Planning 2018 Events: Survey Results From Queer Tech Members

You told us what you want and we will make it happen.

Photo by Dmitri Popov on Unsplash.

As our community grows beyond one thousand members, our leadership board asks you to help decide the fate of Queer Tech Montreal for the group’s second year of activities. First in our efforts to democratize event planning was our survey sent to all members asking what you want for 2018. Here are the results from 34 respondents and our proposed course of action (approximately 3% response rate).

Preferred types of events

Responses to the question: “What types of events do you want? Quels types d’événements préférez-vous?”

We will focus on the top five requests. This year, you can expect us to host at least one:

• workshop
• 5 à 7
• technology-based activism activity
• panel discussion
• social activity

Preferred days of the week to host events

Responses to the question:”What days of the week are best to schedule our events? Quels jours de la semaine vous convient le plus pour participer à nos événements?”

We will schedule most of our events on Thursday, which was our preference during 2017; however, we will aim to also have events on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Speakers you would like to have at our events

If you are or know of someone that would like to present as a member of these categories, please contact us and propose your/their candidacy as a speaker (message us on Facebook or email us at hello@queertech.ca).

• Quelqu’un de chez Autodesk (someone from Autodesk)
• IT solution architects at Grindr and Scruff
• Tim Cook (not sure if we can make that happen!)
• Femmes qui ont réussi, des femmes d’influence, des leaders (successful women, women influencers and representative leaders)

Topics and themes for our events

Attesting to the diversity within our members, we received requests for a broad array of topics. If you are or know of someone that would like to present one of these topics, please contact us and propose your/their candidacy as a speaker (message us on Facebook or email us at hello@queertech.ca).

• Intelligence artificielle, design, Virtual reality, Augmented Reality — en bref, des sujets tech “hot” avec des représentant de la communauté queer, ou des opportunités d’application pour la communauté (Hot topics in the tech sector presented by Queer representatives, or opportunities to apply these hot technologies within the Queer community)
• Starting up; finding a job
• Hacking; “How my infra is built”
• Start-ups; community needs & contributions; collaboration opportunities
• Fake News — where is it ? Pervasive algorithmic bias in e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g; The future of dating apps; Reclaiming and creating an open source social media ecosystem; History of queer innovation — pioneers and their legacy
• Technology-based activism gets my highest ranking. Jesse Feiler.
• Impact social de l’intelligence artificielle (formation pour ceux perdent leurs jobs adaptation, changement model éducatif et délégation vers le privé pour être plus à la page , améliorer la vie …) continuer à créer une communauté d’entraide en TI communauté apprenante et formatrice aussi (Social impact of AI: training for impending job losses, a changing model of education that is increasingly privatized, improving quality of life; continue to build a support community for IT professionals that encourages learning and training of new skills)
• Big data analytics (in various fields: medicine, finance, education); Deep learning architectures
• Opinions of trend technologies or discussion of start up ideas
• Trends in Tech; career opportunities in tech, opportunities specifically for the queer community; how the tech landscape can be useful for bringing more visibility to the community
• Technologies used in queer activism; the tech behind black & blue and similar events; emergent local tech companies
• Fintech
• Community orgs and tech
• Social networking (not professional), gather with people for pleasure
• Being a leader at work, and part of the LGBT community; Also, creating spaces for allies in workplaces
• How to create an inclusive culture in the workplace

We will try our best to cover all these topics. Note that we hosted one event about Allies in the workplace and creating an inclusive culture — you may find our article series on that event here, on our blog.

If you would like to help lead initiatives at Queer Tech Montreal or help with planning our events, consider joining our team of volunteers. Our organizing committee offer you diverse opportunities to contribute and make a difference in our community. See our previous article for details:

Be a Leader and Join Queer Tech’s Team

Our community hosts monthly events at swank locations around Montreal. Come meet movers-and-shakers in the tech community — we would love to meet you.

Know all the details by joining our MeetUp group, and follow us on Facebook.