>> Announcer: From Santa Clara, California, It's theCUBE! Covering Technovation World Pitch Summit 2019. Brought to you by SiliconANGLE Media. Now, here's Sonia Tagare. >> Hi and welcome to theCUBE. I'm your host, Sonia Tagare, and we're here at the Oracle Agnews Campus in Santa Clara, California, covering Technovations World Pitch Summit 2019, a pitch competition in which girls from around the world develop mobile apps in order to create positive change in the world. With us today, we have a Technovation executive, Devin Dillon, who is the Senior Director of Partnerships at Technovation, welcome to The Cube. >> Thank you. >> So, before we start, for people who don't know, can you tell us more about Technovation World Pitch? >> Sure, so Technovation World Pitch is sort of the culminating event of a program that we run for young girls around the world. So we invite girls to solve problems in their community. This year, we had over 7,000 girls from 57 countries participating. So lots of girls with lots of ideas. And then this World Pitch is the culmination of that. So it's a competition, and our winners from around the world are invited to come here and share their ideas. And a really exciting part is they get to meet all of their peers that are also working on solving problems and exploring technology, so it's a really great week. >> That's awesome, and can you tell us more about how you got involved in Technovation, and what your role is at the company? >> Sure, so I got involved in Technovation about seven years ago, the program was small. It had just gone international. I think our first year, we had less than 10 countries that were participating, but I really liked the idea of putting education online, accessible to anybody. Anyone can lead it, and solve a problem in their community, and learn a little bit as they were doing that. So that's how I got involved. And then, the program has grown, and we now have this big celebration event. So it looks different, but yeah, that's how I got involved. >> And can you tell me more about your role? >> Sure yes. So, I lead the program. So we have two programs at Technovation. We have Technovation Girls, which this World Summit is the celebrating event for, then we have Technovation Families, which is an educational program for our younger audience. It invites families to solve problems with AI. So my role is really to make sure that our programs are awesome, and helping people to learn. Our resources are good, and we're supporting our leaders around the world. So, our Technovation team never actually leads programs, we invite everyone from around the world to lead the programs, so we do a lot of work to make sure that the quality is there, and that the programs are having a great impact on the kids. >> Wow, and I recently heard that Iridescent became Technovation, so can you tell us more about that change, and why that decision was made? >> Yeah, I'm happy to. So, like I mentioned, we have two flagship programs. They previously had names that were pretty different and our organization was called Iridescent. And Technovation, it was this program, it was like a program that had gotten a lot of global scale and participants. So much so, that when we would say Iridescent, people would recognize us. So we changed our overall organization name to Technovation, and this program is now called Technovation Girls. We challenge girls to solve a problem in their community, using coding, and create a mobile app and a business plan, and then our other program, Technovation Families, challenges families to solve a problem using AI. >> And so I heard the girls had an amazing week. What was the schedule like, who did they get to meet? >> Sure, so it's a busy week. We have flown in girls from all over to be able to see a little bit of the Bay Area, to be able to meet each other, so we have lots of activities. We've had field trips to a lot of tech companies, so we were able to visit Uber, we were able to visit Autodesk, Google Ventures, where the girls are able to see and hear from different mentors in the industry, meet people that are working on technology, ask the questions, and then the other component is we invite the girls to connect with each other. It's a powerful moment where we have a lot of girls representing different cultures and different ideas, so we have fun things like dance parties and opportunities for them to get to know each other also. >> That sounds like a really bonding sleep over. >> Yeah, we try to create that atmosphere. Of course the girls can be shy, and they're coming maybe the first time to the United States. Many of them, English is their third or their fourth language, so it can be a little scary at first, but I think by today, they have been able to hopefully create some lasting friendships. >> That's amazing, and along with the friendships, for the people who do win, what kind of prizes do they get? >> Yeah, so we are giving away this year, over $50,000 worth of prizes. $30,000 of that is scholarships so the students can continue their education since they're young girls, they're able to sort of put that to their education how they would like, and then another option is that they can continue developing their idea. So the girls have crated a mobile app and a business plan, and so they're able to continue developing that if they would like