Guess who I met at SXSW - Madison Edition
I’ve never been to Madison Wisconsin but after meeting Zach, Trish and HeyMissProgress, I feel closer to that community than I did before.
Collision
I showed up to the G’raj Majal on Rainey street with little more than a curiosity for what Madison is up to and a personal invite from Zach Brandon, President of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce. We only met briefly at SXSW last year, while he mentored several companies pitching for a competition I was apart of. This year, we just happened to be hanging with mutal friends the night before. After talkng a bit he told me about Madison Looking Forward. Then and there, I was intrigued but I can’t tell you how grateful I am now for that encounter. It brought me to his event and showed me just how much Zach and others in Madison care about their community.
Progress
As I arrived, I heard talk of how a young coder in Madison is making a career out of it. Only he wasn’t speaking, his mom was. Sabrina Madison (yep her real last name) who is affectionately known as HeyMissProgress, spoke about the challenges of being a person of color in tech, in a predominately white community as well as how her son is overcomiing those challenges. It was heartfelt for me, as growing up, my mom was not only a fearless leader, but she was my biggest cheerleader too. Turns out Miss Progress is not only a public speaker and socialpreneur she’s also the creator of the Black Women’s Leadership Conference and The Heymiss Progress Show, Founder of The Conversation Mixtape, Creator of the Black Business Expo, and a Grand Poetry Slam Champion and the list goes on. Very happy to meet her and looking forward to keeping up with her and most importantly I want to know about all the things she and most importantly her son have yet to achieve. Now that’s progress!
Inclusion
As you may know companies like Apple, Google and most recently Uber have made huge mistakes when it comes to inclusion, cultural sensitivity and sexual harassment in the workplace, yet they still last. This type of controversy happens and yet companies are still thriving. It’s a subject that Trish Katz spoke on and it’s not something we can afford to ignore any longer. I got a chance to connect with Trish after her talk and it was apparent that companies are getting it wrong. Many call it company culture, but culture is made up of people, specifically leaders who set the tone for what their culture is. I can’t wait to connect more with Trish, because while she’s not from Madison, she sees the same challenges in her hometown of Austin. Not one to idly sit by, Trish started Country Girls Can Code, designed to give female students from rural communities the opportunity to build capacity for computer science careers. While companies large and small are getting it wrong, Trish is a part of a growing number of leaders who get it right.
Purpose
I also want to mention some of the other folks at this event who I did not get to connect with, but hope to soon. @MadisonBiz, @HuschBlackwell @adorableio, @DoyenneGroup, @dramygannon & @HipHopArch. Thank you all for an amazing event and it’s great to know Madison has people like you shaping the future of that community. I wrote this because the brief time we met was not enough for me. I want to keep up with you and get to know you even more.
Best,
Erik Ibarra
Guess Who Else I Met
Please checkout these other great interactions from SXSW’17:
Guess who I met at SXSW — Moonshot Edition
Guess who I met at SXSW — Impact Edition
