Raffi Freedman-Gurspan:
Welcome, welcome, welcome to
the White House.
Yeah.
My name is Raffi
Freedman-Gurspan.
I am the White
House LGBT liaison.
I also work in the Office of
Presidential Personnel, so
we are the folks that help
hire and place people
in the administration.
So I wear two hats here.
But today, I am primarily
wearing my LGBT liaison hat,
and I got to say I am
super, super excited.
We have a very, very awesome
program ahead for today.
A couple of quick
housekeeping items, and then
I'll get into some
of the fun juice.
I understand that folks
have asked about WiFi.
Unfortunately, it doesn't
work here in this room.
That's out of our capacity.
We do apologize.
But folks should know
throughout the day, we'll be
breaking out into different
spaces and there will be
WiFi accessibility.
This portion is being
live-streamed, so folks just
are aware of that.
Our afternoon
section is not.
And if folks have any
questions, we've got a whole
team of staff
volunteers here.
I know that you've met many
of them, and we're here --
and actually, can I just
ask the staff to just raise
their hand quickly just so
folks know who they are?
Thank you very much.
So friendly faces, please,
please engage in any
questions; one of us are
more than welcome -- happy
to answer.
So of course, we are here
for the Third Annual LGBT
Tech and Innovation
Briefing.
And we are just so thrilled
that you are all here.
I just want to go over
just a very quick sort of
synopsis of what we have
been doing here at the White
House and particularly our
President, President Obama,
for the past eight
years in the LGBT space.
But then I have a great
lineup of colleagues who are
going to talk a little bit
more when it comes to the
tech side as well as what we
have in store for the day.
So as I said, I'm the LGBT
liaison for the White House,
and it's my job to interface
with the community and
administration officials
around issues that matter to
our community.
As we all know, our
community has made
incredible leaps and bounds
in the past 50 years.
And really in the past
decade, we have a whole list
of achievements that both
have happened in government
space, in nonprofit advocacy
space, in the private space,
in, of course, the tech
innovation space, and we're
going to be talking
about those today.
But we know that these
achievements and the
progress that has been made
has not come without, you
know, tears, sweat, and in
-- you know, unfortunate
circumstances, sometimes
even, you know, death and
tragedy in our lives.
And we all know, in
particular, this past
summer, with the awful
events in Orlando that, you
know, reminds us of the
vulnerabilities that are
sill there.
And I do ask if we could
just take a quick moment of
silence in memory of the
folks that we lost in Orlando.
Thank you.
And, as we know, there are
a lot of issues still left
that have always, frankly,
been there for our
community; in particular,
our community faces
discrimination, violence,
hunger, poverty and
homelessness simply because
of who they are or
whom they love.
And in particular, as we
know, for our trans and
gender-nonconforming
brothers and sisters,
especially those that are
people of color, especially
black and Latino, we've seen
record levels of violence
this past year in our
community; and I know a lot
of us are working very
hard to address that.
And we in the administration
take that seriously, and we
firmly believe that there
are intersections of these
issues when it comes to hate
violence, intimate partner
violence, racism,
xenophobia, and other
manifestations
of intolerance.
And that's why we
are working hard.
We are working very hard,
frankly, in this last
quarter, and we know
that it's a -- it's a
partnership, right?
It's folks both in
government, outside of
government, in order for us
to come together and create
a more perfect union.
I do want to talk very
quickly about some of the
accomplishments that have
been made in the past
eight years.
President Obama came to the
White House on the promise
to make significant change
for all Americans, and that
included the LGBT community.
In the past eight years, he
and his administration have
made significant progress
when it comes to addressing
hate violence, as many of
us know about the Matthew
Shepard and James Byrd,
Junior, Hate Crimes
Prevention Act that now
allows the government to
prosecute cases on instances
of actual perceived sexual
orientation or gender
identity-motivated hate.
And actually, this act was
the first kind of gender
identity was put in codified
federal law, so that was a
major achievement
way back in 2009.
Of course, we all know the
signature act that this
administration is very proud
of, which is the Affordable
Care Act; and for our
community, we now have the
ability to access
health care free
from discrimination.
In the past year our
colleagues at HHS passed
regulations around
nondiscrimination for
our community.
The Office of National AIDS
Policy created the first
comprehensive plan around
addressing the HIV epidemic,
and then within the last
year has also prioritized
addressing the needs of
transgender folks and black
and Latino MSM.
