>> From Santa Clara, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley, it's theCUBE covering Technovation's World Pitch 2018. Now, here's Sonia Tagare. >> Hi, welcome back. I'm Sonia Tagare here with theCUBE in Santa Clara, California covering Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018. A pitch competition in which girls develop apps in order to create positive change in the world. This week 12 finalist teams are competing for their chance to win the coveted gold or silver scholarships. With us today from Mexico we have Edutec and they're consisted of Miriam, Angelica, Luna, and Medina. We have then Luzdhy Huerta and Citalli Ruiz Puga, Ivana Michelle Orozco Lopez, Cesar Valdez, Consuelo Sarahi Checa Navarro, and Vanessa Dinorah Perez Ramirez. Congratulations and welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> So your app, Care For Me, tell us more about that. >> Who wants to tell? Well, this application, Care For Me, is an app that is focused on the caregiver of a patient with Alzheimer. That normally turns out one person in the family. So during the process of the Alzheimer disease, it's a very difficult situation for all the family. But when they developed the application, they started thinking of the caregiver because sometimes they lost in all the disease. So they developed the application so the caregiver has more support and tools in order to provide very good care for the patient, and as well for themselves. >> And what was the inspiration to create this app? >> Somebody wants to answer that? What is the inspiration? >> My teammate Tivana had a grandma who suffered this disease, so we inspire in this case. >> Well, that's wonderful that you're doing that, and I'm sure it's going to help a lot of people. So what made you join Technovation? (speaks in foreign language) >> Let me just translate it? >> Sure. >> They knew about Technovation because an invitation from the university that we all belong that is (speaks in foreign language). And they mentioned that there were some courses about technology, especially for the science mobile application. (speaks in foreign language) >> Then they mentioned when the course was starting, they informed what is Technovation about, and they know that they have to develop an application with a social impact, so they have to attack some problematic they see in their communities. And then they get very excited to help people, to help another. And at that time, that's where they knew each other because they didn't previously know each other before the competition. >> So how did you all meet? And how did you decide to make this team? (speaks in foreign language) >> So the course is offered by the University of Guadalajara. We offer app inventor and marketing, we brought some experts after some courses. Roughly December, the girls all got together, they didn't know each other, and they decided to form a team, and we're here now, right? (laughs) >> And what are you most excited about for this competition? (speaks in foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) >> She's saying that... Sorry. She's saying that the most exciting about all this and working together is about the opportunity to help other people, and have an impact, and that's why they enjoy working together. >> That's so inspiring. So how do you think Technovation is helping the larger girls in tech conversation? (speaks in foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) >> She's saying that the most impact that they have about these kind of programs is about getting all the fears that you think you have that may be stopping from doing something, so you have to believe that you can to solve all these fears. >> That's awesome. (laughs) So who do you think is the team to beat? Who's the competition? (speaks in foreign language) (speaks in foreign language) >> I think the focus of Technovation is to not pit girls against each other, but to work on themselves and on their project, and hope for the best, I guess. (laughs) >> That's a wonderful perspective to have on this. I want to thank you all so much for being on theCUBE, and congratulations on becoming a finalist, and good luck on your pitch tomorrow. >> Thank you. >> We're here at Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018 here in Santa Clara, California. Stay tuned for more. (upbeat music)

>> Announcer: Live, from Orlando, Florida it's the Cube, covering Grace Hopper's Celebration of Women in Computing, brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media. >> Welcome back to the Cube's coverage of the Grace Hopper Conference, here at the Orange County Convention Center. I'm your host, Rebecca Knight. We're joined by Maureen Fan. She is the CEO and co-founder of Baobab Studio, which is the industry's leading VR animation studio, so, welcome Maureen. >> Thank you so much for having me. >> It's excited to talk to you, because you just won an Emmy. