SXSWEdu: Ideas, Change and Latino – Focused Thinking Spaces
By Jason Llorenz, LIN@R
“Can I tell you about my idea? I think this stuff is going to be revolutionary!” Asks an entrepreneur in her mid-20s roaming the halls of SXSWedu in Austin, Texas, with an idea for a mobile app and cloud-based ecosystem that could help K-12 teachers better serve English language learner students.
The digital divide has morphed into today’s significant “techpreneur” gap, where Latinos and African American entrepreneurs combined claimed only about 2% of startup investment dollars as recently as last year. Access to SXSW and its unique collaboration spaces is an important way of closing that gap. This year Latinos in Tech Innovation and Social Media (LATISM) is hosting a casita of Latino techpreneurs with a prototype, working, dedicated team, and an overriding focus on their startup.
SXSWedu also features spaces for thinking about Latinos, technology and innovation. The session moderated and organized by this author, “Mobile Technology and Hispanic empowerment,” focused on the ways in which the rapid advance of mobile technology is working to empower Latino communities civically, socially and economically.
The session featured Mark Hugo Lopez, of the Pew Hispanic Center, NBC Latino blogger and LATISM guru, Elianne Ramos, and Joaquin Guerra, of the Center for Community Change.
Our session featured engaged conversation about the ways technology is creating opportunity to engage an emerging Latino community with civics. Look for a full post about this session and the details of its text poll in a follow-up post this week.
The young entrepreneur quoted above, joined by hundreds of others, along with investors, education and government leaders and community stakeholders, make the legendary SXSW conference unique, and powerful.
The opportunities to marry ideas with funding and partnership make the conference a must-attend for those looking to bring their “do good while doing well” ideas to life.
Cutting edge innovation, married to youthful, “techy” idealism focused on the greatest modern social challenges, give SXSWedu 2013 an electricity and buzz unique to this venue. Latino participation in the thinking and collaboration culture of the conference may be transformative for a community of innovators leading the future.
This article was dfirst published in LIN@R.
Jason Llorenz, Esq. is Sr. Fellow, Latino Information Network (LIN@R), Rutgers University School of Communication & Information, where he directs technology & innovation policy for LIN@R. Follow on twitter @llorenzesq. Follow @LINAR_technolog for LINAR technology tweets.
[Photo by Josette Chen, SXSWedu.com]