Diversity in Tech

Have you heard of Jerry Lawson or Kimberly Bryant? No? You’re not the only one … I hadn’t either, until earlier this month. Both of them are trailblazers in the tech industry, who we’re recognizing as part of our celebration of Black History Month.

The year 2021 is upon us, and February is a fine month to kick off a long-term culture of learning and celebration of the contributions of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to our collective history! One of the most pervasive and enduring contributions of Black people to world culture is through rhythm and sound.

We have a small two-person Infrastructure Ops team here at Caktus (including myself) so I was excited to go to my first devopsdays Charlotte and be surrounded by Ops people. The event was held just outside of Charlotte, at the Red Ventures auditorium in Indian Land, South Carolina. About 200 people gathered there for two days of talks and open sessions. Devopsdays are held multiple times a year, in various locations around the world. Check out their schedule to see if there will be an event near you.

Back in March, the organizers from the Women in Tech summit asked if I’d like to collaborate on a panel on diversity in technology at their Philadelphia summit. Back in October, I had created a panel on “Staying a Women in Tech” and was excited for the opportunity to speak on such a significant topic in my hometown of Philadelphia. I was introduced to Brigitte Daniel, who had submitted this new panel, and we began putting the panel plans together. Brigitte would moderate the discussion and I would be a panelist along with three other dynamic women in tech: Elise Wei, Jumoke Dada and Gulrukh Ahanger.

For the first time, Caktus will be gold sponsors at PyCaribbean February 18-19th in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. We’re pleased to announce two speakers from our team.

A few weeks ago, Rebecca Conley attended DjangoCon Europe 2016 in Budapest, Hungary. The event is a five-day conference that brings together Django lovers from all over the world to learn about and share each other’s experiences with Django.

We’re starting a new, monthly series on the Caktus blog highlighting the articles and posts shared by Cakti that drew the most attention on Twitter. These roundups will include everything from Django how-tos to explorations of the tech industry, to innovations for social good.

For the past few months, we’ve been working on broadening our anti-harassment and equal employment policy. We’re very pleased to announce that our policies now include sexual orientation and gender identity as of March 24, 2016.