‘Community’ has been diluted - but it matters more than ever

Anything can become a buzzword in commercial industries. And in tech, ‘community’ has become just that. It’s thrown around in marketing lingo constantly; hailed as the single most reliable way to sell products and build success. 

At LEAP, we talk about community all the time. But in an industry that has diluted the notion of togetherness and often reduces it to a sales-based social media group, we think it’s important to be clear about what community means to us. 

And we’ll be honest: yes, the global community that’s growing around LEAP helps us to promote the event and sell tickets. But that’s not what we mean when we urge leaders in the tech industry to embrace the power of community, because there’s a deeper purpose behind our work – and it’s that purpose that drives our ambition to build a thriving, engaged, collaborative and very international tech community. 

What’s our deeper purpose? 

We understand that technology will shape the future of humanity. It’s going to be central to how we live on this planet, and how we explore other worlds. And it’s going to play an ever more essential role in social relationships, and in local and global economies. It’s going to change everyone’s lives – so in order to benefit from the development of emerging technologies, everyone needs to be involved in the conversations that direct the future of tech. 

That’s our purpose. To involve as many people as possible, from diverse backgrounds and demographics, in the development of technology. We want to facilitate knowledge-sharing within this industry and across industries, and provide a platform for researchers and activists with specialised knowledge to speak directly to the most influential companies and leaders in tech. 

We want the tech industry to thrive. But we want it to thrive in a way that allows the entire population of the world to thrive, too. 

If that sounds a bit over-ambitious, that’s because it is. But through the power of real community, we think it’s possible. 

Because community is key to sharing knowledge and understanding each other

For us, the community we’re building at LEAP is about: 

• Bringing in diverse voices and making sure every individual with something to say feels confident that everyone within the community wants to hear them.
• Showing the most influential players in the industry why it’s important to integrate those voices into their work – by connecting pioneering research and knowledge with business value.
• Cultivating a long view, in which everyone’s focused not just on next year’s profits, but on what it’ll be like to be alive in one, or two, or five decades from now.
• Enabling the development of tech that has a positive impact on societies and environments by giving a platform to the most relevant research. 

Community is about working together, lifting each other up, and creating space for collaboration and co-operation. That’s what we’re working towards. We’re already seeing the impact across the tech industry – and we want that impact to expand beyond tech and into everyday life around the world.