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> You just won an Emmy for "Invasion", so, tell us a little bit about invasion. >> It was our first piece ever and it was just an experiment to see if we could even create VR and it's a story about these adorable little bunnies and you are actually a bunny too, you look down, you have a furry, little bunny body and these aliens that come to try to take over the Earth, with their advanced technology and you and your bunny friend end up saving the entire Earth and it's starring Ethan Hawk and it just came out last year. And we're really excited, because it became the number one top downloaded VR experience across all the headsets and it's getting turned into a Hollywood Feature Film. >> Very cool, very cool >> Thank you. >> And you have another film coming out too and this is "Rainbow Crow" >> Yes. >> Tell our viewers a little bit about "Rainbow". >> So, "Rainbow Crow" is based off of a Native American legend about how the crow used to have beautiful rainbow feathers and a beautiful singing voice and it's John Legend, in our piece and how he decides to sacrifice himself, by flying into the sun to bring warmth and fire back to the Earth and in the process, loses all his beautiful feathers, becomes black and burnt and his voice becomes like the crow's voice, but it's about how beauty is within and there's also, huge themes about diversity and how if you learn to accept yourself and your differences, that's when you can accept others and that's why we specifically cast minorities and women, so, we have John Legend, Constance Wu, from "Fresh off the Boat" as a skunk character, Diego Luna, from "Rogue One", for the moth character, as well as Randy Edmunds, as a Native American elder, narrator, and we have a whole bunch of other stars to announce, soon-- >> Well we cannot wait to hear. That's already an amazing line-up. >> Thank you. >> So, when you're thinking about "Rainbow Crow" and particularly, because it's VR, which is relatively new, still experimental, I mean, the messages of diversity, does it lend itself to VR, better than, say, a standard animation film? >> Absolutely, because if you think about stories that you just watch passively, the reason why we need stories and humanity, in general is to experience characters and stories beyond those we can experience in our real lives and we think, "Oh, how would I feel if I was in the "position of that character or what would I do?" but in VR, because you are actually playing a character in a role, you actually have to decide at that point, "what would I do?" so, it's not just a experience that I just see, it's one where I'm actively experiencing it, so, I create a memory and remember afterwards and there's all these research studies at Stanford by Jeremy Bailenson, who is head of the Stanford VR lab, that shows if you are made a homeless person, inside a VR experience and you have to go through a day in the life of a homeless person or you would look in the mirror and see that you are a black woman, that you, when you get out of the headset, you act completely differently. You have so much more empathy for these people than you would normally and so, it gets you to care about these characters, in a way that you don't normally and in VR, because you're doing it in a real-time game engine, these characters can act and react to what you do, so you can turn that empathy into action and actually act upon your caring, which we call compassion, so, it really changes you in a way, that normal, traditional story-telling doesn't, so, I think that having voices and characters that are different, in front of the screen, and also, behind the screen are really important to create role models and different perspectives for all the people out in the world. >> And these are movies that are targeted at kids, children, but do you see a future in which, where there is more targeted at adults, for VR? >> Absolutely. The funny thing is, in the beginning, the VR distributors didn't think that people would want our VR animation, because they're like, "Oh, it's just going to be these hardcore boys "that just love to play games. "Are they going to want this animation?" and VR is targeted towards adults, that's why they were surprised and we were surprised when "Invasion" became the number one downloaded VR experience. It shows that the audience for our content is from little kids to grandmas and everyone in between and that's probably why it became the top downloaded experience, is because it's universally appealing and has themes that are appealing to just, every single generation, so, absolutely, but for VR to become mainstream, there needs to be more universally appealing content. Right now, the content tends to be for games, like parkour games, as well as documentaries, which are two amazing pieces of content for this medium, but for it to become mainstream, we need more universally appealing content and I'm excited about, right now, it's a new industry. This is when minorities and women in particular, can enter the space and help shape the voices and the direction of the industry. >> That is exactly where I wanted to go next. So, let's talk a little bit about Baobab Studio. It's not that old and VR is not that old and so, why are there more opportunities, would you say, for women, and minorities? >> Well, if you