The Department of Justice
has made sure that sex
discrimination cases around
transgender status are
prosecuted, that they
interpret gender identity
discrimination as a form
of sex discrimination.
And the list, frankly,
goes on and on and on.
We have made just incredible
achievements, and my
colleague Megan Smith, who's
going to talk next, is going
to go a little bit
deeper into that.
But what I got to say to all
of you is thank you very
much for the
work that you do.
We know that folks are,
frankly, putting themselves
out there on the line,
sometimes, frankly, risking
their lives; and you don't
hear this, frankly, enough,
which is thank you from us.
This is a partnership;
this is a team.
And I think that's going to
be kind of the spirit of today.
So lastly, I would just
encourage everyone to be
very open-minded.
We got a lot of
great conversations.
I know you are bringing a
lot to the table here, and I
just have to say again, just
welcome and please don't
hesitate to ask us for any
assistance throughout today.
Thank you.
Megan Smith:
Thanks, Raffi.
Hello, everybody.
It's so awesome to
have you guys here!
It's actually very personal
for me because I came to the
White House a couple years
ago for this first summit
that Leanne and Raffi
and Faye and
everybody organized.
And it was there that they
began to hook me in to come
do this job.
So be warned.
So the -- as Raffi was
saying, like it's an
incredible set of
accomplishments we've made
together, you know.
And many of the things
that our colleague Tom
(inaudible) refers to the
all-hands-on-deck topics;
and really, equality and
justice and inclusion and
innovation, all these
topics, which have always
been part of our country and
our very much life right now
of our work, are things that
require all of us
to be involved.
Right?
There are things that we,
the federal government and
our colleagues across all of
our college, across all of
the agencies and sort of the
structures that we have on
the federal side
can do our part.
The state and local
teammates on the government
side can do their part, and
it's really sort of what are
the businesses, what are
the innovators, what are
citizens doing?
What are -- what are people
across this country
doing together?
What are people across the
world doing to advance on
the challenges that we have?
So I think sort of the theme
is really celebrate
-- accelerate.
Right?
So how do we celebrate the
incredible accomplishments?
I had this amazing
experience.
Stonewall became a
national monument.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Thanks, Obama.
And the National Parks team
is funny because they were
dressed, of course, in their
uniform and people were
like, "Why wasn't there a
parks ranger in the
Village People?"
They look fabulous.
And you know, there we were,
and I was looking across as
we were getting ready to do
this work, and there was
Valerie Jarrett sitting
underneath a disco ball in
the Stonewall, in the second
floor, working on her
remarks, and
Leanne was there.
She tweeted out a
picture, I think.
It was just so incredible to
have our colleagues
in our space.
And there was -- there was
a moment -- you know, the
various speeches that
happened that day were
really significant, and
I think there's a video.
I really encourage
people to listen to them.
But Tommy, who was a
teenager at the time, and we
have a couple
youth in the room.
I know Cynthia -- there's
a few people here.
They -- (inaudible) says,
"I'm the skinny little guy
in the corner of that
photo." He talked a little
bit about Stonewall, and he
said, "Why" -- the people
were asking sort of why is
this happening, what
is that about?
And he said, "It was in
this place that we
could be human.
We could have our
relationships.
We could sort of humanize
ourselves and feel that we
were part of something.
We were human; we were
people; we were whole." And
that's what he felt had
happened in that place, and
I thought it was a really
striking thing to note, and
what -- it's amazing to
think about that time and
all those before that.
I got to go to an amazing
reenactment of picketing
that I never knew about at
Independence Hall in 1965.
Frank Kameny and Barbara
Gittings organized our
community to protest
for -- to be employable.
They dressed to
be employable.
And they were.
They reenacted this 40
people standing in front of
Independence Hall and
marching with picket signs
to become visible.
And so that group, together
with the Stonewall team,
came together and began what
became, of course, all the
Pride events and the -- that
we now celebrate every year.
The Stonewall anniversary,
but really it was a moment
with the National Parks
stepping up and saying, "We
want to tell all the stories
of America," and one of the
things they're hoping of
this decade is to add the
stories that didn't get
celebrated, as well as our
wonderful national parks and
physical, beautiful spaces,
natural spaces.
So they're busy doing that
work and Stonewall was part
of that.
Raffi also mentioned the
post-night club in Orlando.
I was down there.
We were invited to do some
stuff at NASA, so we went by.
It was the last day when the
Orlando teams were taking
some of the various things
that people had brought in
memory to preserve those.