to. >> And do they have mentors guiding them through that? >> Yes, and the exciting thing is, a lot of the mentors are here. So the way that the competition works, is that the girls are working on their idea for many months. They are creating an idea, they're coding, they're learning a lot of different things, they can be creating business plans, and the mentors are really there to support them, to help them build a relationship with someone who's maybe in the tech industry, but also just someone to give encouragement and to help them work together on their problem. >> And have you seen an increase in participant in Technovation over the years? >> Yeah, so this year, like I mentioned, we had 7,000 participants, which is a large year for us. The past two years, we've had great growth, because the program is online, and it's freely accessible. We've really been able to see a lot of take up from different people around the world. >> What countries do you hope to reach to eventually? >> Yeah, good question. Well we had submissions from 57 countries this year, so you know, each year, the submissions kind of change. So we're growing in a lot of really exciting places, I always love to see ideas from all different areas of the world, so tonight, we have some great ideas represented from Nigeria, and Cambodia, and Bolivia, and Canada, like really right there, like lots of corners of the world, so it's always exciting to see. >> And like what criteria do finalists have to pass to make it to this stage? >> Yeah, good question. So they need to submit a lot of different things to be invited to the competition. So the girls really work on pitching their idea, because we know that if you have an idea, not just in technology, you need to be able to understand how to present it and develop you know a business plan, and how you want others to understand what you're doing. They have created a mobile app, so they've coded something. They've probably learned technology or some technology skills, and then, what are our other components. They like develop their idea. So a large part of it is really thinking of an idea, making it batter, developing an actual product, so. >> Wow, and how do you think Technovation is helping the overall girls in tech, women in tech community? >> Yeah, so we're hoping it could get girls interested. So our girls are young, but we really hope to spark an interest and get them involved in the community, hopefully, this is a step on their path. Maybe they will keep taking classes that are technology related, or maybe they'll make some friends that are into technology and form a community. Maybe they'll go to college for this. Maybe some of them will become computer scientists, or engineers, or someone in technology, so it's pretty open, we want to create problem solvers and problem solvers so a lot of different things in our world, including impact technology. >> And going off of that, are there any success stories that really stand out to you? >> Yeah, I'm trying to think of some girls from this year. I think what always stands out to me, from the girls, is that they aren't just building like a mobile app. A lot of them are collaborating with people in their community, with their governments, with different non-profits. So, one of the girls this year, she's working on opioid addiction, and she's been collaborating with a lot of researchers in different universities, she's been thinking about how to create a prototype. Another girl this year is working on supporting farmers and invasive species. So she's been working with different invasive species groups to understand how this program is affecting people, so I think it's always really fun to see how the girls are not just thinking about themselves, or collaborating just on their team, they're really thinking about their community and making an impact with different people and different groups. >> And how do you hope Technovations going to continue to improve and impact more girls? >> Well, I hope we continue to create girls that feel empowered to make the world better. Which you know, is idealistic, but I think that's power of education, is that you help people to think about how to make the world better at the end of the day, and I hope we're giving them those tools. Hope we continue giving them the tools to make their lives and their communities better. >> That's awesome, and thank you so much for being here. >> Devon: Sure, thank you so much. >> This is Devon Dillon, and I'm Sonia Tagare. Thanks for watching The Cube. Stay tuned for more. (upbeat funky music)

