Techqueria's #LHM Summit

Techqueria's #LHM Summit is a 3-day free virtual conference from 10/7-10/9 during Latinx Heritage Month (LHM) created to empower Latinx professionals in tech, connect them with companies who are committed to inclusion and to celebrate the thriving Latinx in tech community.

https://www.linkedin.com/events/lhmsummit

Event Review:

I was the event lead and helped push forward all the different tasks with a core team of 12 volunteers/staff.

In the end we had over 90 speakers and almost 2,000 RSVPs/attendees.

Final stats:

• Registrations 1638
• Turnout 1480
• Ticket Sales 0.0
• Average Time Spent (mins) 442.75801801801800
• Total Comments 954
• Stage Visitors 1045
• Session Visitors 1155
• Expo Visitors 765
• Networking Visitors 699
• Connections Made 636
• Average User Rating 9.1487603305785100

Check out the details in my LinkedIn Post:

Day 1:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/francescoronel_lhm-latinxintech-latinxheritagemonth-activity-6719809571323449344-ck8q/

Day 2:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/francescoronel_lhm-latinxintech-latinxheritagemonth-activity-6720155469853270016-uHS1/

Day 3:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/francescoronel_lhm-latinxintech-latinxheritagemonth-activity-6720495655753662464-vp0_/

Here are some of the testimonials:

"Frances, #LHM was great! Congratulations to you and Techqueria for making it all happen. I’m motivated by the great speakers and conversations that were had to help continue moving our latinx community forward. I had to give you so many congratulations! Thank you! I look forward to contributing more soon."

"Great variety, soooo much work with coordinating events.  I can only imagine. I loved the Reception area, and getting into all the different areas was easy. Everything worked… expo areas, 1:1 networking area, music rooms… I Was able to try them all! Amazing!"

"I honestly don’t even know where to start! One thing that really sticks out, is how the different days centered around very pivotal points in our careers, from entry to growing to making changes ourselves. If this was intentional, then y’all are honestly geniuses because the flow felt so natural and organic, to the point of having my participation start very timid because I didn’t know how to really communicate with people, to the very end of basically digitally dancing with many of you. Y’all really fostered an environment of participation, inclusion, and support.
Something else that really surprised me, was the inclusion of challenging topics of Afro-Latinx identity and queer Latinx identities. I say challenging not only in the sense of difficulty but controversy and deemed antithetical in our culture. I was very happy to see that, but I do think that it could perhaps be addressed a bit sooner in the summit in my opinion. A more constant and gentle reminder of using more inclusive language I think would’ve really made my experience feel more secure. I know we all struggle with it (I know I falter all the time) but discouraging words like crazy, guys, etc. when not appropriate. Still I think this community and this team is probably very aware of it, and the trust y’all have built with this community is so solid.
Finally, the entertainment was so on point, Latinx cultures were so well represented, I ’m sure many, like myself felt at home, reminiscing of our childhood, our teen years, our family parties. There’s no obvious way to encompass my gratitude than to give back to this community with every part of my being."

"I mean, wow. This summit made me feel so hopeful and inspired by fellow Latine members working worldwide in all kinds of roles kicking butt and taking names 😭

There were so many talks that demonstrated vulnerability in a way I admire and I'm psyched to meet more people in this awesome community.

And the Selena tribute band was awesome. 🌹🔥

Shout-out to the whole team behind it! Thanks so much for your labor and time, you really created something special together.and to offer it for free is nothing short of incredible tbh"

Here is an overview of our prep work: