures if I don’t turn them into three of the greatest, most giving and heartfelt citizens.”
3 May 2017; Attendees interact with Pepper the robot at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Diarmuid Greene / Collision / Sportsfile
When asked about his opinions on Uber, Sacca, an early investor in the ridesharing platform, didn't mince words. “There is a massive problem with women and sexism in Uber,” he said.
“One of the very first things [Uber should do] is start bringing in the activists in this space, people who have found the courage and strength to come out publicly about what matters in this space. I think Uber can bring them in and listen and embrace them.”
Another Collision headliner was actress and activist, Sophia Bush, who took to the stage and spoke about empowering young women in global communities for entrepreneurial futures via education. Bush, who is an advocate for Glamour's The Girl Project, also spoke about her steadfast dedication to evening the playing field here in the workplace (she spoke openly about a recent co-star who made unwanted sexual advances) and to helping young girls in third world countries have access to primary and secondary education, the latter of which she says is more difficult than many may realize.
“I’ve worked in advocacy for a really long time, and it’s a trifecta of issues when you look at women’s empowerment; education access, and the environment,” Bush told SWAAY after her talk “Feminism Isn’t a Liability” which she delivered alongside Orange Is The New Black Star, Alysia Reiner. “Especially when you’re looking at developing countries. If we can solve gender parity, if we can empower women, all of those things fall into place.”
Bush went on to say that sending young women to secondary school has proven to lower women’s probability of having multiple children, and ultimately helps them uplift an entire community. “When we invest in men, they spend 90 percent of the investment on themselves, but when we invest in women, they spend 90 percent of that money on their family, on their communities, and on their villages," she said. "Literally the way we solve every crisis in the world is by empowering women, and creating parity."
4 May 2017; Sophia Bush, left, Actress/Activist, The Girl Project, with Alysia Reiner, Actress & Activist, Alysia Reiner, on the Center Stage at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Stephen McCarthy / Collision / Sportsfile
For her part, Reiner talked about her new film, Equity, (she produced and stars in it) which features a predominately female cast and crew. The movie highlights gender inequities on Wall Street. “I can’t change the system but I can change me,” said Reiner, adding that mentorship is a valuable way to help women advance in business. “If you can’t invest you can mentor a woman and help get her to that next place. Let’s change the energy for other people.”
Reiner who called 2017 “the year of yes with mentorship” says she makes it a point to be there to help other women whenever she can. “I haven’t said no to a single person, which is insane of me, but I just tell them what I can offer, even if it’s just a minute a week," she said.
After her talk, Reiner sat with SWAAY and shared more insight on how Orange Is The New Black helped open her eyes to the inequities in the gender prison system, which lead her to become an activist. "I think the biggest thing I learned is how many women are wrongfully imprisoned; how many women have drugs in their bags because their drug dealer boyfriends put them there, or are beaten and finally fight back and are put in prison," said Reiner, who now sits on the board of a prison advocacy organization called Still She Rises. "The amount of stories like that blew my mind."
Continuing on the theme of activism and top-down empowerment, Wyclef Jean spoke to a packed house on the event's main stage about criminal justice reform and the complicated racial relationships between police and citizens, and shared his belief that the tech community should come together to help children in rural communities not just because it's the right thing, but because it can actually help stimulate profits.
“The way that the tech and business communities can help is to invest in human capital; take a chance on a human being” said Wyclef, who grew up “as a poor kid” in Newark, NJ. “Luckily being in the hood I got a chance to have a mother and father, which to a kid, are basically his technology. With information [and technology] there's a way to turn it to education [at-risk youth]. As inventors, as you build you are going to need a workforce. If you have work for people they will work and they will not go out to the streets. If you create programs and put these kids in programs you will be surprised how much they will change. I want the tech community to take more of a risk on training and investing [in young people].”
