Innovation and disruption are marquee words at every tech conference these days. There are lots of ways that tech companies tap into the innovation ecosystem: start-up accelerators, acquisitions, internal innovation challenges, and customer innovation centers. But one sure way to increase the innovation power of an organization is to increase full-spectrum diversity at every level. Innovative ideas begin with a team that has diverse work experiences, different skills, and different perspectives based on race, gender, orientation, ability, and age. One tech conference that shows the kind of innovation that comes with celebrating diverse voices and increasing access to leadership roles in STEM fields is the Lesbians Who Tech (LWT) San Francisco Summit, which Cisco sponsored this year.

In March, I joined a team of twenty Cisco employees at this conference