A Trip to AfroTech by Richard O. '28
My Recap of the AfroTech Conference in Houston
About a month ago, I left campus to take a little trip to Houston for this year’s Afrotech conference with MIT’s NSBE 01 National Society of Black Engineers - An organization that works to support the professional development of people who identify with the black community chapter, and after meeting so many cool and amazing people and learning about all the different ways that people are using AI in today’s world, I figured I’d share my experience here on the blog! For reference, AfroTech is an annual conference for students, companies, and professionals in the US that took place from Monday, October 27th to Friday, October 31st this year, and aims to celebrate and cultivate black talent across many different tech-based and professional industries worldwide.
Day 1:
So the whole trip started off on the Tuesday of that week with everyone leaving for the airport at 6 AM. Honestly don’t think there was another time I had woken up that early this semester and also don’t think I had ever seen/heard the city quite as peaceful as it was that morning:
Once we made it to the airport, we then picked up our tickets for our flight as everyone arrived in their Ubers, which was a fairly short process. From there, we filed through TSA and then made our way to our gate. Once we settled, everyone split up to grab breakfast from the different restaurants in Logan Airport as we waited for our flight.
Nome ended up getting special treatment and got wheeled through the airport since he had a boot on for his foot
The flight was around 4 hours, and we touched down in the city a little before noon. After we picked up our bags, we all booked group Ubers to our hotel, which was a really nice hotel but also fairly far from the airport. I had also never been to Houston before this, and seeing those wide 8,000-lane highways in real life, folding every which way over each other for the first time as we were driving was actually a shock to me.
Once we got to the hotel we actually had to wait a bit into the afternoon to check our stuff in so me and a group of others made a lunch trip to Chick-fil-A and then a quick Walmart run before calling it a day.
Day 2:
Next day started with my roommate and me getting up around 8 to head off to the convention center, but actually getting out of that large comfy hotel bed after months on my TwinXL dorm bed in the morning was a battle of its own😔. Eventually, we made it down to the lobby, where we met other NSBE members and booked our Ubers to the conference.
At long last, we finally arrived for the first of two days at the convention and were met with lots of lively energy and some huge AfroTech signs outside that were impossible not to take a picture with.
Me and my roommate!
From there, we headed to registration where we received our lanyards and wristbands to attend the different events, and kicked the day off by entering the huge career fair taking place on the first floor.
Probably one of the coolest event entrances I have ever seen
I should’ve grabbed more photos inside but there were tons of companies out explaining the different work that they do and the opportunities they offer, and I probably spent 80% of that entire day talking to different professionals and learning about all the different ways that they were using AI and machine learning in their businesses.
After my social battery was drained, I grabbed lunch with a friend at one of the many food trucks lined up right outside the conference center and it was at this point that I started to realize that Houston had an obsession with briskets and mac and cheese… One of the other people attending suggested we try this one food truck that turned their briskets and mac into a wrap and while it did end up being really good, it was the first in a long list of brisket-based food items that I would be having that week…
After eating, I then went back inside to go listen to some talks that were happening on the upper floors of the convention center. It was honestly hard to decide which talk to go to because there were always multiple happening at the same time that ranged from design talks, to AI talks, to startup talks, to finance talks, and I lowkey wanted to go to all of them…
I ended up trying to get exposure to a mix of different topics and started off with a talk that discussed the startup funding and investing process for people who want to be founders.
I then followed that one up with a panel discussion by Capital One that reviewed the future role of AI in the workplace.
And then finally, I wrapped the day up with a design talk from Apple on designing user interfaces that support accessibility.
From there, I found a few people who were pretty much done for the day and Ubered back to the hotel in the evening to finish up an assignment for a class I had that day.
Day 3:
Similarly to the day before, I started the third day of this trip fighting a war to get out of the hotel bed, but eventually got to the conference center fairly early and started the day off with a well anticipated talk in the largest ballroom room from the CEO of Microsoft AI where he talked about his experience with the company and where he and Microsoft believe AI is moving in the future. It was honestly one of my favorite events because it really opened my eyes to the opportunity that AI and ML have in the near future, and drew me to want to research the concepts even further.
After that, I began another round of talking to companies about AI/ML that I didn’t get to the day before. After a couple of hours of meeting some really amazing people in the AI development space, I finished off the career fair by making a circle through the different booths for free merch. I then got a text from my roommate who wanted to visit this one restaurant called Leeland House that was near the conference center for brunch. It was quite the walk but absolutely worth the trip. We both ordered this hot honey chicken biscuit plate, and goodness gracious was it delicious.
After absolutely crushing that plate, we walked back to the conference center and I decided to finish the day by attending a Google panel and then watching an interview with NBA player John Wall on his journey through life that was beautifully put together. I then ubered back to the hotel that afternoon when it hit me that I was actually in Houston now and could finally try a sandwich from the Houston Hot Chicken chain that I kept getting ridiculous ads for on Instagram despite being like 800 miles away in Boston. Ended up not being that bad though.
Now I can say I’ve tried hhc
Later in the night, we all decided to finish off the trip with a group dinner at this barbecue restaurant called J bar M. Unsurprisingly, everyone mostly got briskets and mac again, but I will say it was probably the best brisket and mac I had that week.
After the dinner, we returned to the hotel where my roommate and I started packing up for our upcoming morning flight.
Houston’s nighttime skyline might honestly beat Boston’s skyline
Day 4:
The next day was our last and started early with the flight back for my group taking off 8 AM. So we all met in the lobby around 6 AM and took our last Uber back to the airport with enough brisket in our stomachs to probably carry us through the whole day.
Roommate had some lobby dance lessons before heading out.
So like before, we picked up our tickets, made our way through TSA, and then waited by the gate to board our flight before finally returning to campus just in time for Halloween.
In the end, I truly had a great experience attending the conference for the first time, and I ended up making great connections with so many amazing students and professionals from all over the country. Having heard so many new things about the tools and opportunities out there, I’ve become a lot more excited to research artificial intelligence and machine learning tools and the potential they have for the future. Absolutely can’t wait to come back in future years to learn more!
- National Society of Black Engineers - An organization that works to support the professional development of people who identify with the black community back to text ↑