What can I expect at the 2025 Out in Tech Leadership Institute?
Two days. Big ideas. Tailored content. No fluff. Captivating keynotes, winning workshops, thought-provoking panels, noncompetitive networking, and collaborative cohorts tailored to help LGBTQ+ professionals thrive in the tech industry. Check out what it looked like last year!
🚀 Day 1 (10-5p): Engaging keynotes, hands-on workshops, and panels with C-level executives, all designed to sharpen your leadership skills.
🌟 Day 2 (10-5p): Deep-dive cohort sessions, real-world application, and a final panel – plus a celebration with your new community.
Learn to hone your leadership skills as a manager or an exec, foster collaborative and innovative teams, leverage AI's impact, make confident decisions during uncertain times, find mentorship and community, and level up your career. Check out a breakdown of each's days content below!*
*Schedule subject to change
Check in at our main venue on 300 Jay Street to get your conference credintials, enjoy some morning coffee and snacks, and meet other attendees. A perfect opportunity to start connecting with your cohort!
As AI, automation, and emerging tech reshape how we lead, hire, and collaborate, today’s leaders must adapt faster than ever to stay ahead. This fireside chat brings together innovators, executives, and futurists to explore how technology is redefining the future of work—from hiring and upskilling to decision-making and team dynamics.
Join us for a forward-thinking conversation on what it takes to lead in a tech-transformed workplace. We’ll dive into:
- How AI and automation are reshaping leadership, productivity, and team structures
- How companies are leveraging tech in hiring, learning, and workforce strategy
- The ethical and policy implications of rapid innovation
- What leaders need to do now to prepare their organizations—and themselves—for what’s next
Whether you’re building tools, leading teams, or navigating change, this session will give you actionable insights to lead with clarity, responsibility, and vision in the age of transformation.
Take a break, stretch your legs, connect on the content you just experienced, go outside and touch grass: this time is yours!
Do you feel nervous before presenting? We’ve got you!
You are powerful and amazing. Connect to your authentic queer leadership voice and gain skills to lead in any speaking situation - whether an investor pitch, client meeting or interview. In this interactive workshop, you’ll walk away with practical trauma-informed embodied techniques and creative practices on how to develop your public speaking voice. Your guide Melissa Andrada (mel - they/she) will share hard-earned and heartfelt wisdom on speaking on stage as a survivor of Big T trauma and once painfully shy kid who went to become the CEO of a global collective focused on mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.
The aspiration is to create a safe, supportive environment for all speakers, regardless of experience level or background.
Lunch - Refuel and recharge
We don't rise by climbing ladders - we rise by tapping into our zone of genius and bringing that whole self into the room. Merilou shares how she went from a DIY musician to designing in tech - not by following a blueprint but by choosing presence, alignment and purpose. With heart and clarity, she brings it back to this truth: the key to unlocking your most authentic path is to find what you love and let it be the light you follow.
In a world that’s noisier than ever—online and off—staying memorable and building a personal brand isn’t optional, it’s essential. Sr. Creative Strategist at Braze, Ishan Sharma, shares how embracing his identity and creative instincts helped unlock visibility, business impact, and a brand that actually feels like him. Blending strategy and soul, this session will leave you with practical tools to show up fully—without shrinking yourself or selling out. Whether you’re job searching or future-proofing your career, you’ll leave with the clarity and confidence to market an uncompromised you.
Take a break, stretch your legs, connect on the content you just experienced, go outside and touch grass: this time is yours!
Let’s face it: Prioritizing self-care, setting boundaries, and safeguarding your mental health can be uniquely challenging when you’re an LGBTQ+ tech leader. In this highly engaging and interactive workshop, you’ll debunk common self-care myths, redefine what well-being looks like for you, and walk away with practical tools to protect your mental health. You’ll leave with greater clarity, increased confidence, and actionable strategies to protect your peace as you advance in your career as an LGBTQ+ leader.
Too often, the skills that help us lead with authenticity—empathy, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution—are dismissed as “soft,” as if they’re less valuable or easier to master. But for many LGBTQIA+ leaders and professionals, these skills are survival tools. Navigating bias, building trust, and creating safe spaces require strength, self-awareness, and resilience.
Cass Cooper unpacks why these people-centric skills are not just hard to master—they’re also deeply strategic. Drawing on personal stories, audience interaction, and data (including the World Economic Forum’s 2030 skills forecast), explore how traits like adaptability, care, and clear communication are reshaping what leadership looks like today.
This session is a call to reclaim and reframe these skills—not as “soft,” but as essential leadership tools that often come from lived experience at the margins. You’ll leave with practical strategies to grow these capabilities in yourself and your teams, and the confidence to lead in ways that reflect who you truly are.
Take a break, stretch your legs, connect on the content you just experienced, go outside and touch grass: this time is yours!
Join Wall Street Journal & USA Today Best Selling author, Mita Mallick, for an intimate fireside chat about toxic leadership and how to avoid it. Drawing from her highly anticipated new book, The Devil Emails at Midnight: What Good Leaders Can Learn, Mallick shares research and real-world examples of how poor leadership erodes trust, stifles creativity, and drives talent away. Learn to identify toxic management patterns, from midnight emails to microaggressions, and discover practical strategies for building inclusive, psychologically safe environments where teams flourish. Walk away with actionable approaches for protecting company culture and transforming negative leadership dynamics into positive change.
Moderated by Elaine Montilla
Get settled, get connected, get caffinated, and get ready! Each cohort will have its own meeting space.
In these small-group sessions, attendees will dive into the principles of Conscious Leadership to build greater self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and clarity in their leadership style. Through Executive-led exercises, peer dialogue, and real-world scenarios, participants will gain practical tools to lead with intention and integrity, especially in times of complexity and change.
By the end of the session, each attendee will walk away with a personalized Leadership Action Plan they can immediately apply in their work and communities.
A break is built in to this session.
Lunch - Refuel and recharge
In these small-group sessions, attendees will dive into the principles of Conscious Leadership to build greater self-awareness, emotional intelligence, and clarity in their leadership style. Through Executive-led exercises, peer dialogue, and real-world scenarios, participants will gain practical tools to lead with intention and integrity, especially in times of complexity and change.
By the end of the session, each attendee will walk away with a personalized Leadership Action Plan they can immediately apply in their work and communities.
A break is built in to this session.
Break and Travel - Head back to our main venue at 300 Jay Street for our all-star closing panel!
Back by popular demand, this closing panel brings together a powerhouse lineup of queer executive leaders for an honest, insightful, and energizing conversation. From navigating their paths to the top to reshaping company culture from the inside out, these executives will share the lessons they’ve learned, the barriers they’ve broken, and the visions they hold for the future of leadership.
Expect real talk, actionable advice, and inspiration from leaders who are queering the boardroom, and making space for the next generation to rise.
