You read that right. Former First Lady and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton will deliver a fireside chat at the first-ever Lesbians Who Tech Leadership Summit, a three-day conference beginning today in New York City (#lwtsummit) at Stage 48 and other locations.
The summit takes place September 12-14 with satellite events around the city. Events today include a tech crawl, kickoff party, and the opening keynote presentation. Thursday’s events include a talk on the intersection of tech and human rights, a panel entitled Leadership Lessons, Persistence & How to Become a Boss, and a fireside chat on the future of entertainment and technology. The summit wraps up Friday with another packed schedule including Hillary’s speech, important talks such as Black Girls Code — Uplifting the Next Generation of Women in Tech, and a closing night concert featuring Madame Gandhi to support the Edie Windsor Coding Scholarship.
This leadership summit will assemble thousands of mid-level and executive queer women, trans and gender nonconforming people and allies, and is one of the world’s biggest LGBTQ professional conferences. In addition to Hillary, numerous high-profile speakers include Lesbians Who Tech founder and CEO Leanne Pittsford; Kara Swisher, co-founder of Recode; Alicia Garza of Black Lives Matter; and Danielle Moodie-Mills, VP, SKDK and Host of #WokeAF on Sirius XM.
In a newsletter sent out earlier this week, Pittsford announced, “#HillaryClinton is coming to #LWTSUMMIT and we couldn’t be more honored to welcome her to the main stage. She has inspired countless women — and is here to say that the future of tech is female, non-binary, and LGBTQ+.” She included the following quote from Hillary’s 2017 video statement, The Future Is Female:
“We need strong women to step up and speak out. We need you to dare greatly and lead boldly. You are the heroes and the history-makers, the glass-ceiling-breakers of the future. Never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world.”
Not surprisingly, Hillary’s appearance at the summit is getting a strong response on social media.
Using the hashtags #HRC and #PantsuitNation, Nathalie Molina Niño, CEO at BRAVA Investments and the author of LEAPFROG, The New Revolution for Women Entrepreneurs, posted on LinkedIn: “Welp. That sound you hear is me ripping up my speech for next Friday and starting over. The already amazing lineup Leanne Pittsford put together just leveled way the hell up.” At the summit on Friday, Niño will present Startup Hacks for the Rest Of Us (AKA Anyone Without a Trust Fund).
For more information on the organization and the summit, visit lesbianswhotech.org.
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