Caribbean National Weekly

NEWSMAKER: Felecia Hatcher, founder of BlackTech Week

By Natalie Greaves··2 min read
NEWSMAKER: Felecia Hatcher, founder of BlackTech Week
Key Points(5)
  • <span style="font-weight: 400;">The 5</span><span style="font-weight: 400;">th</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> annual BlackTech Week presented by Code Fever Miami, in partnership with the Knight Foundation, commences February 5-9 at various locations in Miami.
  • </span> <b>For people of color</b> <span style="font-weight: 400;">BlackTech Week is the largest conference and networking event in the country for people of color.
  • BlackTech Week partners with founders, corporations, and the community to create a valuable six-day national experience for investors, entrepreneurs, and techies of every kind.
  • Since its inception, BlackTech Week has convened over 2700 participants, over 150 speakers, and 3 pitch competitions.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Hatcher is committed to using the conference to continue strengthening Black techies and entrepreneurs.
  • </span> <span style="font-weight: 400;">“Code Fever Miami is excited to work with our sponsors Knight Foundation, Salesforce and AT&T to support BlackTech Week as it continues to serve our mission to accelerate the building of asset and talent-filled spaces in Black communities.

The 5th annual BlackTech Week presented by Code Fever Miami, in partnership with the Knight Foundation, commences February 5-9 at various locations in Miami.

For people of color

BlackTech Week is the largest conference and networking event in the country for people of color. The event provides a platform for entrepreneurship, employment, innovation and international competitiveness for underserved and underrepresented populations.

Code Fever

The event was launched in 2014 by Jamaican American, Felecia Hatcher, and her husband Derick Pearson, through their community program, Code Fever. The mission of Code Fever is to inspire more underserved minority students between the ages of 13 to 21 to code, build and create technology enterprises within their communities, close the gap in technology education, and become leaders in STEM fields by increasing the number of young startup founders.

BlackTech Week is a minority centric ecosystem-building festival, based in Miami. BlackTech Week partners with founders, corporations, and the community to create a valuable six-day national experience for investors, entrepreneurs, and techies of every kind. Since its inception, BlackTech Week has convened over 2700 participants, over 150 speakers, and 3 pitch competitions.

Hatcher is committed to using the conference to continue strengthening Black techies and entrepreneurs.

“Code Fever Miami is excited to work with our sponsors Knight Foundation, Salesforce and AT&T to support BlackTech Week as it continues to serve our mission to accelerate the building of asset and talent-filled spaces in Black communities. We believe that innovation and economic competitiveness can thrive by focusing on drawing resources, training, networks, funding, and instituting inclusive policies,” Hatcher said.

Includes a Cannabis Summit

This year’s curated workshops include a Cannabis Summit, GovEduCon, Afrofuturism and a Women’s Innovation Brunch.  These sessions will cover topics including smart cities development, ecosystem building, STEM education and entrepreneurship in cannabis; in addition to highly anticipated master class style sessions on funding, venture capital and private equity.

As well as co-founding Code Fever and BlackTech Week, Hatcher is a White House award-winning entrepreneur, bestselling author of ‘Start your Business on a Ramen Noodle Budget’, globally sought-after speaker, and founder of Miami-based projects, Tribe CoWork and Urban Innovation Lab.

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