Building the cloud together: Diversity and inclusion at Next ’18

Building a cloud for everyone takes inspiration and ideas from all corners of our community. This year at Next ’18 in San Francisco, we’re celebrating our diverse community of builders and innovators. Here’s a little of what we’ll have in store.

Kicking off Next by celebrating diversity

On July 23rd, the first day of Next, we’re hosting two events to welcome our community of women, people of color, LGBTQ-A, people with disabilities, and the intersections thereof. Both the Women in Tech Social and the Celebrate Diversity Reception will offer networking opportunities, demos, interactive experiences, and food and wine pairings.

Bringing community together at the Equality Lounge

In collaboration with The Female Quotient, we created Equality Lounge. This women-focused, all gender inclusive drop-in space will offer confidence coaching, professional headshots, and #IamRemarkableworkshops. We’ll also be hosting panel discussions, where I’ll be joined by leaders ranging from Annie Jean-Baptise, Google’s Global Product Inclusion Evangelist, to Janet Foutty, CEO of Deloitte Consulting. Local San Jose illustrator Sam Rodriguez will be displaying an original work titled “ChangeMakers,” honoring four extraordinary women: Miroslava Silva Ordaz, Morgan DeBaun, Patricia Graves, and Rana Abdelhamid—each of whom lead with inclusivity, empower change and impact their global communities. The Equality Lounge is located at Moscone West, Level 3 and will be open throughout Next ’18.

Highlighting diversity and inclusion in our breakout sessions

Interested in learning to build for a more inclusive community? Disability rights activist Haben Girma and members of Google’s UX team will lead talks on the intersection of tech and accessibility. And you can attend our “Women of Cloud” panel with Melody Meckfessel, VP of Engineering, who’ll share insights on how women can develop their careers and spheres of influence.

Offering inclusive resources throughout Next ’18

We want to ensure comfort and accessibility for all Next attendees. We’ll be offering resources such as mother’s rooms, child care reimbursements, multi-faith and meditation rooms, gender neutral restrooms, real-time captioning services and ADA-friendly spaces throughout the event. If you need support, or would like to share feedback regarding these resources, please reach out to us at [email protected].

See you in San Francisco!