look at traditional animation in the traditional entertainment fields that's a very mature industry and to break into that industry, you have to either have lots and lots of money or unfair distribution advantage, but VR, there's technological disruption, which means nobody has an advantage at all, means it's a level playing field and everybody can come in and start something, so, this is a perfect opportunity, when there's low barriers to entry of coming in, for women and minorities, anyone who wants their voice heard, to start companies or to make experiences and we can set the groundwork, because there's no one telling us what we can and can't do, because no one actually knows what we can and can't do yet. >> Right, right, but yet you are still of a female, asian figurehead of a studio, that will hopefully, someday be a major studio. You're working on it, but do you find that people take you as seriously in Hollywood? I mean, what are you coming up against? >> Well, it's really interesting, because I heard for even fundraising is one of the hardest parts of starting a company and there was a Stanford Research Study that showed that if you took a deck, a pitch deck for a company and you had a male voice-over versus a female voice-over the male voice-over was, I don't remember what, it was like 50% more likely to get funded than the woman with the same exact pitch deck, so I knew from that and they also show that if you are married and wear a ring you're taken more seriously, or if you're less attractive, also, you're taken more seriously and my hypothesis and some of the hypotheses out there, is it takes away the whole entire female attraction thing, like what does it mean to be an attractive female, so, I had to go into the meetings, knowing this. I even considered wearing a ring. I considered wearing a paper bag over my head. >> A bag over you head. Exactly, exactly. >> But at the same time I felt that I need to be myself and the best thing to, there's a correlation between the perceived leadership and confidence, that I needed to just go in there and be confident in myself so, I knew that, that could work against me, but I just needed to be myself, but I had to make sure that I was really confident and really believed in what I said and honestly, besides being confident and aggressive, I also, felt comfortable, because a lot of the people I talked to, I knew from my network and I had many of my male friends and female friends who knew these VC's, do the initial introduction, so I felt more comfortable going in, for them already knowing that I had somebody else saying that I was awesome. >> Yeah, and you've had many mentors and sponsors along the way too. >> Absolutely, I would say it's one of the most important things, for my career from the very beginning. When I graduated from business school, I actually emailed my mentors and said, "Here are the things I care about for finding a job." I didn't have to go find any jobs. They actually found all these jobs. for me, set up informational interviews, for me and I just went in and did it, all the informational interviews, got the offers and just choose one of them that I wanted to be in but, even for starting my company, my co-founder, Eric Darnell was a write and director of all four "Madagascar" films and I got introduced to him, through my mentor, Glen Entis who is the co-founder of PDI Dreamworks Animation and he was my mentor through Zynga and then, Gen Entis introduced me to Alvy Ray Smith, who is the co-founder of Pixar, who also became our advisor, Alvy Ray Smith, then introduced us to Glen Keane, who is the animator for "Little Mermaid", "Alaadin". >> The power of networks. >> It was all through the network and through my mentors that I found, a lot of the opportunities that I have and they also helped my through my personal life and how to navigate being entrepreneur and I rely on them so much. >> So, beyond finding the right mentor and sponsor what else would you give, your parting words to the young Maureen fans out there? >> I think there's a tendency for society to pressure you to conform, to money, fame, beauty and you don't need to listen to that and you don't need to be bucketed. I designed my own major at Stanford and with an eBay, I took four different roles. I just kept on creating my own roles and refusing to be bucketed as a creative or a suit and you can be who you are and create a category onto yourself and so, don't feel pressured to listen to what society is telling you. The other thing, is if you are faced with pushed back for being promoted and you feel like it's maybe because you're a woman, we have a tendency as women to start blaming ourselves and thinking there's something wrong with us, versus research shows men are most likely to blame the system, don't let it affect you and bring you down, because you need to actually be confident and believe in yourself in order to rise above. >> Great. Great advice. Maureen, it's been a pleasure having you on the show. Thanks so much. >> Thank you. >> And best of luck to you. >> Thank you, so much. >> Hope you win another Emmy. >> Thank you. >> Come back and talk to us again. >> Thank you. I'm Rebecca Knight, we'll have more from Grace Hopper, just after this. (techno music)

