We will be the largest unifying force for the Latinx Tech Community.
Thanks to our new digital format, our four-day LTX Fest is now unencumbered by location and strives to gather more than 4,000 attendees across America. The future relies on the voices of our entire community, including those left behind by COVID. We especially want to be explicit about being in solidarity with our Black and Afrolatinx community. We know that being Latinx is being multidimensional, intersectional, and intergenerational. LTX Fest 2020 will meet you where you are, and as you are, to ensure more equitable access to our resources. We will reclaim the legacy of our people and step into our tech leadership roles with bold urgency.
We will create a space for Latinx Tech Professionals to innovate.
Through our own careers in technology, the authors of this manifesto have experienced success and peeked into an exciting future, a new world filled with innovations like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and analytics. But we are concerned that this future is being shaped largely without Latinx input. LTX Fest will provide a platform for our community to unlock the power of technology – to design it, build it, and own it – and not just use it.
We will connect the Latinx community to Digital Technology.
COVID has accelerated the shift towards a digital world, yet nearly 60 percent of Latinx workers in the United States have limited to no digital skills. We have felt the pain of this digital divide as our community fuels essential sectors where working from home is not an option. We are seeing a disproportion of our Latinx students denied equitable education access due to being disconnected from broadband and device access. We have the power to change this. Together, we will reimagine our digital equity.Â
We will diversify the tech workforce and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
The Latinx community forms the backbone of the US economy, but Latinx are the least represented group across the tech sector. Latinx are further less represented as tech startup founders and even less as investors in the venture capital ecosystem. LTX Fest will create opportunities for community members to speak up, reach out and succeed in the innovation economy led by tech. We will help one another strategize ways to diversify the tech ecosystem, proving to the world – and ourselves – that we are moving forward as drivers of the future.
We will unite the Latinx community.
Our lack of representation is found not just in the technology sector, but across many industries despite being the country’s largest ethnic community. Our purchasing power is expected to reach 1.9 trillion by 2023. However, Latinx are absent from boards and from leadership positions, and we are ready to be included and trusted. Enough is enough. LTX Festival will bring together Latinx leaders from across industries to empower our community together.Â
We will empower the Latinx community as professionals and citizens.
Through workshops, panels, and discussions, attendees will walk away fully armed and empowered to take the next leap in their careers and exercise their civic citizenry through proactive dialogue to shape Latinx-centered policy. Given 2020 is a key year, a short-term and long-term view is needed – exercising our right as voters come November. Over 32 million Latinos are eligible to vote this November, making us the largest racial or ethnic group in the electorate this upcoming election. Looking ahead 5 to 10 years across the public and private sectors with a deeper understanding of the impact technology is having in our community is part of our responsibility. Our voice is our power.Â
