GCP – Including everyone at Google Cloud Next ’20: OnAir

This year, amidst the ongoing global pandemic, we are reimagining our Google Cloud Next ‘20 event to connect our cloud community digitally. We’re continuing  to make our physical events diverse and inclusive, and are infusing these values to our digital events too—critically important to ensuring everyone feels welcome and included as we build together. 

Our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) track shares knowledge and creates space within our broader cloud community about the role we can all play in making sure we are building for everyone. You’ll hear about how we’re learning and advancing belonging at Google, which includes our work on equity engineering and product inclusion. We hope this helps you get started or adds to your allyship journey.

 We all  continue to make progress by having these conversations, and we encourage you to check out the sessions below. You can add any to your playlist by viewing our program track,  and watch for their weekly release, starting on July 14. In addition to these sessions, you can join us for our interactive I am Remarkable workshops, which empower women and other underrepresented groups to celebrate their achievements in the workplace and beyond.

Sessions include: 

Google’s Diversity Strategy and How It Works
Join Google’s Chief Diversity Officer Melonie Parker to see how Google is continuing to build a workforce that reflects all communities, and how the Diversity Annual Report reflects that. You’ll hear about efforts to better understand our global workforce, build a sense of belonging, and tackle challenges to advancing DEI.

G Suite Accessibility Features To Empower Inclusion
When we’re talking about connecting digitally, we need to make sure that everyone can connect. Emails, calendar invites, video conferences, presentations, documents, and spreadsheets are all important digital connection options. G Suite’s accessibility features are designed so that anyone can use the tools to get more done, inclusive of those who have audio, visual, or motor impairment. Check out this session to get an overview of those features and how to use them on mobile or web.

Equity Engineering—Impact and Opportunity
The lack of diversity in tech is a complex and pervasive challenge. Equity Engineering offers an opportunity to identify greater systemic organizational issues with both people and product development. This session explores what Equity Engineering is, how to build and develop it, and the impact it can have to increase equity and systemic transformation. Head of Equity Engineering Demma Rosa Rodriguez will take you through how this engineering initiative evaluates how systems can support equitable HR processes and build the best products for a diverse workforce and world, and what parts research, infrastructure, process change, and centers of excellence play.

How Certification Impacted My Career
Becoming Google Cloud-certified has the power to boost careers, and the experience is unique for each person. Solution Engineer Jewel Langevine, who has three certification badges, will share her path to certification and how it plays a role in her career. During this session, Jewel will share insights from her journey from an upbringing in Guyana to her present position as a Solution Engineer at Google Cloud. Along the way, she’ll discuss how she was introduced to cloud computing, her experiences in mentorship, how she maximized networking opportunities, and how she continues to give back to underrepresented communities.

The Case for Product Inclusion 2.0
Historically, diversity, equity and inclusion has been focused internally, but over the past three years, Googlers have been expanding their DEI practices throughout the product design process to create better products for all users. Paying attention to the connection between people, process, and product has led to better user outcomes and more business opportunities. In a world where demographics are shifting rapidly and consumers have a myriad of choices, how do companies keep up with diverse users and truly build for all? Annie Jean-Baptiste, Google’s Head of Product Inclusion, will share details about Google’s product inclusion journey and the end-to-end system.

Empowering Inclusion with Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)
The unprecedented shift in our workplaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic has a lot of us searching for connections amongst the new work-from-home culture of our companies. Sherice Torres, Google’s Director of Inclusion, shares how to foster community and belonging through Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Learn how ERGs uplevel inclusion beyond their own members and how they influence Google’s DEI strategy and accountability.

This session will also profile and share learnings from Women@GoogleCloud. Find out how an underrepresented group of women created a global network with allies passionate about cultivating a culture for women to thrive and bring their whole selves to work.

Encoding Gender into Technical Artifacts Such as Emoji
Sometimes at engineering-driven companies, there can be a preconceived notion there is a right or wrong way of designing. This talk will explore how the emoji program operates in the spectrum between this false binary. After all, if race is not a skin color and gender is not a haircut, how do you communicate the idea of “woman” at emoji sizes? You’ll hear how Google’s emoji team uses a blend of academic research and quantitative data to inform design practices and product decisions, and see how we build technology in an inclusive way that reflects a variety of communication needs.

Thanks for building a more inclusive cloud with us. We look forward to continuing our allyship and advocacy journey with all of you at Next OnAir, starting July 14.