>> Hey, welcome back everybody, Jeff Frick here with theCUBE. We're in downtown San Francisco at the Professional BusinessWomen of California Conference. It's the 28th year, Jackie Speier started it a long time ago and now it's grown to 6,000 people. It's a pretty amazing conference, it crosses all indrustries and actually a lot more than California as well. And we're excited to actually have somebody to come talk to us about the conference itself. It's Deepti Srivastava, she's a Project Manager of Google Cloud from Google. Great to see you again, last we saw you, I looked it up was 2014 >> I know. >> at Topcoder Open. >> Indeed. >> And you were doing great work then, you were on a panel with a bunch of high school girls. I remember they'd bust in a couple of busloads of high school girls and you and a couple other mainly young professional women talkin' to 'em about the life of an engineer. So you're still doin' good things. >> I hope so. (laughs) >> Absolutely. >> I hope so, yeah, it's a passion of mine and I'm really happy to bring it to something like PBWC where I'm on the board. And we do a bunch of work across industries and across all levels. PBWC's mission is to work for gender equity and equal pay for women across all industries and in all professional settings. >> Right. >> That includes young professionals, as well as the pipeline of professionals coming in. >> That's terrific. So we could talk about your day job all day long. (Deepti laughs) Google Cloud's kickin' tail, you guys had your big conference a couple weeks back-- >> Here in fact. (chuckles) >> Here in Moscone West, right? >> Yeah. >> But in terms of what you're doing here with PBWC, give us a little bit of the history. So we know it was started by Jackie Speier, I think you said 1988. >> Yeah. >> That's just amazing. >> I know. >> Obviously it's much more than California. >> Yeah. >> But what is the top-level mission and how has the conference evolved over the last several years? >> So Professional BusinessWomen of California, as you said was started by Congresswoman Jackie Speier and Judy Bloom, who's a co-founder. And we still exist and we've been doing this for so long and we really care about our mission, which is to work for basically gender equity and equal pay as I said, for all professional settings for women. And in this particular case, this conference we are talking about inclusion. And we chose this theme because we really think it's pertinent to what's going on right now in the world and in our country. And we, PBWC, believe that the things that unite us, the potentials and aspirations that unite us are greater than our differences and things like that. So we want to make a statement and really address the inclusion work that we do, and the inclusion work that's required for all of us to really move forward as a country and as a people. And if you look at our lineup of speakers today, we really do walk the talk that we're talking about. We have amazing speakers today with Rosario Dawson to Taraji P. Henson and all the way to Secretary Clinton who's closing out our day today, we are so excited to have her. And there's nobody better to represent breaking the glass ceiling than she has so we're very excited to hear. >> And what a get, I think I heard that it's her first public speaking engagement post the election. >> Yeah, I know. And it's very exciting because again, I think we're all about coming together and rallying and being a force for good. The conferences, that's our aim ultimately as an organization. And having her here to give her speech, first public appearance after the election last year, very exciting I think. >> Right, right. >> And we're very excited to hear from her. I'm already inspired by the thought that she's going to be here. >> And really a big part of the theme was kind of the strategy work is done, everybody knows it's good. Now it's really time for the rubber to hit the road. It's about execution and about taking steps and measuring. And a lot of the real concrete, nuts-and-bolts activities that need to happen to really move this thing down the road. >> You mean like gender equity and-- >> Yeah, yeah. >> Yeah, absolutely. I think it's been a topic for awhile and I think, exactly, we need to have the rubber hit the road, we have to get together, we have to have actionable plans and that's what a bunch of our seminars today talk about. How to address those things in your, we really want to empower women and actually people of all backgrounds and ages and all sorts of people to take charge of their own lives. And especially, we are a professional women conference so that's kind of where we focus our messaging. But really we want women to take control of their own lives and we want to give them the tools, the networking opportunities, the inspirations to meet their aspirations in those fields. And so we want them to take charge and move forward by themselves, take away from here and go back to your job, to your work, to your home, to really bring