Wyclef, who concluded his talk with a freestyle rap, which he delivered in at least three languages about bringing peace to the world, reminded the crowd that the tech industry needs to help lift up people in need, because they may find some diamonds in the rough. “What do me and Steve Jobs have in common? We both worked out of our garage,” says Wyclef. “I had no money I had a brain.”
3 May 2017; Wyclef Jean, Musician & Philanthropist, Wyclef Jean, on the Centre Stage at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Stephen McCarthy / Collision / Sportsfile
Both socially topical and future-focused, other talks during the three-day long conference included the importance of empathetic marketing, chatbots and the future of online learning, protecting the earth from catastrophe, the potential of flying cars, and the proliferation of fake news, a phrase that was often repeated in many speakers' talks.
“I define fake news as fundamentally false news stories written with the intent to deceive,” said John Avlon, of The Daily Beast on a panel called 'Fake News and 'The Trust Problem Sad!'. “What fake news is not is saying ‘I disagree with that’ or ‘this offends me or it doesn't fit in my political agenda. What Donald Trump and co. have been trying to do by labeling anything they disagree with or that’s unflattering of them of fake news, that’s just outright orwellian and that’s just trying to blur the lines between truth and lies, fact and fiction and that’s dangerous.
Continuing in the "real talk" theme of socially relevant matter, a number of Collision speakers also touched on the blurring lines between humanity and robotics. Touted as both good and bad, Ebay’s Suzy Deering talked about the negative marketing ramifications of focusing too much on analytics and algorithms when trying to talk to people.
"We have algorithms that tell us what you want based on what you think we have, but there is much more to people,” said Deering in a talk called 'Making It Personal: The New Consumer Experience.' “The reality is we’ve lost touch as marketers and merchants. Have we let technology overcome what can be the best of both worlds where art and science can be part of our marketing?”
Deering went on to say that retailers are more and more losing consumers who are sick of being spoken to in a one-size-fits all manner. She said the pleasurable experience of shopping at a well-curated boutique is being lost as chains take over what mom and pop shops once offered. “We’re wondering why the brick and mortars are going out of business, and it's because of the sea of sameness,” said Deering, adding that Ebay will be unveiling a new, uber-customized home screen later this month to help make sense of its billions of skus. "Personalization has to go beyond an email. Don’t make it prescriptive, make it predictive. Know your customer so you can create those unique experiences so they feel they can connect and engage with this brand.”
4 May 2017; Ba Blackstock, Bitmoji, on Centre Stage at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Photo by Diarmuid Greene / Collision / Sportsfile
Holding onto our humanity in the face of immersive technology was another topic for Bitmoji CEO, Ba Blackstock. During his talk Blackstock discussed the evolution of communication- from cave man to texting- and warned that in a world where the majority of our conversation is being done in a "robot-like" faceless and voiceless manner, retaining our human-ness is fundamental. “Texting has become the predominate form of communication," he said. "It's way more convenient but less human than ever, and because of that we invented the emoticon. When your friend sees your avatar they actually see you which is kind of magic. It’s metaphysical and it’s really powerful.”
With representatives from more than 600 startups in attendance, another interesting talk was delivered by Miguel McKelvey, of WeWork, who discussed his rapidly-expanding co-working space business (15 new WeWork spaces are opened each month) and how the energy of the startup is affecting larger corporation.
"We celebarete the energy of the startup; we’re inspired by, addicted to and engaged with big companies who want to feel that same energy," said McKelvey "The energy that comes from more people in a smaller space creates a vibe that is much different...in “open wasteland” of people quietly working."
Collision 2017 may have been made up of many different parts, but the themes were refreshingly similar: Remembering our humanity in a time when technology is becoming more and more encompassing, giving back and taking care of our environment, and empowering women from grade school to executive levels for future social change. Clearly now is a moment when the start up is king, and as royalty there is a responsibility to create companies that not only have the power to generate profit, but also to leave this earth better than before.
WRITTEN BY
Belisa Silva