>> From Santa Clara, California, in the heart of silicone valley, it's The Cube, covering Technovations, World Pitch 2018. Now, here's Sonia Tegare. >> Hi, welcome back. I'm Sonia Tegare, here with The Cube in Santa Clara, California covering Technovation's World Pitch Summit 2018, a pitch competition for girls to develop applications in order to create positive change in the world. This week 12 finalist teams are competing for their chance to win the gold and silver scholarships. With us today, we have Team Join Us from Spain. We have Andrea Escortell, Ines Mut, and Amelia Gonzalez and with them we have their mentors. So, we have Josefa Ribes and we have Rosa Maria Bosch. Thank you for being on The Cube. >> Thanks to you. Thanks. >> So, I wanted to ask you, what is your app Join Us? >> It's for join old people and the young people because the old people live alone so he needs help and the young people need travel and visit new places, so the app, the app connect the people. >> Are there any personal connections or reasons why you decided to make this app? >> (speaking in foreign language) >> It's a problem. >> Because it's a general problem in the world. >> What made you decide to join Technovation? >> I showed the teacher the Technovation challenge and they are very excited they were very excited to participate because it's a very, very best thing for us because seeing how there are a lot of people that is alone in their house, and it's opportunity to solve a real problem. >> So how does the app work? How do you use it? >> (speaking in foreign language) >> The link is different for the interested parties. We did survey and that is necessary service of the local consul to guarantee and they will play our own for both parties. >> That's amazing. It's so inspiring to see you all work on this. Is this your first time to America? >> Yes. >> How are you liking it so far? >> Yes. >> Really like it? >> Yes. >> Well I want to thank you so much for being on the Cube, this app seems amazing and we hope you come on some other time. I'm Sonia Tegare, here with the Cube at Technovations World Pitch Summit 2018. Stay tuned for more.

>> 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 mobile apps in order to create positive change in the world. This week, 12 finalists are competing for their chance to win the coveted gold or silver scholarships. With us today from the state of Palestine, we have team TMWZ and that stands for Tamara Awaisa, and we have Masa Halawa, Wasan Al-Sayed, and Zubaida Al-Sadder, and their mentor is Yamama Mahdi Shakaa. Congratulations and welcome to theCUBE. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> So your app, Be a Firefighter, tell us more about that. >> Who want to start? >> Masa? >> So Be a Firefighter is a virtual reality game that provide awareness and entertainment to let users be more aware about the fire situation and be able to extinguish it and prevent fire from happening. >> That's awesome, and what was the reason that you decided to make this app? >> Several differents came to our school and visit us and they told us that there is a lot of fire accident. Because of fire accident, loses and destruction, and death, because of that we decide why we, why we want to (nervous laughter) solve this problem. Because of that we decided to make this app. >> That's wonderful. >> So what's the mission of your team? >> We want to help many people, so in the future we want to make it available in many devices and we want to spread it to all people to help them. >> Oh that's wonderful. (giggling) So why did you decide to join Technovation? >> We decided to join Technovation because we want to make a change in our own way and help others. So we find Technovation and we got into it. >> That's awesome, so did you find out online or did you find out through a chapter? >> We find it in our school. Our teachers told us about that challenge. >> And where do you hope to see this app in five years if you get funding? >> We want to make it available on the web, providing more level for all ages and allow the player to compete on social media like Facebook. Also we want to make a version for hospital and organization with more control that allows the the players to do the action with their hands. >> I hope you achieve that. >> Yeah we hope. >> What are you most excited about this week at Technovation? >> Actually for all of these tours, and the visiting Google and visiting NASA and today we visited Nvidia. We were so exciting, it's so amazing places and companies. And also we are so exciting for the presentation and the booth. We are practicing so much so yeah, this feels like. >> Very exciting. How did you all meet? >> And we want to represent Palestine well, so that's real exciting too. What's that again, yeah? Oh yeah, we meet in the school, we are in the same class at school and we are sitting next to each other. And we are friends from two years. >> Are you all in high school? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> Okay well thank you so much for being on theCUBE. I'm so excited for your app and I hope you see it in the App Store. (giggling) Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> We are here at Technovations World Pitch Summit 2018. I'm Sonia Tagare, stay tuned for more. (digital music)

(electronic music) >> Hello and welcome to the Cube conversation. I'm John Furrier here in the Palo Alto studios with two great guests, Tara Chklovski, who is the founder and CEO of Iridescent and Anar Simpson, global ambassador of Technovation. First, thanks for coming in today. I appreciate moving your schedules around to come in. Thanks for coming into our studio. >> You bet, yeah. >> So Sundar Pichai was at your event. That's the big story this past week has been the Google memo from a low level employee who wrote some things that got the whole world shaking around gender biases, role of women in tech, and as we do a lot of women in tech as you know at the Cube. Hundreds and hundreds of women in over the years, friends, and also smart people. This is a pretty big moment for you guys. You had an event at Google. Sundar canceled his all hands meeting to