your messaging forward. Take inspiration from here and bring it back to your life. >> Right, and I think Bev Crair, in the keynotes said, "Fill your well today." >> Yeah. >> 'Cause as soon as you leave here it's back to the grind and you're going to need that energy. So while you're here surrounded by this energy and your peers, take it all in and load up. >> Absolutely. And I also want to say that we started out as a conference, an annual conference, and that's definitely our marquee thing that we do every year. But we actually have a lot more offerings that people can continue to engage over the year. So we have webinars and seminars that people can attend, there's community events that happen here. And you can go to the PBWC website and see what all offerings we have. But we want people to engage and we want to be able to provide them with the means to engage throughout the year, not just here but take this, everything you get today and then take it along the rest of the year and recharge yourself. >> It's kind of this whole 365 concept which we talk about on theCUBE a lot too, 'cause we go to so many shows. And there's a huge investment of time and energy and money on those two or three days, but how do you extend that out beyond the show? How do you build the excitement leading into the show so it's not just a one time kind of a shot, then everything goes back to normal? >> Yeah exactly, I think that's exactly the point, that this is not just a one day, you go there, you get inspired and then what next, right? >> Right. >> There's something you can go back to with our various offerings and continue your learning journey if that's what you want, or networking journey if that's what you want to do. Wherever you are in your career, we actually have a Young Women's Professional Summit that I have the honor of chairing, that we have every year and it's meant to help young professional women navigate their way from being in college and high school and those entering a professional life so as I said, we want to cater to all levels and all ages and all sorts of challenges that people face as they're going through their professional careers. >> So that's a separate event? >> It is, it is an annual conference. >> And when is that? Give a plug. Or do you have a date? (Deepti chuckles) >> Yeah, we don't have a date yet but it's going to be in the summer. >> In the summer, okay great. Well I think when we met last, I thought that was such an important piece of that Topcoder Open because it wasn't the Sheryl Sandbergs or the Hillary Clintons or these super mega top-of-the-pyramid people. It was a bunch of young professionals, one of the gals was still in school, hadn't finished graduating, to make it so much real for those high schoolers. They didn't have to look so far to say, "I could see myself, I kind of look like that person, "I kind of see things touch." >> And I think that's very important, Jeff. Exactly. It's very important and that's what we try to do here at PBWC as well. We want to go from catering to the Millennials and how we interact with them and all the way up to C-suite, we had a Senior Leadership Summit yesterday leading up to the conference today where we have a bunch of C-suites and CDOs, Chief Diversity Officers, come together and talk about trending topics and how to solve them. So we really are trying to move the needle forward on many fronts here, but our aim is all of that to culminate into moving women and people of all backgrounds forward. >> Right. And then there's this whole entrepreneurial bit which you can't see behind the camera, but there's booths all over for Intel and LinkedIn and Microsoft and the names that you would expect, Google of course, but there's also all the little boutiques, clothing stores and jewelry stores and crafty things. There's even of course women-focused snacks with the Luna Bars and I forget the other one. (chuckles) So it's kind of a cool entrepreneurial spirit kind of on top of everything else. >> Absolutely. And you know Jackie Speier, Congresswoman, started this conference to help women who were in the SMB, sort of SME market, basically women who ran small businesses. And we want to continue to do that as well but now of course the world is changing and we have a much more of a corporate presence and we want to help there too. But yeah, we pay homage to that by having women who are women entrepreneurs running women-focused businesses, and we have them here in the expo area if you can get a shot of that later. >> Right. >> The energy is palpable, the excitement is there and it's so great to be here and harness that, and take it back, I mean the first time I was here many years ago when I was not even on the board, I was just like, oh my gosh, there's so many women here who are like me or who are, they're people I could look up to all the way up to the C-suite who are making their presence felt here. And also all the people around me and like-minded, like me. So it's a really inspiring event. And I've been here for many years but I'm still inspired by it. So I'm so excited that we do this and continue to do this. >> So, little