presented by The Tech We Want 2025
March 8-9, 2025 at The Belmont in Austin, Texas.
No Charge. No Badge. Bring your friends!
LIGHT HOUSE 2025 IS ON IT'S WAY IN...
About The Light House
Join #TeamHuman to connect with funders and tech leaders that put people at the center of the digital revolution, and join an effort to collectively create a more responsible tech future.
Tech, Teamwork & Good Trouble
Over two days filled with inspiring talks, immersive activations, and exciting entertainment, The Light House is a wayfinding point and beacon for those seeking to find new teammates, get the ball rolling on new collaborations, or find new solutions to champion in our collective responsible tech future.
The Tech We Want is designed to be a broad platform for those seeking to seed and embed responsible tech values in emerging tech. The convening is designed to bring together a coalition of funders, tech leaders and workers co-creating an alternative tech ecosystem built on inclusivity, mutualism, sustainability, accountability, and responsible innovation.
Working with our fellow champions Omidyar Network, Siegel Family Endowment, Stanford d.school, and Black Innovation Alliance, The Light House offers a vision of a tech ecosystem that centers people, not technology, as protagonists in shaping our shared technological future.
Join us for The Light House on March 8th
Day 1
Day 1 of The Light House offers talks, games, networking, and interactive fun—all while putting people at the heart of tech. Explore the Library of the Future too!
Join us for The Light House on March 9th
Day 2
Day 2 of The Light House, hosted by Omidyar Network, dives into AI’s impact and tech’s role in shared prosperity. Visit the Library of the Future before it closes!
Join us for The Lights Out on March 9th
Lights Out
Join us at The Belmont for the closing party! Dance, sing karaoke, and vibe with #TeamHuman allies as we celebrate, connect, and unwind beyond the conference grind!
What is The Tech We Want?
Our mission is to build a new tech ecosystem by centering, amplifying and shifting power to leaders, advocates and entrepreneurs in the tech space already working toward a future in which everyone thrives; and together, experimenting with and funding new cultural and economic infrastructure.
Where
The Belmont in Austin, Texas.
When
March 8-9, 2025
What does it look & feel like?
In 2024, over 1500 attendees joined us for a day packed with interactive networking, thought-provoking panels, curated entertainment, and one of the best parties of the weekend. Watch the recap video here.
Schedule
March 8th
Day 1
12:00 PM — Doors Open
12:30 PM — Dealmakers lounge
Hosted in the stanford d.school Public House, come meet your teammates before game start while enjoying a catered lunch and discover the library of tools and activities that will help us make the right deals for a resilient and responsible tech future.
1:30 PM — Welcome to the Main Stage!
The Tech We Want Facilitator Jocelyn Macdougall and Program Leader Aniyia Williams open the day providing grounding in this year’s outlook and community gathering goals.
1:45 PM — Panel 1: Ecosystem Hubs and Building Coalition
A conversation around responsible innovation starts at the grassroots. This panel brings together leaders with years of experience in building coalition across hubs in majority minority cities, where there are emerging tech justice ecosystems.
Panelists will share their insights stemming from years of working in these hubs and how they are bringing together different constituencies and aligning them around particular shared values or policy goals.
2:30 PM —Lightning Talks
The Lightning Talk is the “variety pack” of talks. This work requires an orchestration of diverse strategies and perspectives. Each talk highlights how we each hold “a different piece of the puzzle” when it comes to building a responsible innovation ecosystem.
3:15 PM — Panel 2: Getting our $$$$ together: Strategizing with Funders for a Resilient Tech Ecosystem
This panel, featuring leaders from the philanthropic sector, will offer an inside look at what a collective-action approach to technology investment looks like in practice—highlighting both the opportunities and the challenges.
4:15 PM — Crowdsourcing Collective Wisdom
Building the future we want will require working in coalition with partners whose values overlap. Where we go, and how we get there, must be defined together. TTWW is working to build a picture of that future drawing on as many voices as possible, and today we ask YOU to be part of that process.
4:45 PM — Lightning Talks
The Lightning Talk is the “variety pack” of talks. This work requires an orchestration of diverse strategies and perspectives. Each talk highlights how we each hold “a different piece of the puzzle” when it comes to building a responsible innovation ecosystem.