address this under fear of retaliation and safety but came to your event on the Google campus. Surprising to many, as written up on VCode and the Verge. Pretty notable. So tell us about what happened. >> So this was the 2017 Technovation world pitch competition and the award ceremony and Sundar came and he talked to a lot of the girls who were presenting their ideas to solve problems in their community and then he had a little bit of a one on one conversation to learn a little bit more about the kinds of problems, their interest in technology, entrepreneurship, and then he addressed the crowd of 900 plus supporters and really reemphasized that there's a place for women in technology, and more importantly, for him and Google, that there's a place for these girls at Google. >> Talk about your mission. >> Right, so Technovation's mission is to empower girls to become technology entrepreneurs and it's much more than just learning how to code. It's really about telling girls that if there's a problem in their community, technology can help them have a very powerful voice. We've been running for eight years and Anar is our global ambassador who has helped us grow to more than 100 countries, but Technovation's relationship with Google is eight years long. Google has supported Technovation, was the very first technology company to support Technovation way before any other company saw the potential and since then, since 2010, Google has provided funding, mentors, spaces, not just across the U.S. but globally. >> Is it beyond entrepreneurship and beyond coding? Talk about specifically what you guys are bringing to folks outside of Silicon Valley. >> Oh, sure, so my role as the global ambassador for Technovation is really getting to girls all over the world and saying to them, you need to be engaged in technology. And what we found, as Tara mentioned, we've been doing this now, I've been doing this now for five years, is that we're building a movement. We're bringing in girls, we're bringing in mentors, we're bringing in companies and governments together to make this a reality for girls in tech careers in their own countries. >> What's some examples during your life when you had those kind of change moments? >> I think Iridescent, we are now in our 12th year, and every couple of months, it's a change moment because it's a test of grit and just believing in yourself because I started it with just an idea and grew it to be an organization that's all over the world and it doesn't come with just full hearted focus and a lot of courage is what I've seen, I think. I've also seen that how much you are passionate about an idea really swings how the other person is thinking and so the idea only matters so much, I think, of course I mean the track record and everything has to be there, but I think a lot of it depends on your own passion for it and I think I've come to realize that passion is maybe proportional to the complexity and the impact of the problem you're trying to solve, so if you're only trying to solve a small problem, you lose interest in two years. And maybe that's why, I'm always curious, like why do so many start ups fail after two or three years? It's because maybe you came in not thinking that you're going to change the world, maybe you came in because you wanted to make quick money or exit or whatever and so I think for me, it's this is my life's work and we want to bring more underrepresented communities into innovation, and so it's not something that is going to be solved easily. >> Let's get back to the Sundar event that you guys were at because I think it's a good conversation to have because one of the things that came out of the brouhaha that became that memo really was a conversation publicly. Now, it's been polarized here. There's just kind of a hate kind of mindset with it most of the time, plenty of stuff on the internet to go read through but there was actually some good conversations in the industry. What was the conversation like during the event because this was in full conversation mode while you guys were having your 2017 world pitch competition, which he presided over and had a speech to the entrepreneurs. What was it like? What were some of the conversations that were taking place? >> I think the most powerful piece of the whole evening was really the girls walking in and seeing the incredible diversity that we have in this world, right? So we had girls from and mentors and supporters from over 30 countries and just them coming and waving the flags and different faces and different cultures all trying to make the world a better place, I mean it's rare that you see that using technology and I think it's very fitting that Silicon Valley is the center of this, but I think there was not one dry eye in the group because you realize, the conversation is so much bigger than one company, one country. It is something that affects us as all human beings and you're believing in human potential so I think seeing these young girls, some of them 10 years old, there was this, I think, maybe the crowd's favorite was these 10 year old girls from Cambodia who want to improve the lives of these people working in cottage industries, right, and they created an app like say Etsy or something, but focused on Cambodian products and the courage of these little girls, I think everybody walks away feeling, okay there's