Tech Equity Requires Community, Conversation & Connection
Tercero Solutions and Just BE, a Black women entrepreneur community organization, partnered to co-host the Secure + Sovereign: Tech Safety and Equity for BIWOC* Founders workshop that Kim Tercero, our Founder created and facilitates. The Secure & Sovereign workshop was part of Oakland Tech Week (OTW), the inaugural “week-long festival of technology, startups, and city-building” that took place November 16–22, 2025 across Huichun (aka Oakland, California). (Source)
“Who’s present in the room changes the entire conversation.”
Secure & Sovereign for OTW created a welcoming space for BIWOC founders and allies to explore cybersecurity through a lens of equity, empowerment, and community care. This interactive workshop broke down the basics of tech safety in plain language — helping participants understand what “tech equity” means and how it impacts their daily work. We were humbled to receive confirmation that we delivered on these intentions through the amazing feedback we received from participants. The Secure & Sovereign workshop for OTW was a warm, welcoming space with an exercise that invited participants to answer different questions written on newsprint taped to the walls of the room. Some participants’ responses reflected fearing identity theft and surveillance while also sharing desires to utilize technology for connection, for example, one participant wrote they wanted to “be a connector and help with language barriers.” Another wrote they wanted to “implement better wheelchair access ramps everywhere”. This interactive exercise highlighted that many people still primarily want to use technology to 1) build and engage community, 2) solve communal problems.
The tech events we are a part of center inclusivity so we are used to being in a room full of people from a variety of cultural, racial and ethnic backgrounds discussing tech-related issues. A typical tech event or conference is full of white men, usually who are already quite wealthy trying to get even wealthier by chasing the next big game (and industry) changing moneymaker. This event was full of artists, business owners, people who work in IT and community members who work in a variety of industries. A room full of people, women, Black, Indigenous, Women of Color entrepreneurs, and people typically excluded from traditional technology spaces addressing issues of tech sovereignty matter because who’s present in the room changes the entire conversation.
Conversation & Connection Still Matter
Many attendees, a number of whom were business owners, expressed a curiosity to learn about different ways to protect their data, protect themselves and protect their clients’ data. Being able to see how massive issues like tech equity and digital security affect you on a personal level, communal level, and/or business level piques people’s curiosity and interest in these issues. We need more inclusive tech spaces that engage and cultivate connection and conversation with big ideas in rooms built for community and connection.
Tech equity, digital safety, protecting our data, and the data of our customers and clients is a part of communal care in this hyper technology-centric digital age.
*BIWOC -- Black, Indigenous, Women of Color
