On Friday, March 6th, the 34th SXSW was cancelled by The City of Austin. 400,000+ techies, creatives, film-makers & artists were scheduled to attend this year. OHUB followed suit by cancelling it’s Austin in-person programming and hiring experience. Opportunity Hub (OHUB) was preparing for 500 Black & LatinX college students from around college the nation, including HBCU’s & MSI’s in Atlanta, to attend its 5th annual OHUB.SXSW & HBCU@SXSW program for an immersive exposure, learning, mentoring, networking & hiring experience of a lifetime. In an innovative pivot to continue forward with the planned program, OHUB is partnering with The Legacy Center (Jay & Ernestine Morrison), Momentum@Morehouse & New Birth Church (Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant) for the Atlanta experience; and the Economic Development Corporation of Kansas City, KC.UP and Civic Council’s KC Global Design Group for the Kansas City experience.
Now that we’re going virtual, we’re going to admit all 1,500 of this year’s applicants into the program; and open up the experience globally.
Also, as part of this year’s SXSW, OHUB was planning to announce some major new partnerships:
- OHUB launches AI platform with SAM.ai to scale Black & LatinX connections, community, hiring, startups, investment and multi-generational wealth creation
- OHUB launches new code school with Momentum Learning and Morehouse College
- OHUB launches future of work initiatives with The Legacy Center & New Birth
These major announcements will be announced as apart of OHUB’s pivot of OHUB.SXSW to online to ensure that this year’s cohort is #BlackAndHired.
Like other small businesses and foundations, OHUB has more than one million ($1m) dollars and $16,750,000 in economic output hanging in the balance due to the cancellation of SXSW and is requesting that anyone and everyone that can support our active #BlackAndHired GoFundMe that was launched to support this year’s program and beyond do so.
#BlackAndHired is our theme for 2020 and this decade as it is predicted by McKinsey that Black America will lose 4.5 million jobs this decade due to automation. We’ve got work to do, together.
Therefore, we are forming alliances with platforms, ecosystem building organizations, entrepreneurship support programs, investors, corporate ERG’s, entrepreneurs and influencers to sign on as ecosystem building partners to drive us across the finish line.
*Just in case you are wondering how our economic output is calculate. Its number of students x historical placement rate x median salary for internships and full time roles. So, that’s 500 x 90% placement rate. 350 x $20,000 medium internship salary. 100 x $97,500 median full time salary.
meet our 2020 co-chairs
past cohort testimonials
venues
action
Hiring Partner
- Hire from OHUB’s SXSW cohort of 500 and membership of 5,000. Bring a team of 5 recruiters, ERG & D&I professionals to SX. Exceed your diverse talent acquisition goals.
Student Scholarship
- Attend SXSW and sponsor a Black and/or Latinx student to attend OHUB.SXSW. Includes student travel, housing, meals, SX badge, interviews, programming and 12 months of webinars.
Mentoring Partnership
- Attend OHUB.SXSW as a mentor and experience all of SX! Imagine 500 Black and Latinx students paired with 500 Black, Latinx and ally professionals, founders and ecosystem builders.
#BlackAndHired Partner
- Give $100+ and receive the official #OHUBSXSW20 #BLACKANDHIRED T-Shirt. Give $250+ and receive more perks from Minda Harts, Janice Bryant Howroyd & Rodney Sampson.
2020 hiring & ecosystem building partners
