Ogilvy Hosts 'Blacks in Tech Panel' at SXSW

NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Ogilvy & Mather North America will host and moderate a panel and discuss the impact a multicultural and multi-ethnic society has had on technology and the digital space on March 12th at the acclaimed South by Southwest Interactive Conference (SXSW).  The panel will be followed by a networking "Meetup."  

Featured panelists include musician and new media pioneer Ryan Leslie (http://www.ryanleslie.com/), Kety Esquivel (http://www.ketyesquivel.blogspot.com), CEO for Latinos in Social Media; James Andrews (www.BeEverywhere.tv), founder of digital strategic consulting firm Everywhere; and Nichelle Stephens (http://keepingnickels.com/), blogger and social media expert.  This year's panel follows last year's successful Blacks in Tech launch at SXSW that attracted over 100 participants and provided a forum to engage the black technology community in the festival itself.  With this event, the group is expanding its reach to include the Asian and Hispanic communities to provide a multicultural exchange.

According to Jeffrey Bowman, the organizer of the event and a Partner at Ogilvy & Mather's Consulting Practice, this year's event at SXSW kicks off the first of three discussions taking place around the country in 2010 within the multicultural technology and digital community.  

"Partnering with SXSW and Ogilvy to create the festival's first diversity driven event builds awareness of the tremendous multicultural talent and thought leadership within the technology space," explained Jeffrey Bowman of Ogilvy.  "This panel and the event following it expands on both the festival and the agency's efforts to foster greater diversity and inclusion within the industry."  We've worked with social media strategist like James Andrews (www.BeEverywhere.tv), Wayne Sutton (http://socialwayne.com), Adria Richards (http://butyoureagirl.com), and Maurice Cherry (http://www.mauricecherry.com) to pull this event together."

SXSW is seeking to promote diversity and inclusion as a cornerstone of the Festival and has created a series of panels that feature diverse thought leaders within the festival. The Ogilvy panel will be followed by the "Blacks in Technology Meetup" from 6- 9 pm at the Carver Museum, also hosted by Ogilvy. The event is open to all new media professionals and those hoping to break into the industry. To register and learn more go to http://www.eventbrite.com/event/594984615.

ABOUT BLACKS IN TECH (BIT)

Blacks In Tech originally started as a few blacks within the technology and social media space met at the SXSW Interactive Conference in the Spring of 2005. At the time the world of technology and social media was emerging.  They pondered the idea of having more blacks in technology and hypothesized about barriers to being more social on-line. Some of the early thought leaders that night were Lynne D. Johnson (http://www.lynnedjohnson.com), George Kelly (www.allaboutgeorge.com), Jason Toney (http://misterjt.typepad.com), jbrotherlove (http://www.thebrotherlove.com/journalogue.php), Tiffany B Brown (www.tiffanybbrown.com), E J Flavors (http://ejflavors.com/) and Jeffrey Bowman (Twitter:  @jeffreylbowman).

In 2009 they organized a mini panel at the SXSW Conference and exceeded conference organizers expectations.  They'd proven to organizers that there is a thriving black community within the technology and digital space.  The mission for Blacks In Tech is to accelerate technology innovation, education and wealth creation within underserved markets through the use of technology.  You can follow Blacks In Tech on Twitter @blacksintech.

ABOUT SXSW

South by Southwest (SXSW, Inc.) is a private company based in Austin, Texas, with a year-round staff of professionals dedicated to building and delivering conference and festival events for entertainment and related media industry professionals. Since 1987, SXSW has produced the internationally recognized Music and Media Conference & Festival. In 1994 as the entertainment business adjusted to issues of future growth and development, SXSW added conferences and festivals for the film industry (SXSW Film) as well as for the blossoming interactive media (SXSW Interactive Festival). Now three industry events converge in Austin during a Texas-sized week, mirroring the ever increasing convergence of entertainment/media outlets.

ABOUT OGILVY & MATHER NORTH AMERICA

Ogilvy & Mather North America (www.ogilvy.com), is the largest unit of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide,  a subsidiary of WPP Group plc (Nasdaq: WPPGY).  It has offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit, Durham, Minneapolis, Denver, and throughout Canada. Ogilvy & Mather North America brings together all the capabilities of the Ogilvy network to provide integrated marketing solutions to the agency's clients. It encompasses Ogilvy & Mather Advertising, OgilvyEntertainment, OgilvyOne, Neo@Ogilvy, Ogilvy Healthworld, Ogilvy Public Relations and OgilvyAction.

SOURCE Ogilvy & Mather North America