Annual Black Tech Week Convenes Large Gathering of Innovators

By Andre Ash DIGITAL ANCHOR

The annual Black Tech Week in Cincinnati, OH brought together and connected tech entrepreneurs, investors, and professionals to educational opportunities and resources.

The week-long conference ran from July 18th – July 20th with more than 3,000 attendees, over 100 speakers, and 50 workshops, along with curated content across the venue.

Black Tech Week has inspired many first-time attendees, excited by the opportunity to meet and network with investors for their creative new tech ideas while learning the variety of speaker sessions.

Candice Matthews Brackeen, Organizer of Black Tech Week, aims to bring together some of the greatest innovators in technological industries.

“As Black people we’ve been inventing things for a long time, we been entrepreneurs for a long time,” said Brackeen. “We just want to make sure they all convene in the same space; they build community, they build network, and they do business together.”

Brackeen couldn’t sleep the night before the conference began and says the whole week felt like Christmas morning.

“There’s an AI rap battle happening, I’m super excited about that,” Brackeen says. “We’ve got a business development day where we’ve got 17 corporations meeting with startups,” she added.

An intentional focus is on ensuring

Black people lead and captivate this industry. The Keynote Speaker for this year’s BTW was Issa Rae, writer, producer, entrepreneur, and founder of HOORAE.

Best known for her groundbreaking work as the creator and star of the hit HBO series “Insecure,” Rae is also a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. Rae is also committed to supporting and amplifying Black and female voices in the tech and media space.

“As a storyteller myself, there’s a section that starts with me and the stories I want to tell and the stories I want to get off my chest,” Rae said.

Rae’s company has been instrumental in bringing stories of Black culture to the forefront. In the room full of tech entrepreneurs, she shared how she selects her projects and the criteria she looks for when deciding what stories to tell.

“We’re consistently asking ourselves what’s missing, what void can we fill, and what stories haven’t been told that we specifically can tell, and what creators are out there, what speakers are out there who we admire and respect and who we think their stories need to be on screen and who we can amplify.”

Rae created HOORAE in 2020, serving as an umbrella company for her film and television other projects.

Rae found that television had a limited scope and view of people of color. She aimed to give an alternative perspective through her life experiences and creative lens by launching The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl. The comedy series was established in 2011 and sprung into a second season thanks to Kickstarter, a crowdfunding source Rae used to support the project financially.

The one-on-one keynote conversation with Rae encouraged Black tech innovators and entrepreneurs who seek to elevate an industry that hasn’t always looked like them to be inspired to launch tech systems and products by smartly pitching and tapping into financial resources available, from crowdfunding to investors.

“Her dedication to promoting diversity in the tech industry along with her remarkable achievements in entertainment, truly embody the spirit of solidarity and success so central to the Black Tech Week experience,” said Brackeen, who also serves as the CEO of the Cincinnati-based Lightship Foundation.

The annual conference has a way of luring some of the most innovative leaders in media and tech as speakers who are often disrupters in industries just like technology itself.

“I believe the technology sector is the modern-day gold rush,” said Detavio Samuels, CEO of REVOLT. “It is the biggest creator of generational wealth over the last century.

Samuels leads REVOLT Media & TV, founded by Sean “Puffy/P. Diddy” Combs in 2012 has since become America’s fastest-growing Black-owned media company.

Speaking in front of thousands of attendees during Black Tech Week, Samuels spoke passionately about the impor-