C A S E S T U D Y
T E C H , S O C I A L, AND H I G H E R E D SECTORS
Black Women Business Network (BWBN) and British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)
Black Women in Tech Project
BWBN and BCIT engaged Impact Plus to identify, map, and engage tech stakeholders to co-create collaborative and impactful solutions for the federal government-funded Black Women in Tech project.
The desired outcomes were to:
Identify root causes and map key players in the tech ecosystem.
Engage tech leaders and organizations and raise awareness on key issues.
Build commitment and establish partnerships to successfully implement interventions.
Develop a compelling vision for the future and co-create priority interventions, and
Design an implementation plan that reflects stakeholders' input.
O U R A P P R O A C H
Impact Plus engaged tech stakeholders through various innovative methods. First, we invited tech stakeholders to participate via BCIT's Thought Exchange, a digital engagement platform to share their input online.
These insights fed into three interactive co-creation workshops. Participants included over 20 leaders from tech organizations such as Amazon Canada, Microsoft, X-Box, UBC, Panache Ventures, Capilano University, Futurepreneur Canada and several tech firms.
We facilitated solutions-focused conversations through empathy and journey-mapping exercises. This helped build a deeper understanding of the root causes and challenges Black women face while completing a degree, landing a tech job, or raising capital for a tech-focused business.
A major engagement highlight was designing and facilitating the first Black Women in Tech storytelling event at BCIT's Tech Collider in downtown Vancouver. The event featured real, live stories of Black women in tech, music performance, and live spoken-word poetry. To build buy-in shared accountability, we brought together members of the tech and Black communities to dialogue on key challenges and actions to address gaps identified from earlier engagements. Their insights helped inform the implementation plan.
Engaging tech stakeholders digitally and through storytelling
R E S U L T
Making it easier to attract and engage more Black women in tech with a clear action plan
We found that Canada's tech sector has a 3x opportunity to recruit and retain Black female talent. So, we facilitated visioning workshops to co-create an implementation plan and priority interventions, in collaboration with BWBN and BCIT.
The implementation plan is already being executed successfully.
Initiatives will help increase awareness of existing resources among Black women and communities. The plan also includes solutions that make it easier for tech organizations to find, attract, engage, and retain more Black women in Canada's fast growing tech sector.
E N G A G E M E N T H I G H L I G H T S
200+
Stakeholders Engaged
across tech organizations and Black community participants
3,000+ Social Media Impressions
post-storytelling event engagement on LinkedIn
100% Partner Support
on the implementation plan for Black women in tech initiatives
“The Impact Plus team is a superb consulting team and one of the best workshop facilitators I have worked with!
Thank you for supporting the Black Women in Tech Project and for enabling the project to reach significant milestones.”
Pasima Sule
Executive Director and Founder
Black Women Business Network (BWBN)
“The team at Impact Plus is outstanding, and they are one of the most impactful consultancies I have had the pleasure to work with.
From stakeholder engagement to strategic planning, they cover all the bases for organizations looking for results. ”
James Rout
Associate Vice-President
Education Support and Innovation
British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)