Does Inclusivity Build a Better Voice Ecosystem?

June 24 VOICE Talks to discuss why inclusivity has the power to enhance the voice tech ecosystem and affect change for the future

Is it possible to use technology to learn lessons from the past, and then use those lessons to change tomorrow? VOICE Talks will dig into this topic in its next episode, “Why Inclusivity Builds a Better Voice Ecosystem,” which will air June 24 at 2 p.m. ET.

Tune in to hear from the innovators behind voice-enabled apps and speech tech collaborations that are reintroducing history to new audiences. The show will feature experts discussing why it is important for the voice tech community to build for everyone, and highlight lasting legacies from history that can help support the next generation of leaders.

To affect change tomorrow, we need to understand the past.

Civil rights leader and engineer Dr. Carl B. Mack, former executive director at the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) and member of the NAACP will discuss the launch of the voice-enabled action he created called “This Day in Black History.” The resource is helping us to discover the deeper context and meaning of important dates in history.

“When we created the VOICE community, we set out to create one that was inclusive of individuals of all backgrounds,” said Pete Erickson, CEO of Modev and founder of the show. “The June VOICE Talks will look at how voice-enabled apps can share stories from the past to positively impact our future. We’re thrilled to welcome prominent guests on this month’s show who will highlight their work that will undoubtedly have a lasting impact on future generations.”

Sara Dayton, director, Strategic Projects at Penguin Random House, and Matthew Calamatta, chief technology officer at Matchbox Mobile will discuss their work on a recent collaboration. They developed the "Who Was Heroes" app to inspire and provide kids with an introduction to important historical figures through digestible clips from the publisher’s series of 100+ books.

Additional guests will include Leslie Garcia-Amaya, Global Product Partnerships lead at Google, and Lilian Rincon, senior director, Product Management at Google. Together, they will describe how they envision D&I contributing to the creation of better products.

Bertrand A. Damiba, group product manager at Google Assistant, and Alana Conner, staff UX researcher, Assistant Foundations at Google, will discuss the importance of Product Inclusion, and why it's crucial to think critically about how things are created and shared on the platform.

Finally, Ashwin Karuhatty, Cloud Database Partnerships at Google, and Sofia Altuna, Host of VOICE Talks will look back at the past year and make announcements for the year ahead.

Subscribe to watch the next episode of VOICE Talks live on June 24 at 2 p.m. ET. Previous episodes can be viewed on the VOICE Talks Youtube channel.