A shoutout to Web Summit’s community partners
Web Summit is committed to expanding our community to welcome groups that offer fresh perspectives and essential insights. That’s why we’ve invited a wide range of community groups from around the world to join us at this year’s event.
Many of these groups have been inspired by the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly number 10 – ‘reduce inequalities’ – and we can’t wait to work with them to further the conversation at Web Summit. Here are some of the incredible community groups attending Web Summit 2020:
Black Youth in Tech (BYIT) Toronto
Toronto is home to our North American conference, Collision, so we were already familiar with the incredible talent, innovation and diversity the city has to offer. BYIT is nurturing this by offering free tech training to young people of colour across the city. They’re very aware of the importance of representation, so the group also arranges visits to tech companies and innovation hubs where young people can meet, and learn from, people like themselves within the tech industry.
Originally founded in Lebanon, The Great Oven does exactly what its name suggests. It’s a social movement that builds enormous ovens, and donates them to communities in need. Each of these ovens can cook up to 1,000 meals per day, and encourages the whole community to get involved. They’re currently headquartered in Ballroom Blitz in Beirut, and are playing a crucial part in helping people through the aftermath of the city’s devastating blast last August.
Amos Bursary is a UK-based organisation ensuring that British people of African and Caribbean descent are recognised and represented in education and beyond. In 2018, Black people had the highest unemployment rate in the UK, and Black graduates were only half as likely to find a job after university. Amos Bursary is addressing this problem through targeted development programmes, mentoring, parental engagement, and cultural and networking opportunities. They’re seeing encouraging results – in 2019, 50 percent of Amos Bursary students were studying at a Russell Group university (24 prestigious UK universities including Durham University and Edinburgh University), compared to a UK average of four percent of Black students.
Impact investing is moving into the mainstream, and it’s because of companies like Citylight VC. Their goal is to help diversify the field of venture capital through their Future VC programme. They offer fellowships to young people from ethnic minority backgrounds who are aiming for a career in venture capital. They also run mentor programmes to pair young, inspiring venture capitalists with investors that can offer them insights, advice and connections.
Color of Change is the US’s largest online racial justice organisation, with more than seven million members. They lead campaigns for real change that span the areas of cultural change, media justice, voting freedom and economic justice, with the aim of creating a better world for Black people in the US. Color of Change president Rashad Robinson will speak at Web Summit on December 4 about stopping hate for profit.
Africans Rising is the shortened version of Africans Rising for Justice, Peace and Dignity. This pan-African organisation aims to provide a central network to support the people of Africa in building the future they want. They’re working to build capacity of local and grassroots movements, share and develop knowledge, mobilise people to contribute to various campaigns, and so much more.
These are just some of the inspiring community groups who’ll be joining us at Web Summit 2020. Our hope is that their experience, insights and feedback will help us to continue to build a wider, more inclusive Web Summit community for future events.
Disclaimer:
Sponsored content: The views expressed in the post are those of the author.
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