hope. Even in the midst of all of this discussion. >> Yeah it creates a lightning rod in some ways and hopefully it will move on to the substantive conversations. How do you guys feel about what happened and as you take this mission forward? You guys are doing some amazing work, we'll do a whole nother segment, I think, that's on that in a minute, but given the landscape now, how do you view this and how are you talking with friends and colleagues and family members around it because I've certainly had conversations with my friends, certainly on the east coast, like no, no, that's not the way Silicon Valley is. Google actually is a very cool company, it's not exactly like what you think it is. They're very open. They support a lot of great initiatives and they're candid. And then I go on and explain, it's like a university, serene little area, have this little ecosystem, that they've kind of built a university culture, if you will. But it is open and there's things that happen that get misrepresented and that was my take. That's for the folks that filmed at Silicon Valley. But what's your take? What do you think about what's happening? >> So this is really, really good that you brought up the university campus environment. So I have two girls. They're both millennials and they're both in the tech world and we have this discussion and here is the perfect answer, right. So one of my daughters, Kat, she said that when she read that, she thought it was basically a gathering of his thoughts and it was a gathering of his thoughts because he was probably asked to adhere to I&D staff that's going on in every company right now, right, and so it was a little bit of a, wait a second, you know. He wants to sort of respond to his being asked to go to I&D staff and then Katia said, but you know mom, it was just a gathering of his thoughts and this is an essay, and it was a poorly written one, and if I was grading it, I would give him a C minus. Then my older daughter said-- >> Host: I would have given him an F on that one. She's generous. >> Because he did, he tried to make it very professional and very academic and she said but it was a first draft, he has not, he didn't proceed to toughen it up, solidify it, find more evidence, have it critiqued. It was just a gathering of his thoughts and he hasn't gone through the presses and both these girls graduated from Berkeley and so I think they would know what a C paper looks like versus an A paper. And then my older daughter said, and the other thing is, you know, it's not like I&D efforts are actually bad but what we're trying to do is we're trying to condense the time in which we're trying to get women at equal pairing in the tech world. Now, you know women have never been at equal pairing in many professions. They were not enough doctors, lawyers, accountants, you name it, right? Main Street, Wall Street has never had equality. And now we're looking at technology and the reason everything just flairs up in technology is because we live in today's world where news and information is available all the time. So there's two things going on. Information is readily available. People can come into the conversation very quickly and whenever anything happens in Silicon Valley, the effect is massive because all eyes are on Silicon Valley all the time. So it's a bit of a distorted view but we have gone through this. It took a long time for women to become astronauts. It took a long time for women to become neurosurgeons. It took a long time for women to become lawyers and dentists. It will take a little bit of time for women to become top technologists, but we're hoping that it'll shorten and things happen quickly in the valley and we're trying to get that quicker and so we're seeing a little bit of friction. This is responses from millennials so for me, it was like, yes. >> Host: Interesting perspective. >> Yes, great perspective, and when Sundar said these things at the world pitch, I was sitting in the second row and every time he said something I would clap real loud and Todd said, why are you being so good and I said I need to hear that, I need to hear him say that because-- >> Host: What did he say that moved you? >> Oh he just said, you know you have a place in technology and I said yes, we needed to hear you say that right away, all the time and especially to these girls, these eight to 18 year old girls, and all of the ones that come from 100 countries that weren't at Google but were listening to the live pitch. >> We seem to be going back to a crowd that wants to see respect for the individual and citizenship. These were company values at Hewlett Packard, when I was there, that I always remembered was unique. They go hey, you can have differences, but if you have respect for the individual and you have a citizenship mindset. That seemed to have been lost in tech. With this whole movement you see and win at all costs, being an asshole is what you got to do to be a CEO or flip it fast or bros program, so it became a very selfish environment. It seems to be shifting now, with this conversation. Your thoughts? >> So I have to say, doing a start up is not easy. Getting successful in this world is not easy. Shaking the status quo is not easy, so I have to say that the same people, and we're not going to name names, but the same people who are very arrogant and have little