Would your company benefit from forming new partnerships to effectively source diverse talent? What about creating an organizational culture that makes our employees feel truly seen and heard so that they stay? We’ll cover all of this and more at FullConTech 2019, where attendees will have the opportunity to add to their toolboxes successful strategies for addressing the issues we face as a community.

WTIA is here to help you convince your company to pay for your FullConTech registration and/or let you take a day off work. We’ve also provided a ready-to-use email template to make this process even easier.

Here’s how to argue that attending FullConTech 2019 is a worthy investment.

1. FullConTech Features action-oriented Workshops

We’ve received a lot of great feedback on the FullConTech experience from attendees: “I’ve never been to a conference where I felt engaged the whole time. Usually, people are just kind of there, mostly on their phones or computers, coming in and out, and by the next day, you’ve forgotten everything. This is the opposite of that.”

At FullConTech, we believe “Action Starts Here” because we convene people like you who get things done. We believe in learning through doing, which is why most of the day is spent in interactive breakout sessions where you’ll get to learn alongside other action-oriented people. Every year, WTIA publishes a Playbook within six weeks of FullConTech that details ideas and resources shared and outlines opportunities to take action.

You can view the Playbooks from past FullConTechs here.

2. You’ll Create an Impact Beyond FullConTech

Learning from real success stories is not only inspiring in these rapidly changing times, but it also means you will save time and money instead of trying to figure out what works in isolation. FullConTech will challenge your ways of thinking and also provide you with actionable tools to take back to your office to start making changes that will benefit the company.

Some attendees carry out the ideas outlined in the Playbook and share them with the community, not just their companies. Volunteers groups have created a Tech Internship Database, a Speakers Database to organize tech talks for high schoolers, a Diversity Charter template, and a Women in Tech Resource guide.

WTIA’s tech apprenticeship program, Apprenti, came from brainstorming done at the inaugural FullConTech. Today, we’re training hundreds of apprentices from a wide range of diverse backgrounds and providing talent to tech companies.

3. A Chance to Learn from Different perspectives

Don’t you hate going to conferences where you see the same people and hear the same perspectives? WTIA prides ourselves on bringing together diverse perspectives that will challenge how you think. We do this with expert speakers and the attendees we attract.

Our keynote speaker, Dr. Tiffany Manuel, is an expert in collaborating with people of different backgrounds, strengths, and skillsets. As president and CEO of TheCaseMade, she works with hundreds of social impact leaders, changemakers, and innovators around the country to build better, stronger communities that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Her action-oriented approach to systems change makes her the perfect person to set the tone for the conference. 

You’ll also get to collaborate with educators, tech professionals, civil servants, and nonprofit staffers who are leading at all levels and in all functions.

“FullConTech was spectacular. I loved my breakout group (full of smart, diverse, thoughtful people I would never have met otherwise),” said Ed Lazowska, University of Washington.

Bonus: You’ll get Authorship

The playbook that was just mentioned above? By contributing your knowledge, you AND your organization will get listed as a co-author. Just scroll to the end of any Playbook to see what I mean.