May 21, 2016
Main Stage (Atrium)
11:00 – 11:45 My Life In Tech
45 minutes
3 Solo Talks + Q&A
Three individuals share their journey in the tech industry: triumphs, struggles, breakthroughs and turning points.
Sarah Granger, Digital Media Innovator & Author
Sarah Granger is an award-winning digital media innovator and bestselling author of The Digital Mystique: How the Culture of Connectivity Can Empower Your Life — Online and Off. She has spent more than 25 years building technology and media ventures. Plagued by painful invisible disabilities caused by workplace injuries and complications from giving birth, she was forced to adapt multiple times to altered abilities. Luckily she had an inspirational role model in her father, a polio survivor, paralyzed in most of his upper body as a teenager. Instead of letting her limitations drag her down, she has built a thriving career out of the attitude of resilience she learned by example.
As founder of Leading in Digital, Sarah advises and trains global leaders and organizations on digital strategy and creating strong online communities. A prolific writer, She has written for a wide range of publications including Harvard Business Review, Forbes, MediaShift, Boing Boing, The Huffington Post, and The San Francisco Chronicle at SFGate.com. In 2012, she was named one of the Silicon Valley Business Journal “40 Under 40” rising stars. She lives in Silicon Valley and works online.
Julia Nguyen, Developer & Storyteller
I am a computer science and co-op student from the University of Waterloo. I have huge passion for web and mobile development. I have worked for companies and organizations of all sizes in consulting, open-source, and e-commerce.
Born and raised in Toronto as a first generation Vietnamese-Canadian, I have been incredibly blessed to nurture my creativity through piano, painting, writing, and programming. As a developer, I enjoy finding ways to make user experiences more engaging and memorable. I am fascinated by the sociological impact of technology – how it shapes and redefines culture and identity.
I write and speak about empathy, diversity, and mental health in STEM education and in the tech pipeline. I have written for ground-breaking, independent cultural publications like Model View Culture and Shameless Magazine. I am a speaker for Prompt, a community of people who speak about mental health in the tech industry.
Chad Taylor, Queen Bee, Linguabee
Born deaf, Chad grew up in London, Ontario, Canada, and attended a Deaf school. Chad’s programming career started at age 9 when he received a Commodore 64 computer as a Christmas gift and it grew exponentially from there. Chad majored in Information Technology at RIT with a concentration in Computer Science.
In 2007, Chad co-founded Convo Communications. During his years as VP of Technology at Convo, he helped delivered the first real-time web-based video service that has a 100% user-controlled dialing experience that no other Video Relay Service companies has been able to offer.
Chad continues to build companies and is currently the Queen Bee (and Geek Bee) at Linguabee, an online interpreter booking service. Linguabee focuses on simplifying user experiences and bypassing the agency middleman, especially mark-up costs.