Skift Take
Washington, D.C. is promoting its high degree of inclusivity and diversity in the region's tech sector, compared to the national average, as a competitive advantage to attract more technology conventions and drive long-term economic growth for a broader cross-section of local communities.
Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is the driving force behind the city's new "Inclusive Innovation" marketing and economic development strategy, which positions the racial and gender diversity in the region's tech sector as a competitive advantage to attract outside tech companies and talent to the city.
The strategy is integrated with the mandates for Destination DC and Events DC — the two organizations responsible for growing meetings and conventions in the District. Since late last year, they have been repositioning the city as a mature technology capital to target meeting planners working in tech-related industries ranging from advanced manufacturing to aerospace.
The global, semi-official launch of the Inclusive Innovation campaign took place at last week's South by Southwest Conference (SXSW) in Austin, where the Washington, D.C. delegation was headquartered inside the pop-up WeDC House located across from the Austin Convention Center. The venue provided a high-profile experiential marketing platform for government officials and representatives of the city's tourism, convention, creative, tech, academic, cultural, and media segments to present a unified message — placed on the front of the building — stating: "Everyone is Welcome in Our House."
During SXSW, Mayor Bowser unveiled two new organizations that the government is supporting to increase exposure on the importance of racial and gender equality nationwide. One is the Inclusive Innovation Incubator (In3), promoted as "D.C.'s first co-working, training and incubator space intentional about diversity." The other is the Beacon initiative, billed as: "A campaign to make Washington, D.C. the most supportive ecosystem for women entrepreneurs in the United States."
Mayor Bowser, who is a female African American, referred to herself as a "chick mayor" who's proud to lead the city's Inclusive Innovation mission as a model for the rest of the nation.
"We're being very intentional about making sure we are a city that is diverse and inclusive, and we invest in and preserve those values in everything that we do," she said at WeDC House. "We're not going to be Silicon Valley, and we don't want to be. We're not Boston and some of those other cities. We're unique. We're special. And we look at those qualities that make us special and unique as strengths, and we're going to double down on them."
Pathways to Inclusion
There are multiple political, social, and economic factors behind th
