Innovating Women book release and a public message to the people I have been criticizing

A few years ago, if you had asked me if there was discrimination in Silicon Valley, I would have asked you what planet you were from. I believed it to be the greatest meritocracythe most open, inclusive, and diverse place on Earth. That was until I came to the Valley and attended my first TechCrunch conference. It felt as if I had entered the Twilight Zonea parallel universe with strange happenings. My shock was that there were practically no women on stage. When I looked, I realized that all of Silicon Valley is like thisalmost no women in leadership positions. And no blacks or Hispanics.

I have since researched this subject extensively and written a lot about it. I have taken a lot of fire. I am the Indian with all those arrows in his back. I know this battle is worthwhilebecause I see things changing. For all the bad things you can say about Silicon Valley, you have to give it credit for being open to criticism and constantly reinventing itself. This is what gives Silicon Valley a global advantage: dissent is encouraged and learning and reinvention are the norm. There is nothing wrong with saying I made a mistake and am now doing things differently. They even have a special word for failure in the valley: it is called pivoting.

Today Silicon Valley is pivotingit is learning from its mistakes and bettering itself. Exponential technologies are also leveling the playing field and making it possible to solve the grand challenges of humanity. In this new era of innovation, women are primed to leadto better the world.

This is the core message of my new book, Innovating Women, which was created with the help of legendary journalist Farai Chideya and hundreds of women. These women shared their stories and brainstormed on ways to accelerate change. More than a dozen women wrote powerful essays. Megan Smith, who is now U.S. Chief Technology Officer, wrote an entire chapter along with Mary Grove, who heads Google for Entrepreneurs.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Autodesk are hosting a launch event for Innovating Women on September 9, 2014 at the Autodesk Gallery in San Francisco. This is open to all. I expect that the majority of attendees will be womenas are the majority of people featured in the book. But I would like the men who I have been criticizing to read the book and to attend this event. They will get to meet great women and hear their inspiringand heart-wrenchingstories. They will gain new perspectivesjust as I did. They will understand why things need to change.

So this is my public invitation to them. Come and listen. Come and say a few words.

Here is information about Innovating Women–including links to order it: www.innovatingwomen.org. All of the net proceeds from this go to a Singularity University fund to teach and supportwomen entrepreneurs.

Below is the invitation. Here is the link to register.

Please join the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Advanced Technology & Innovation (CATI) for the release of Vivek Wadhwa’s and Farai Chideya’s highly anticipated book, Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology. The authors offer a fresh perspective on the challenges that women face, strategies that they employ in the workplace, and how an organization can succeed or fail in its attempt to support the career advancement of women.CATI President David Chavern will lead a panel discussion to examine the importance of advancing women’s engagement within the tech sector; what the industry currently is doing to promote women’s involvement; and what efforts are necessary to increase the vital participation of women in the industry going forward. Confirmed panelists include entrepreneur and author Vivek Wadhwa, venture capitalist Heidi Roizen, technology CEO and space explorer Anousheh Ansari, and filmmaker and women’s advocate Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Tuesday, September 9, 2014The Autodesk Gallery 1 Market Street #200 San Francisco, CA 94105 Event Agenda – Tuesday, September 9 6:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. Cocktails/Networking 6:30 p.m. – 6:35 p.m. Welcoming Remarks David Chavern, President, CATI 6:35 p.m. – 6:45 p.m. Innovating Women Overview Vivek Wadhwa, Entrepreneur & Author, Innovating Women 6:45 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. Panel Discussion Anousheh Ansari, Co-Founder & CEO, Prodea Systems David Chavern, President, CATI Jennifer Siebel Newsom, Founder & CEO, The Representation Project Heidi Roizen, Operating Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Vivek Wadhwa, Entrepreneur & Author, Innovating Women 7:30 p.m. – 8:15p.m. Reception

About Author

Vivek Wadhwa is Vice President of Innovation and Research at Singularity University; Fellow, Arthur & Toni Rembe Rock Center for Corporate Governance, Stanford University; Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at the Pratt School of Engineering, Duke University; and distinguished visiting scholar, Halle Institute of Global Learning, Emory University. He is author of ”The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent”–which was named by The Economist as a Book of the Year of 2012. Wadhwa oversees the academic programs at Singularity University, which educates a select group of leaders about the exponentially growing technologies that are soon going to change our world. These advances—in fields such as robotics, A.I., computing, synthetic biology, 3D printing, medicine, and nanomaterials—are making it possible for small teams to do what was once possible only for governments and large corporations to do: solve the grand challenges in education, water, food, shelter, health, and security.

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