Jonathan Riley

I was asked to participate as a space convener in MozFest’s 2021 online conference organizing a space on social impact and change in the technology and design sector. I worked with five wonderful technologists and designers to bring together sessions on everything from participatory design to ethical AI and everything in-between. Many of these sessions led to the establishment of organizations and initiatives beyond the scope of the conference. The overall purpose for the five of us as technologists with a focus on social, racial, and environmental justice was to raise the voices of people that are marginalized or afterthoughts in the technology and design spaces. During the 2 weeks of the virtual Mozfest conference. We hosted over 20 sessions from 50+ presenters from over 30 countries and regions of the world, representing every continent except Antarctica.

The process was structured by the Mozfest team, where we reviewed hundreds of session applications and organized them into buckets. Once that process was completed, we began the work of information sessions, guided discussions, and overall mission and vision related to our space. Each of the sessions informed how we began to talk about the space and our guidance helped them structure their session and programming. The result was a values-aligned conference working toward the ultimate goal of social justice in tech.