Diversity Talks - Black Women Tech Talk

Serena Williams, who in a personal essay lamented that black women in America earn 17% less than their white female counterparts. “Even black women who have earned graduate degrees get paid less at every level. This is as true in inner cities as it is in Silicon Valley,” wrote Williams. “We are going to have to fight for every penny.”

There are similar data for the UK – black women, for example, have seen virtually no progress in closing the gender pay gap between them and white men since the 1990s, which according to the Fawcett Society, still stands at 19.6%. (The Guardian)

Is it any wonder that black women in the UK are between two and a half and ten times more likely to become entrepreneurs? (ibid GEM, London Business School 2004)

Black Women Tech Talk, featuring black women tech entrepreneurs and female pioneers who will come together to network, share their stories and opportunities that are available for women of colour to launch, grown and raise finance for their start-ups while tackling our unique challenges.

Their mission? “To inspire and support women of colour to build the next multi-million tech company.”

The event will feature an amazing line-up of presenters and the opportunity to network with passionate and motivated women.

Speakers:

Dayo Akinrinade Founder Africlick - @AfriClick

Dayo is the founder the app I’m sure many a singleton has been awaiting! Africlick is a new dating/networking app for professionals & creatives of African & Caribbean heritage. The mission is to empower global Afro-Caribbeans to connect to their culture by using a unique “cultural” matching algorithm.

She is the Partnerships Lead at startup community Your Startup Your Story, a thriving startup community of founders, developers, creatives and investors on a mission to make a difference.

Dayo’s background is IT Management Consulting at Accenture and Deloitte, she has delivered several large-scale fintech and analytics transformation programmes.

She holds a Bsc in Computer Science from the University of Manchester and MSc in Technology at University College London.

Bayo Adelaja

Bayo is the Programme Manager for Hatch’s incubator program for women of colour running tech and non-tech businesses in London. Hatch Enterprise works with entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities to grow smart ideas into successful businesses. 
Partners on the program are eBay, Natwest, Academy London (Google UK), Campus London (google for Entrepreneurs), and YSYS.

Bayo is also the POC Tech and Africa-tech Startups Ambassador at Google with objectives to create a UK-Africa investment focused ecosystem that empowers fundraising African startups to pitch to investors in the UK as well as bring Africa-focused startups in the UK the community and opportunities they need to createstartups that are impactful in Africa.

Ekua Cant, Founder DrinksBot - @TheDrinksBot

Ekua is a career chameleon, she has founded 2 startups, Layover Adventure and the Hackathon Queen. She left a successful carrear at the Civil Service and became a Digital Project Manager contractor. DrinksBot was founded when Ekua came up with the idea to provide an on-demand craft drinks service for office workers to wind down after a long hard week. Ekua launched DrinksBot in 2018 with an inclusive drinks experience extravaganza with a Robot Carnival at Mindspace co-working space. 

An avid runner, Ekua successfully completed the London Marathon this year. She was also awarded a ticket to Barack Obama’s acceptance for the nomination to the Democratic party for her campaigning work for the civic voluntary organisation DCVote. She has volunteered with a local voluntary organisation that helps homeless people called WSUP near her home and always has a listening earn to advise and provide career coaching for those in need of guidance.

Event schedule

Arrival and registration 5.30pm

Speakers from 6pm

Q&A 7pm

Drinks and networking 7.30

Finish 8pm

Location

We Work

Paddington

2 Eastbourne Terrace London W2 6LG

Although this event is aimed at empowering women, all genders are most welcome to attend.