Why Having a Home Away From Home, Matters.

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There's something special about having a home away from home. A place where you can feel comfortable and safe, surrounded by people who understand you.

That's what Black@INBOUND felt like for me. Black voices were front and center, sharing their stories and experiences with the world. I was able to connect with so many different people, from all walks of life, and make new relationships not only professionally but personally as well. 

This was my first year of going to INBOUND altogether. It’s hard when you’re doing something this daunting. When you’re by yourself, going to a city you don’t know, to see people you’ve only just met, and getting to know all of it in the span of just a few hours. OK maybe 72 hours is a ton of time for the rest of you but trust me, when you’re already spending 24 of that sleeping (IF you like your full 8hrs…) then you start to realize how precious the time left you have is. After removing 3 days of 1hr meals (if you’re lucky) that leaves you with just under 40 hours! I told you, it goes by MUCH faster than you ever thought it would, and especially fast when it’s the first time you’ve ever been there and done all that!

 

There were so many great talks, and so many great speakers each day to pick from. Hearing Viola Davis speak about how race has impacted her throughout her entire career and how she still faces those challenges today. Then learning and understanding what those challenges really are, and how to face them! How she stood up to an entire generation of people who tried to tell her that, “it couldn’t/can’t be done.” 

Barack Obama…Just being in the same space is a great feeling, something warm and inviting about him that I can’t really place but you just feel a kinship there. He spoke so eloquently and poignantly about his view of the world today and how we have divided ourselves as a nation. What we need to do in order to heal that split, and what we can do with social media to help push that along.

What kept me grounded? How could I manage it all? Where was my home-base?

Black@INBOUND.

The circle.

The space.

What I felt to be, my own place to go to in all this craziness! 

Where my friends I had met online were. Where new colleagues I was about to meet were.

Black@INBOUND is my home away from home. With everything that had been going on, how crazy every day had become, running into so many different people and doing tons of amazing interviews and deep-dive sessions. It was great to have a space to call my own that I could group at. Not just to regroup, but to sort of recharge on a cultural level as well.

To run into Devyn or Kassandra, and especially TROY!!! I swear the more I write the more I am CLAWING at my brain to remember everyone and everything!

Troy KILLED it!!! I mean outside of being the best host of the entire conference :D!

At the end of the day though, MarTech is a field that is known for being white and male-dominated, and it can be difficult for people from minority groups to break into the industry. This is why groups like Black@INBOUND are so important; they give black voices in tech a chance to be heard. The more we can learn about and understand different cultures, the better equipped we will be to make positive change in the world. Black voices in marketing technology play a vital role in this process, and I'm grateful to have been able to learn from them at INBOUND this year.

Without Black@INBOUND I never would have experienced any of this.

Without Black@INBOUND you wouldn’t even be reading this.

Black@INBOUND was, is, and should always continue to be the place, the intersection…the crossroad where diversity meets technology.