Photos | Culture Shifting Weekend Delivers a Unique Gathering of Black Leaders in Tech and Social Impact

Event: Culture Shifting: A Weekend of Technology, Innovation & Social Impact
Date: May 22, 2022
Location: Rosewood Sandhill, Menlo Park
Photos: Drew Altizer Photography

From May 19th-22nd, the 8th annual Culture Shifting Weekend Silicon Valley took place IRL across multiple venues for the first time in two years (they hosted them virtually in 2020 and 2021). It was a powerful Summit hosted between Oracle and Microsoft with rooms filled with over 300 guests including tech CEOs, investors, tech and other business executives, as well as entrepreneurs and corporate partners. This deal making Summit included people like the CEO of Logitech, Bracken Darrell who interviewed the Chairman of Jordan Brand Larry Miller about going from the streets of Philly and being incarcerated to one of the most prominent Black leaders in business, and Entrepreneurs of Color Pitch sponsored by Black Ambition, Avanta Ventures, Morgan Stanley, Pfizer, CommonSpirit, Meta, and Walmart and fireside chats with Christina Jackson of Meta, Felecia Hatcher of Black Ambition, and a fireside chat between Culture Shift Labs CEO Andrea Hoffman (founder of Culture Shifting Weekends) and Vista Equity Partners Chairman and CEO Robert F. Smith.

The Summit culminated with the Culture Shifting Awards sponsored by Vista Equity Partners, Adobe and Logitech which took place at the scenic Rosewood Sand Hill emceed by Hollywood producer and comedian Chris Spencer. The Awards honored Anita Lynch, former CIO of New Relic, Tim Muindi, Treasurer of ServiceNow, Joe Hurd, Operating Partner at SOSV and Jotaka Eaddy, Founder & CEO of Full Circle Strategies. There was a new and special Trailblazer Award given out this year (in honor of the late Tyson Clark who passed away in 2021) given to Scott Sandell, Managing General Partner at NEA who has worked for over 20 years to increase diversity in venture capital.

Key sponsors included: EY, UBS, Mozilla, Logitech, Adobe, Google Health, DAS42, Silicon Valley Community Foundation, Meta, CommonSpirit, Oracle, Microsoft, Comcast and Comcast Lift Labs, Walmart, Pfizer, Avanta Ventures, Motley Fool Ventures, and Brex.

Of the over 300 guests that attended over the weekend, notable attendees included: 

• Larry Miller, Chairman of Jordan Brand at Nike
• Actor Wayne Brady
• NY TImes Best Selling Author and Wellness Coach Dolvett Quince
• Kevan Parekh, VP, Finance at Apple
• Nicole Taylor, President & CEO, Silicon Valley Community Foundation
• Dr. Ivor Horn, Director, Health Equity & Social Determinants of Health at Google
• Imo Udom, SVP, Mozilla
• Ollen Douglass, Managing Partner, Motley Fool Ventures
• Parkash Janakiraman, Co-Founder & CTO at NextDoor
• Shannon Nash, CFO at Wing

Culture Shifting Weekends is an annual deal making summit of Culture Shift Labs; a diversity and innovation consulting firm focused on DEI, Racial Equality and ESG social and financial return strategies and activations. This Summit takes place in New York, Silicon Valley, Miami  and London and to take the event has enabled over $1B to get into the hands of guests that attend.