It’s not enough to address an overall gender imbalance in tech and IT organizations if there is not much change in the gender of the leaders. That’s the focus of first-ever: Extraordinary Women in Tech global conference -- this December. The gender gap in IT will take many years to balance out because the pipeline has to be built through early education but that doesn’t mean that women’s voices can’t be heard until there is parity in numbers, pay and expectations.  The best way to teach others is by example and there will be plenty of inspirational stories told at the event and plenty of ..read more

Above: Sao Paulo's main business district Paulista Avenue. Credit: Julio Ricco Guest post by Carol Strobel, operating partner at Redpoint eventures and a veteran of Brazil's startup ecosystem. Latin America has been known as an emerging economy for decades. 2021 could be when it hits its stride. The phrase "emerging markets" was coined by World Bank economist Antoine Van Agtmael to describe certain countries’ economies with significant GDP growth to support a growing middle class, and with stable and sustainable rates of economic growth spanning decades.  Latin America’s stability and sus ..read more

          Above: São Paulo business district - AI is predicted to accellerate the economies of Latin America. A guest post by Anderson Thees, managing partner at Redpoint eventures  Several years ago, Marcelo Sales took a year-long sabbatical to help scope out the next big thing. Sales is a prominent entrepreneur in Brazil, who co-founded Movile - which is now one of Latin America's largest tech startups, back in 2008. As he traveled through Asia and Europe, he studied robots and built his own robot, became intrigued with 3D printers and more. Sales realized that ..read more

  Tech workers marching at Gay Pride San Francisco 2019 Guest post by Luciana Carvalho, VP of People and Performance at Movile Surviving in the post-lockdown economy is going to be the most important test that many business leaders have ever faced. It is during such extraordinary times that we will find out if our management best practices are indeed the right practices for these novel circumstances and what needs to be adjusted. A widely accepted tenet of management teachings is that building a strong company culture is very important because it acts as a strong foundation for the entir ..read more

The SV Forum Visionary Awards used to be my favorite Silicon Valley summer event. These were small outdoor gatherings maybe 150 to 200 people, and usually held in the substantial backyard of some fabulous Woodside mansion — but always with incredible iconic names standing just a few feet away. For example, the above photo shows the four (male) Visionary Award winners from eight years ago: Far right is Elon Musk, next top VC Jim Breyer; technology journalist David Kirkpatrick, and educator Salman Khan. The legendary VC Ann Winblad, is far left. The casual atmosphere of the awards ceremony ..read more

 Without events and conferences -- IT vendors are having to change how they reach potential customers. Above: Crunchies Awards 2013 Guest Post by Alex Shapiro  @AlexShapiroPR The battle for influence and attention by the big vendors can’t stop just because of a crisis. So how are the big names of tech reaching their audiences in a time of media and industry upheaval? The fact that you’re even reading this article at such a crazy time, shows how unpredictable the tech media landscape has become since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Having to focus on work, customers and p ..read more

Photo: Paulista Avenue, São Paulo, Brazil. Guest post By Eduardo Henriques, Movile Group co-founder and Wavy CEO In the rainforests of Brazil, the incredible diversity of competing life forms includes the fire ant — a species that has learned to survive the most catastrophic floods by creating waterproof rafts of living ant bodies hooked together to trap air bubbles and keep their queen and larvae dry until a new site for the colony is found. A lone ant would quickly drown, but a community of ants helps each other survive. This example of fire ants at work in Brazil’s natural eco ..read more

More than 7500 Oracle employees signed an online petition criticizing an upcoming Trump fundraising event at founder Larry Ellison's Coachella Valley, Calif., property. In a letter from a group called Oracle Employees for Ethics addressed to "Dear Oracle Leadership," they write that Ellison's support for President Donald Trump is against the core values the company upholds in ethical conduct, diversity, and inclusiveness: "[It] not only damages our brand perception and misrepresents the diverse views of our company, but it adversely affects the morale of the individuals and communities w ..read more

Brazil’s iFood is a great example of a highly innovative company that is very much a product of Silicon Valley even though it is founded and funded largely by Brazilians (and South Africans) and has raised nearly $600 million and swiftly built a giant business. It is one of Brazil’s nine unicorns today.  I came across iFood earlier this year at the well-attended BayBrazil conference in Silicon Valley where Fabricio Bloisi founder and CEO of Movile (photo:below), a Brazilian mobile apps and investment firm, was the keynote speaker. Bloisi is a colorful personality and he’s funny and humble c ..read more

                  Knowledge workers work such short hours on their actual jobs (three--ish hours) that tech has a very narrow window of application in people's day thus limiting the productivity benefits that can be delivered by such short useage. Tech cannot eliminate terrible business processes and pointless meetings. This might explain the productivity paradox -- it's a work management problem first. Global spending on IT will pass $5 trillion this year (IDC) yet there’s shockingly little evidence that higher technology spending improves business produc ..read more