BALTIMORE — This Saturday a new organization, BLK Tech Connect, is bringing together dozens of Black people within the tech industry.
The sold out event was created to build a stronger tech community within the city.
"What would be the space that I would like to go to and to be around other tech professionals and I didn't see it so I decided to create it myself," says Kalif Cooper, Founder of BLK Tech Connect.
He created BLK Tech Connect and started hosting gatherings where people could network and talk about the latest advancements in different tech fields.
He says for him it was important that he reaches a community that is sometimes overlooked.
"There's a misconception that Black people aren't really in tech, you know, I think it's inspiring to see people like us in this field," says Jeffrey Scruggs.
Saturday the event which is taking place at FLOCK, will feature a networking happy hour and a panel of entrepreneurs in the tech space who want to share key things that took them far in their careers.
"Each of the speakers that are coming have their own tech companies and they're Black tech founders. What helped me in my space, how I got to seeing other successful Black people doing something that I never thought I could do," says Cooper.
People like Dante Tyler who is the CEO and founder of OQP Solutions.
He says when he met Cooper he was inspired by how passionate he was about bringing other like minds together.
"Particularly people of color bring their innovation, their ingenuity, their culture to tech, right, because that looks different from, you know, how someone who's not maybe a minority codes up, right? You get different applications so that's, I think it's super important that we're included in this next iteration," says Tyler.
Scruggs says this is the start of something big in Baltimore, something he hopes molds the city into more of a tech hub.
"We want to make Baltimore a tech ecosystem. If we could make Baltimore the Silicon Valley of the East, that'd be amazing," says Scruggs.
Cooper says he is also planing to host more tech events and mixers in August for people who miss out on Saturday's event.