respect for the laws and rules, they have given us products that are changing peoples' lives. There is no question about it. Without their bravado, without their I don't care, I'm just going to go over you if you don't comply with me, a lot of ride sharing wouldn't even have happened, and to me, when you provide employment, when you provide alternative services, when you provide something that takes away the way things were, I see that as a plus. I think what we're seeing is that's needed to a certain extent and then you realize, okay now we have to get back to growing it and working it and if you keep going in that mode, you probably won't succeed. >> So being tough and determined and having grit is what you need to break through those walls as a start up. You don't need to be necessarily a jerk, but your point is if you're creating value. >> If you're creating value, and that sometimes you actually have to be a jerk because there are very few brave, non-jerk people who have gone against a big unions and big monopolies. Right, you and I, I would not be able to go against the taxi commission. You need somebody who is a complete a-hole to do that. And he did that and it made a difference. He doesn't have to continue to do that and that's the point. >> There's a meme going around on the internet, if you want to make friends, sell ice cream. >> Exactly! >> So you cannot always win friends when you're pioneering things. >> And you know, there is a balance and maybe we've fostered the fact that you need to be that attitude for everything and that's not true so the pendulum shifted a bit too much but I think that we shouldn't scorn them because really they have made a difference, let's just let everybody get back to-- >> Its a tough world out there to survive and you have to have that kind of sharp elbows to make things happen and it's the value you're providing is how you do it. >> Exactly. >> Well it's no secret to the folks that know me and watch The Cube and know the Silicon Valley that I'm a huge proponent for computer science and, you know, as someone who kind of fell into that in the '80s, it's now become very interesting in that the surface area for computer science has increased a lot and its not just coding and heads down and squashing bugs and writing code. There's been a whole nother evolution of Soft Scales, Agile, Cloud, you've seen a full transformation with the potential unlimited compute available, with mobile now 10 years plus into the iPhone you see new infrastructure developing so it creates the notion that, okay, you can bring the science of computers to a whole nother level. That must be attractive as you guys have that capability to bring that to bear in the programs. Can you guys comment on how you guys see just the role of computer science playing out and this is not a gender thing, this is more of, as I have a young daughter I try to say, it's not just writing code, you could certainly whip out a mobile app, but it's really bringing design to it or bringing a personal passion that you might have, so what are some of the patterns you're seeing in the surface area of what's now known as computer science? >> I think it's super important because as technology has progressed, we've been able to provide this program. If we were still programming in front of screens and doing the what you see is what you get kind of thing without, we would not be there. I think the big thing that's happened in the last 10 years is the mobile phone. I mean, if you find a girl anywhere today in the world, chances are she'll have a mobile phone on her and she's going to be loathe for you to take that one thing from her. You could take other things from her, but try taking that phone away from her. She will not let you. And so the fact that she's so attached to that mobile phone means that you can then tell her, hey, you don't have to be just a consumer of that thing, you can be a producer of that thing. Anything that you see on there, you can actually design. This is power. This is your thing to good and great and better. And if we can shift that in their minds that this is their link to the world that's wide open, we're seeing that. >> Well the world is consumed by it. I mean, a lot of women in the world will be consumers of product, certainly with AI, the conversation over the weekend I was having with folks as the role of women is super important not just in AI, but as software becomes cognitive, you have to align with half the audience that's out there. Must be hard for a guy to program something that's going to be more oriented towards women, but it brings up the question of application and whether it's self driving cars or utility from work to play and everything in between, software and the role of software is going to be critical and that seems to be pretty clear. Question is how do you inspire young girls. That's the question that a lot of fellow males that I talk to who are fathers of daughters and who are promoting women in tech and see that vision. What are some of the inspiration areas? How do you really shake the interest and how do you have someone really kind of dig in and enjoy it and taste it and feel it? >> So there is some research to back what the formula is that works to drive change in behavior and so there is, one of the biggest names in cognitive psychology is Albert Bandura. He's a