5:10 PM — Closing Remarks and Venue Closure
More details coming soon.
5:30 PM — Private Event (Invitation Only)
Event space is closed to the public at this time.
Library of the Future Schedule
12:00 PM — Black Innovation Alliance Library Take Over
Details TBA.
2:00 PM — The Library is OPEN
The Library is OPEN
Come explore a physical collection of books, essays, and other media that have shaped our thinking and imaginations.
3:00 – 5:00 PM — Library Take over for Summit of Cities Led by Urbane
Details TBA.
March 9th
Day 2
12:00 – 1:30 PM — Doors Open: Day 2 - Curated by Omidyar Network
More details coming soon.
12:00 – 1:30 PM — Interactive Activity TBA
More details coming soon.
1:00 – 1:20 PM — Opening Remarks
More details coming soon.
1:30 – 2:30 PM — Panel 1: The Power of Speculative Fiction
The majority of popular culture narratives offer either utopian visions of tech solving every societal issue or doomerism narratives grounded in fear, where tech overwrites humanity, creativity, and individuality. In order to shape rapidly evolving tech towards our shared humanity, we need clear visions and representations in popular culture. How can we shift towards narratives that encourage and demonstrate prosocial behaviors, eg. “Protopian” storylines?
Speculative fiction and afrofuturism have historically provoked thinking on the ecosystems creating tech, societal issues they attempt to address, and audiences impacted. Using these as inspirations, this conversation will discuss the role of storytelling in shaping tech for the benefit of our shared humanity.
2:50 – 3:50 PM — Panel 2: I Don’t Dream of Labor: Reimagining Work, Purpose, and Solidarity in the Age of AI
Cultural trends around labor in recent years reveal a cross-collar workforce that’s increasingly discontent with the nature of work as it stands, highlighting the systemic inequities from which these conditions stem. Whether it’s the low pay and lack of opportunities for advancement that led to the Great Resignation, or the confluence of corporate greed, low unemployment, and high public approval of unions that sparked Hot Labor Summer in 2023, these trends show both individual and collective actions that workers are taking to improve their working conditions.
Today, these concerns remain, and are amplified by technological advancements around AI, putting into question its short- and long-term impact on jobs and workers. What is “meaningful work” in the age of AI? How can we build a more representative labor movement? How do we ensure that the future of work is pro-worker? This conversation will explore the role of building worker power in ensuring that our collective tech future is pro-worker.
4:10 – 5:10 PM — Panel 3: Rewiring Relationships: Navigating Connection in a Tech-Mediated World
AI is changing the ways in which we communicate, learn from, and connect with each other. But in our world of increasingly complex algorithms and companion bots, how can we ensure that AI strengthens human connections? This panel will dive into the critical intersection of technology and human relationships and explore the nuanced dynamics between artificial and human connection, unpacking both the transformative potential of AI to foster community and the risks of over-reliance on artificial companionship.
Panelists will speak to the ways in which AI systems can amplify our inherently social nature while examining the ethical obligations of AI developers to embed human values and prioritize societal wellbeing as they shape tools that will profoundly impact how future generations connect and coexist.
5:30 – 6:30 PM — Tech Comedy Set and Fireside Chat with TechRoast Comedian Austin Nasso
Details TBA.
7:00 – 9:00 PM— Space Closed to the Public for Closing Party Preparations
9:00 PM — Lights out! THE LIGHT HOUSE Wrap Party
We dim the lights as we turn up the energy on the dance floor. Our DJ will be spinning the latest hits while you mingle with fellow tech enthusiasts. This is your chance to let go of what you’ve been holding down and enjoy yourself in good company.
Library of the Future Schedule Day 2
12:00 PM — The Library is OPEN
Come explore a physical collection of books, essays, and other media that have shaped our thinking and imaginations.
Library Workshops and Take Overs TBA
More details coming soon.
Throughout the day at THE LIGHT HOUSE, the Library of the Future is a parallel activation that provides an opportunity to engage with visionary thinking about responsible innovation.
(More details soon.)