And someone came up to
Matthew on my team and
handed him this card.
And it just said, "You
matter." What a cool
thing, right?
And to think about all the
Americans and all the people
in the world, how can
we make it so that all
Americans, from the day
people are born, feel that?
Feel that they matter
and they can bring it?
And, you know, it was
interesting to see the CDC
reports recently about the
amount of bullying that
LGBTQ young people are
experiencing at school, off
the charts proportionally
to their peers.
We want to work all those
issues because we want all
of those kids.
And maybe it's through
solving the stuff for the
LGBTQ kids, that extreme
situation will solve all of it.
I met these young people who
were innovating on bullying
in their schools.
And they -- actually,
this was in Israel.
They actually took all the
social media they could find
for 24 hours that had been
written by their peers,
printed it out, big type,
took names off it, and
posted it on the walls
of their high schools.
And when the kids came in
that morning, they saw that
-- what they had said,
negative, positive, and it
really changed
the conversation.
You know, so what kinds of
innovative things can we do
to start to do that work
so that we understand you
matter, we matter,
we all matter?
And I'm really -- it's been
amazing to be part of the
President's team to work on
this, and what's true about
all of you as the tech
innovation Americans, is
there has been a challenge
in government where the
people from our community
have mostly been at arm's
length or buried
within the teams.
There's always been
incredible technical people
in the U.S.
government from the time
Washington started the Army
Corps of Engineers, before
the country was founded, right?
So they wear that cool
castle, the Army Corps,
that's Bunker Monuments, the
first thing they built, and
they continue to do
extraordinary work.
We've always had great
technical Americans
involved, and at this
moment, what the President
saw was that we had kind of
arm's length and put that
only in the vendor space or
in our business communities,
our tech communities
outside, or put them under,
and so he's lifting us into
the team so that we would
have a seat at the table.
And so one of the things
that I wanted to share with
you about digital and
modernizing government,
President went to South by
Southwest, and his speech
there was about getting
involved civically and
really, two big asks.
One of them was to come
serve the country in some form.
We're open to coming through
API and Open Source and
Civic Tech.
That's great;
please come do that.
Add these things
to your products.
So the census team -- is
anyone here from census?
I don't know if they're
here, but the Presidential
innovation (inaudible)
-- thank you.
Opportunity.census.gov is an
incredible site where a lot
of the APIs from government,
just think weather or
mapping, you could go grab
ahold of that data and start
doing things on
behalf of America.
And we saw the Red Fin Team
and others start to add
features, so they have block
score, they have opportunity
score so you can see how
hard it is to find buses and
jobs and Head Start and
other things at a particular
location as you choose
a place to live.
A lot of Americans need that
information in addition to
what restaurants, et
cetera, are near you.
So how do we that?
I've brought down a
veteran's -- this is the --
we'll hang this up.
But here's a journey map
for American veterans.
So this is looking
at life cycles.
So this is with maybe the
Amazon team or other teams
might do around
product (inaudible).
How can we do that with our
incredible agency partners?
I know there's
folks here from U.S.
Civil Service and 18-F.
Where are you guys?
Can you guys come up just
for a quick so people can
see you?
So getting into other
different agencies, they ask
us, "Come and serve either
though APIs and that, or
come and serve physically."
And these are some
of the folks.
I'm going to get them
to say a fast thing.
I don't know if we have
a hand-held mic around.
The other -- the other area
he talked about is how do we
solve the harder problems
together in the way that
we're doing in kind of
our tech sectors, sharing
economy and these things
that we're doing, using
Internet together
to collaborate,
all-hands-on-deck work
that's using a really
amazing digital overlay.
And he said, "Level all the
restaurant delivery apps,
but could we also have
some help on figuring out
problems like rural
child poverty?"
Is it -- why is it that 22
million young people are
served free lunch and
breakfast and sometimes
dinner after school during
the school year, but can
only get to about 4 or 5
million of them
in the summer?
Let's fix that.
There's a bunch of legal
reasons why we need
to do that.
We need to see them eating,
so maybe Snapchat, whatever
it is, but you guys would
think of solutions to that
because kids are
hungry, right?
We need to figure
out connectivity.
We need to figure
out data science.
And DJ Patil is
here, who's a U.S.
chief data scientist.
He worked a lot with the
transgender innovation team
last year on data
innovation, and do we have
an extra mic, or do you guys
just want to come here for a
really -- really
quick for a sec?