professor at Stanford. But basically it's the same principles that drive, say, the addiction from alcohol or weight loss or any kind of new behavior change. So the first is you need to have exposure to someone whom you respect showing that this is something of meaning, and so the key words are someone you respect, right? And so media can play a very big role here, for scale, right, otherwise it's only maybe a teacher or a parent and if they're not exposed to technology they can't really affect your... And so media can play a huge role there. Second is the experience itself, like how do you make it easy to get started. And then it's like learning from video games, so you make it very, very easy, like the first step is just come over here, it'll be fun, there's pizza, come, right, like your friends are coming, but then the feedback has to be very fast, so the first step, and that's where your good curriculum matters. So that's where also working on a mobile phone is very appealing even though maybe apps is not-- >> Host: It's relatable. >> It's relatable but the feedback is instantaneous and so the programming language that the girls use is block based so even though you don't have any prior programming background, you can still build a working app, so that's critical. Then human beings get tired very easily and so the feedback needs to keep changing. It has to be unpredictable. The third piece is that of expectations. Sou have to have very high expectations and so that's why this current discussion around cognitive differences in gender, I feel is missing the point, because it's not what you're born with, what are you capable of? And so if we looked at our genetics, we would never go to space, we would never go to the deepest parts of the ocean, because we're not meant for that. But we had really high visions and expectations and so human beings rose to that. And then the last piece is less relevant in developing countries but it's still important, so it's sort of the human energy. We're not a brain disassociated from the body, we're connected, right? And so if you're hungry and tired and sleepy, not the right time to sort of make a dramatic change in you interests, so this is relevant like for us, we tried to figure out which countries are we going to work in, so post-conflict, war-torn areas are not the best areas to start a new program in. You need the right-- >> So you're saying the biological argument of, of course they're different, men and women, but it's the capability, that's where people are missing the boat. >> And the support system. So have high expectations, provide them with the right support, but the most important thing is your own beliefs in that. >> Let's get your thoughts on that 'cause I think you guys have a great program with Technovation, you mentioned mentors. Key part of the formula most likely. What we here, in the conversation I've had with women here has been, there's a real call to arms at the executive level now, folks my age in the 50s who made it, who were there, succeeding, they really want to give back and they really have recognized the value of having that peer mentorship and then inspiring the young generation, whether it's part of the things that we cover like Grace Hopper or Technovations, things that you do, or even just mentoring in their own communities. What does that mentorship look like that you guys see that you'd like to see double down on or areas you'd like to see tweaked or perceptions that need to change? What's your thoughts on mentorship and the role of inspiring young girls? >> Mentorship from men? >> Host: Men and women, I mean... >> From both? >> Well I see the mentorship with women, as that's the first step. I have a whole nother conversation, in my opinion, about the men needing training, not just like go to class and learn how to talk but how to empathize. >> Well my big thing has been that when you wanted to encourage women up the ladder in your companies or you wanted to encourage women to actually get in to technical roles, that intent should not be placed in the CSR department of your organization 'cause that speaks volumes, right? To say oh, well that's in the social responsibility department or the HR, that just says, okay, so you're not really, you don't think we're capable of helping you with your product or service, we're sort of part of this, and it's like, no. So I think you want to mainstream it, which is what a lot of I&D things are trying to do now. >> Host: Inclusion and diversity. >> Inclusion and diversity. >> To make it part of the fabric, not a department checkbox. >> Exactly. >> That's what you're getting at. >> Exactly and the involvement of these departments, to include everybody and to make it more diverse is going to be not frictionless. It will be friction until a time where it won't even be necessary. I&D departments should have one goal which is to work themselves out of a job. If they can work themselves out of a job, then the company would have done what it needs to be done, but I think-- >> Meaning it's self sufficient, it's self governing, people are humans, it's respect for individuals. I mean this just basically comes down to, if you look at it as humans, it takes it, every conversation could be tabled, that's what? There's a person on the other side, it's a human being, not a woman or a white male or whatever. They're