What to expect from REFACTR.TECH 2019

The first annual REFACTR.TECH is happening! It’s in Atlanta on June 5 — June 7, 2019. So what should you expect?

Diversity. First, and foremost, the mission of REFACTR.TECH is to create a conference that showcases the voices of marginalized people and allies in tech. In addition to our speaker lineup, we aimed for diverse attendees by offering discounts and opportunity grants through our community partners, including Technologists of Color, /dev/color, Lesbians Who Tech, Women Who Code, Women Who Go, Women Techmakers, Atlanta Black Tech, Ladies that UX, STEM Women, and Women of Blockchain.

Inclusion. We strive to make sure REFACTR.TECH is inclusive by starting with an intentional code of conduct. Our Code of Conduct outlines expectations clearly to create a safe space for all people, but especially for marginalized people. We have ensured that our event space is ADA compliant. We have a variety of bathrooms, some all-gender, and some single gender, to ensure that everyone has a place that is comfortable and safe. All keynotes and sessions will have live-captioning for those who may benefit from having talks in a written format during the conference. Lastly, we have a designated Quiet Room for attendees to recharge during the conference. As you may know, details are important. We’re providing gender pronoun pins for everyone at registration to ensure that people have the opportunity to provide the correct pronoun for people to use in conversation. Our conference t-shirts come in both Women and Unisex sizes. For more details, read our blog post Making it Inclusive.

Technical Content. The often stated assumption is that you can have a “diversity and inclusion” conference or a “technical conference” but you can’t have both, REFACTR.TECH is proving that to be false. In addition to our social impact and career & leadership tracks, we have tracks on front-end engineering, software engineering, product/ux, and cool shit, as well as full-day technical workshops. You can see a list of all of our sessions on our website.

Keynote sessions. Our speaker diversity is really on display in our keynote sessions. We’re happy to highlight our keynote speakers Tracy Lee, Dr. Kortney Ziegler, and Alex Castillo. We also have a special keynote panel “Forging a Path Through Inclusive Entrepreneurship” where our diverse panelists will discuss the challenges that they have faced as they look to raise money, build their businesses, and build community.

Celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride. REFACTR.TECH is during Pride Month and we’re happy to celebrate and recognize the impact of LGBTQ+ individuals in our community.

Pricing. The cost of a 2-day conference ticket is $250.00 and a 3-day conference ticket (including a full-day workshop) is $375. This is a fraction of the cost of many tech conferences with the same high-quality content. We recognize that this ticket might still be cost-prohibitive for some people. With the help of our Opportunity Grant Sponsors (as well as our own generosity), we provided over 100 free tickets to REFACTR.TECH. We have also provided a 20% discount to all of our partners to share with their networks. (You can use the promo code: GOTO-REFACTR for a 20% discount too!)

Convenience. We purposely hold REFACTR.TECH in Downtown Atlanta, at The Loudermilk Center. The Loudermilk is conveniently accessed from all points in Metro Atlanta via I-75 and I-20, the Atlanta MARTA Peachtree Center Station (Atlanta’s public transportation) and the bus system is within walking distance. For our speakers, sponsors, and out-of-town guests, Hartsfield International Airport is less than 15 miles away and easily accessible via public transportation.

AMP Roadshow. The AMP Roadshow is a FREE, single-day event supported and organized by members of the AMP team on June 5th. The AMP Project, short for Accelerated Mobile Pages, is an open-source initiative from Google aiming to make the web better for all. The project enables the creation of websites and ads that are consistently fast, beautiful and high-performing across devices and distribution platforms. AMP Roadshow attendees get a special 40% discount for REFACTR.TECH when they register but you DON’T need a conference ticket to attend! **The discount code can be found on the AMP registration page. You can REGISTER HERE!

Hacker Lounge. Whether you have some work you need to do, want to play with a technology you learned in one of our sessions, or you just want to check your email, come boot up in our Hacker Lounge. Of course, there is free wifi throughout the venue, this room is set-up to be comfortable for spending time in front of your computer!

Video Sessions. If you have reviewed the schedule posted on our website, you’ll notice we have so many speakers, and not enough time. Don’t panic! All of our keynotes and sessions will be recorded and made available to everyone soon after the conference.

Other Fun Stuff. We have 3-days chock-full of content but don’t worry, we have some social time too!

• Happy Hour — after the last session on Thursday afternoon, we will have our “game-night” themed happy hour onsite. We will have food and drinks, board games, card games, coloring books, and music.
• After Party — after our closing keynote on Friday, explore Downtown Atlanta, get a bite to eat with some friends, then join us at Revery VR Bar! At 6:30 pm we’ll take over this awesome VR Bar…yes, that is Bar + VR games, all in one place!
• Photobooth — for you take selfies with old friends and new friends.
• Sticker table — where you can grab a bunch of new laptop stickers or leave some for your fellow conference attendees.
• Raffle — Don’t leave early… we’ll be holding a raffle at the end of the conference where you could win some great prizes! Our sponsors will be giving some things away and we’ve got a few things up our collective sleeves too. You don’t want to miss out…you must be present to win!

Tickets are still available for REFACTR.TECH, we hope to see you there!