harder to question. So, and you've been doing this for awhile, what surprises you on the negative that still you know, you're still fighting that battle that you wouldn't have expected to still be doing? And then conversely what has surprised you on the positive, in terms of what's moved maybe further than you might've thought or faster than you might've thought? >> That's a good question. I think you already nailed it, right. The fact that we are still here talking about this is interesting to me, and as I got more involved in this kind of work I realized that people have been doing this for a long time. Congresswoman herself has been doing this for so long and a fearless advocate for women's rights and equal pay and diversity and inclusion. And the fact that we are still here, it is indicative of the fact that we need to have a groundswell movement in order to change policy. We can talk about it all we want but unless there's actionable things you can take away and really have that grassroots-level work to push the envelope forward, it's not going to happen. I think the positive is, as I've seen this conference over the years, it's grown. And it's gotten a lot more young people involved and it's not just the senior leadership that is trying to pull people forward, it's the people starting out early in their careers or mid-level in their careers that are looking at taking charge of their own destiny and pushing their agenda forward in this sense. They want, they're asking for equal pay. They're really engaged and aware. And conferences like PBWC actually help with that, getting those minds together and making things move forward. So I think from a positive side I'm really excited to see so many more people engaged in this fight. And the more people we have, the more we can actually make real progress and real inroads. >> And if you look back, as someone who's never been here and then they see this interview and they say, "This looks awesome, I'm going to sign up," what do you think the biggest surprise when they come for the first-timer? >> I'll tell you what I was surprised by, is seeing so many women together across industries, across ages, across backgrounds. Everybody together, really wanting to move forward. They're really wanting to engage, to connect with each other and to actually make a difference. People are here to make a difference, right? >> Right, right. >> And that's, to say that 6,000 people come together and really all of them have that same sort of mentality of like yes, I'm empowered to make a difference, is electrifying. >> Deepti, I love the energy. >> (laughs) Thank you. >> I love the energy, absolutely. >> It's all these people. >> It is. >> Trust me, I'm sleep deprived (Jeff laughs) with my very young son. So yeah, this is all the energy that I need to feed off of. >> No, it's good. And there is something special here. >> Mm-hmm. >> And you can feel it. 'Cause we go to a lot of shows, you go to a lot of shows. And again, it's not an exclusive tech show which is kind of nice 'cause we cross a lot of industries. But there's definitely, there's an energy, there's a vibe that comes from the little entrepreneurial outlets, it just comes from the, that room was packed. The keynote room was... >> I know. >> Was not fire marshal friendly. (Deepti laughs) Hopefully the fire marshal was not close by-- >> Yes, we had some discussion on that too. But to your point, this is one of the conferences that I've seen where we really, perhaps the only conference I've seen where we really cut across all industries. Because there's tech-focused, there's business-focused, there's all sorts of focused conferences trying to do either their professional work on technology or whatnot, or they're trying to solve the problem on the gender and diversity and inclusion piece in their own silos. And we try to cut across so that we can actually have a coming together of all of these various industries and their leaders, thought leaders, sharing ideas and sharing best practices so that we can actually all move forward together, I think that's again our Senior Leadership Summit which happened last night and the VIP reception which happened last night is all about getting those thought leaders together and getting them to share their best practices and ideas so that again, they can take it back to their companies and really move forward with DNI initiatives. >> It's action right, it's all about the action. >> Absolutely. >> So I promise next time that we talk, we'll talk about Google Cloud. >> Oh, sure. >> 'Cause that's hoppin'. (Deepti laughs) But it was great to see you and congratulations on all your work with the board and with your event >> Thank you. >> in the summer. People should go to the website, keep an eye out. >> Absolutely. >> It'll be comin' out. >> Yeah. >> So thank you. >> Thank you so much, it was great to see you too, Jeff. >> Absolutely. Alright she's Deepti, I'm Jeff, you're watching theCUBE. We're at the Professional BusinessWomen of California Conference. The 28th year, pretty amazing, 6,000 people. Here at Moscone West, thanks for watchin'. (upbeat techno music)