G3ict made an announcement today regarding FrancesWestCo’s collaboration with World Enabled and AT&T on the Inclusive Innovation for Smarter Cities project. Together, we will work to ensure each smart city strategy embraces diversity and inclusion in their urban innovation development.
This strategic partnership comes at a relevant time as it reinforces my belief that
we need to have a new narrative and a new approach around the understanding that diversity drives disruptive innovation
Technology affects economic and job growth, and its advancement brings with it profound and disruptive change. It is crucial that humans remain at the center of all innovation. After all, technology is made to serve humans. Entrepreneurs, startups, incubators, accelerators and VCs are creating new businesses, apps, solutions, economies and jobs around the world. We have to be mindful of how these innovations impact all people, especially those with disabilities and the growing aging population.
Motivated by this understanding and drawing on both my personal experience as a first-generation immigrant and woman in technology, along with my professional knowledge as IBM’s first Chief Accessibility Officer, I created
Authentic Inclusion™, an organizational blueprint that places diversity at the core of disruptive technology innovation.
My book on this topic will be released later this year, in which I address the diversity issues that exist within the tech industry today and propose new ways for business leaders to think about inclusion with a human-first mindset. This mentality promotes
disruptive innovation and brings principle, purpose and profit into harmonious alignment, resulting in sustainable market expansion and business differentiation.
I look forward to working with all partners involved and leveraging the Authentic Inclusion™ blueprint to guide the cities to accelerate digital inclusion in all innovation-related initiatives.
Originally published on LinkedIn