This is a guest post by The Chasing Grace Project’s Executive Producer & Director Jennifer Cloer, co-founder of Wicked Flicks and founder of reTHINKit PR. She has been identified as one of the most influential women in open source.
Today, I am pleased to announce Cloud Foundry Foundation is expanding its support for The Chasing Grace Project, which includes a screening at Cloud Foundry Summit Europe in Basel, Switzerland, this October, and the opportunity for sponsors of the Diversity Luncheon to contribute directly to the documentary series. The Chasing Grace Project is my six-episode documentary series about women in tech.
This year’s Diversity Luncheon sponsor will be directly supporting The Chasing Grace Project with the total amount of the sponsorship going towards production of the series. Sponsorship includes signage and verbal recognition at the popular Luncheon, as well as social media and blog campaigns from both the Foundation and The Chasing Grace Project. There are additional opportunities to support Chasing Grace above and beyond Cloud Foundry Summit — you can email me directly for more information.
The Chasing Grace Project aims to recruit and retain female talent for the tech industry and to give women a platform to be seen, heard and acknowledged for their experiences. This can be transformational for women and men who can gain understanding through watching stories of women who are rising above adversity to chart successful careers in tech. Story has been proven to be a compelling way to begin to shift culture. Companies interested in having a direct impact on this work can do so this year through their sponsorship of the Diversity Luncheon at Cloud Foundry Summit Europe.
The Cloud Foundry Foundation really stands out as one of our most strategic partners on this important work. Since the very first time I previewed the trailer with the Foundation’s Executive Director Abby Kearns, she and her team have been collaborators every step of the way. The Foundation was among the earliest to sign on as a nonprofit series sponsor, and both Abby and VP of Marketing Devin Davis attended our first premiere screening event in Portland. Marketing Communications Manager Caitlyn O’Connell, who heads up Cloud Foundry’s diversity work, has been a close collaborator and advocate for the partnership. This group’s support for the Project is so much more than PR; it’s the kind of support that is helping storytelling lead to action and change.
And we’re seeing that reverberate throughout the Cloud Foundry community. I attended Cloud Foundry Summit in Boston just a few months ago where we screened the first episode of The Chasing Grace Project at the Diversity Luncheon, followed by a Q&A onstage between Abby and myself. The room was packed and the Q&A didn’t stop until we had no choice but to move to the afternoon sessions. It’s this kind of engagement by both women and men that will translate conversation into progress.
While diversity and inclusiveness discussions have recently been met with some fatigue, it’s more critical than ever that we keep advancing constructive conversations and increasing understanding in order to build an inclusive future. We’ve only just begun to see progress after nearly a decade of headlines. The future depends on us.