not there yet, but I mean certainly that would be the endgame, so in that scenario, that department's out of business, the I&R, the inclusion and diversity department, has done its job. >> Exactly, you don't need one because you know you're okay. And I think capabilities is really important in corporations and this isn't anybody's fault, this is just how it's been done. This has just been the culture of it. Who gets invited to which meetings. Who gets invited to which conferences. And so we heard the CEO of YouTube, Susan Wojcicki saying, you know, she had to sort of elbow a little bit to say hey, why am I not allowed at a certain conference and it's like, maybe just wake up to that and say why aren't you involving more people at conferences and think tanks because, you know, I come from an oil and gas background and people used to do a lot of deals on the golf course 'cause oil and gas people play golf a lot and a lot of deals used to happen, well in the Valley we don't play golf a lot but we do do other things, conferences or get togethers, and if you don't include the people in your team as groups or representationally, well they're not going to be there when you make these decisions so maybe just be a little bit-- >> Exclusionary is a problem and Kleiner Perkins was taken to task, they had ski trips apparently planned and they did all mostly guys and they didn't invite the women part, there was a big scandal. This is where they make that, it's a normative thing and they've got to change the norms. >> Change the norms and if you actually want your company which is made of all kinds of people to move really far ahead, don't be like that. Include everybody because the only goodness about that is you'll go forward. If you don't include somebody, well you're going to hurt them. >> I want to add to that. So there's quite a bit of data. So the patterns are not anything different from what the message girls get from school and parents. So if you look at the data there are 100 countries that legally discriminate against women and so what message industry is telling, is really, firstly it doesn't filter through to the larger population. Silicon Valley is a completely different problem, but overall, the messages girls are given is like, this is not for you, and so especially in some of the most populous, dense countries of the world. And so we have to fight a lot of these kinds of perceptions from the ground up and the number one gatekeeper is the father and so a key part of what we've now done to date is to provide education and training to the parents because there's a very moving story that we work in a remote town in south India and a mentor who's very dedicated has been trying to get these girls to participate in Technovation. He did that and then one girl was actually offered a job but the father kept saying no, not needed, no girl in my family ever needs to work, but he fought it and so the girl actually gets a job. And then a year later, the father calls the mentor and said, you know what, I'm so grateful that you did it because a day after she got the job, I got hit in an accident and I lost my job, but it's these kinds of perceptions that have to be changed one person at a time which is what makes this very hard, unless you actually are able to get the media to change the messaging and I think in the U.S., which is, there's some very interesting studies and a question, right, like if you were to think, would there be more women in STEM in poorer, developing countries versus richer, highly developed countries. Where would you see more women in STEM? The answer is actually the women in the poorer countries like Iran, Malaysia. The reason is because in an individualistic society like in the U.S., where there's a lot of emphasis on materialistic but it's also about are you happy. The conversation has changed from parents telling children and do what makes you happy and then you are very prone to advertising and advertising works when it's highly targeted and highly gendered. And so in the 60s, there was no such thing as pink and blue. Now there is pink and blue. And so now we just made our entire society entirely susceptible to advertising. And girls are passive and complaint and boys are aggressive and so then when you're looking at the board structures, it's very, very hard to fix the problem right there. You have to go down deeper because you don't get leaders who are complaint. Maybe secretaries are compliant. But you have to fix the message that teachers give girls, that parents give their baby girls when they are born, and so industry is just sort of in the spotlight right now but the issue is not that of industry, I think it's also that of society. >> Industry, if you look at what Sundar is supporting you guys it's interesting that this industry seems to chipping and certainly Silicon Valley is a little different as you said, but in general, it is a cultural parent thing. Any plans there with Technovations to have a parent track? >> Yes, totally. I mean, I think, right now, 10% of parents actually volunteer to be mentors, kind of like girl scout troop leaders, and so we are trying to figure out, okay, what is a way to involve parents and to make them part of the discussion? >> Tara, Anar, thanks so much. This is The Cube conversation here in Palo Alto. I'm John Furrier. Thanks for watching.