Workplace diversity has been a prominent topic over the past few years, and an increasingly controversial one since the 2016 election highlighted discussions of ongoing gender and race inequalities. Though they face some ill-informed pushback, inclusion initiatives have been proven to promote a more attractive working environment for a wider range of talent and result in better-developed products and services.

Despite renewed efforts to promote diversity in the workplace, studies show the U.S. is still more than 100 years away from full economic equality. That’s why Sabeen Ali (pictured, right), founder and chief executive officer of AngelHack Corp., established the international hackathon-organizing company that works to give people of all backgrounds the same opportunities as established Silicon Valley entrepreneurs.

Ali and Ellen McGirt (left), senior editor at Fortune Magazine, spoke with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the Accenture International Women’s Day — Creating a Culture of Equality event in San Francisco. They discussed the work to be done in the name of tech diversity and how AngelHack’s mission contributes to the cause.

[Editor’s note: The following answers have been condensed for clarity.]

What’s special about AngelHack’s hackathons, and why do you think they are an interesting way to develop talent and deliver solutions?

Ali: It’s a community space where people feel comfortable exploring themselves and exploring their talents, working with new individuals, and really giving them an opportunity to learn new things. We’re actually the world’s largest and most diverse developer ecosystem, so we have a wide range of diverse backgrounds and genders that come to our events. That’s really where innovation happens, when you bring a variety of different backgrounds and minds together to solve problems using technology. We organize a 50-city global hackathon series, and we also work with corporate partners, such as Accenture, HPE and others, to organize hackathons for their brands.

Why are things beginning to change in favor of diversity and inclusion now?

McGirt: It’s the confluence of many things. We’ve had a lot of stories about injustice and lack of access from every possible sphere, race, age, country and religion. Things like AngelHack resonate with people who are not part of the ecosystem, and they can absorb the lessons of inclusion and optimism and bring it to the rest of their lives. Diversity and inclusion [is something] I’ve been studying for the last two years, and as difficult as the world is, I really do see people becoming more open to the idea of thinking different ways, embracing people who are different from themselves, and not feeling threatened.

With all you’ve done at AngelHack, where are you going next?

Ali: Hopefully, a year from now we would have expanded into more than 92 cities, more remote regions than we have now. Also, we’re doubling down on our accelerator. We want to make sure that our winning teams have an opportunity to really come to Silicon Valley, or get access to funding that’s available in Silicon Valley so that they can be successful for many years to come. I really feel we’re going to come up with a lot of tech solutions that are going to make diversity and inclusion easier to facilitate and easier to implement in corporations as well.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Accenture International Women’s Day — Creating a Culture of Equality event.

Photo: SiliconANGLE