And Dan Hammer, Presidential
Innovation Fellow.
Come on up really quick,
just digital folks.
So modernizing, really fast.
DJ Patil: Yes, so I just
want to mention
two quick things.
The first is last year
really taking the charge of
really figuring out -- and
many of you helped teach me
about this, is we all talk
about data and data-driven
government and all this
stuff; but if you're not
counted, how do we --
how do we build for you?
And then, when we're
building things like
precision medicine or
working on things like
criminal justice, what
we realize is you're
not counted.
You're not described.
And if you ask me how you
should be counted, that's a
terrible idea.
You should tell us how
you want to be counted.
So we have to figure
out what that is.
And one of the big things
that is there, and a journey
map is a perfect example
of that because that's --
whether that's happening in
VA or we just did one that
the Presidential Innovation
Fellows did one for cancer.
What is a journey
map for all of us?
All of us.
And that problem
isn't there.
The journey map today,
if you ever go to like a
photo-framing shop and you
see the pictures that are in
the photos, that's who the
journey map's for, right?
It's not across everybody.
So my number one challenge
for you today is when we
look at these journey maps
or we have these amazing
persona cards that we use
around for everything, how
do we made sure it's
for the LGBTQ community?
How do we make sure that
you're all in there and
represented so that when
people build, we're building
holistically, we're putting
data behind it to help
empower you rather
than marginalize you?
That's the power that we
have to have together, and
that's my big challenge for
all of you today is to help
us enable and think through
what that needs to be and
build on what we
did last year.
Female Speaker: And one
other thing is that DJ has
these cards.
This is one that President's
Chief of Staff gave us.
DJ Patil: You
want to read it?
Go ahead.
Megan Smith: Sure.
"We're entering the fourth
quarter, and really
important things happen
in the fourth quarter.
Barack Obama." All right.
So Dan, really quick.
Dan is Presidential
Innovation Fellow and now
joined our team, but I
wanted him to just mention
what PIFs are, what they do.
Dan Hammer: So I was a
Presidential Innovation
Fellow at NASA, where I
built api.nasa.gov, and this
was a chance to work on the
most important problems of
our time from justice and
policing to sending humans
to Mars.
And it was just as much
about changing the culture
of government as it
was building tech.
And so one of the initial
hooks that Megan was talking
about was go to pif.gov,
apply and say that you're
part of this event.
Female Speaker: Yeah.
Dan Hammer: That's
our first hook.
Female Speaker: Cool.
And so it's a one-year
rotation, just like, you
know, President Kennedy
created the Peace Corps,
President Johnson created
the White House Fellows;
President Obama really wants
us to rotate in and
out of government.
And so if you're interested
in that or you know someone,
we need people to come.
And it's an amazing cultural
experience, and you team up
with extraordinary people
who really know their thing.
And we know our thing, and
together we can take on
these much harder problems.
It's sort of -- it's not
easy to build some of the
pure tech plays that
we do, but it's easier.
It's harder to do these
combined things, and so it
takes like a -- almost like
a faculty of the university
to come together to do it.
And we need to just not
leave out that tech chair.
So quick.
Male Speaker:
Hey, I'm Victor.
I'm the (inaudible) for
the United States
Digital Service.
Megan mentioned something
earlier in her talk about
having the opportunity, like
the government had really
great technical
talent in government.
They're still there.
The United States Digital
Service gives you the
opportunity to go into the
agency alongside with these
really great civil servants
to do the work like the
veterans mapping and
improving the health care
for veterans, education,
refugees and immigration,
some really incredible work.
So if you -- if that sounds
interesting to you, you can
go to usds.gov/join.
Female Speaker: Yeah.
Male Speaker: Thank you.
Female Speaker: Now, Victor
was, you know, the U.S.
Digital Service,
between U.S.
Digital Service and I think
there's some more people
coming from 18-F and our
amazing GSA team, which is
Union Tech Transformation.
We have almost over 400
people who've come already
and are in a two-year tour
of duty under the Schedule A
thing that we have.
And then also the PIFs come
for a year, and you can come
for shorter too, and
sometimes we do design
sprints like the -- there's
a well-known ISIL design
sprint that the team did
that really supported some
folks who are here from
state to upgrade how we were
doing some of the digital
engagement or disengagement
that we're trying
to do there.
So I will leave you at that
because you're going to --
you're going to dive into
a whole lot of amazing
lightning talks.
But I wanted you to hear the
digital government sort of
spaces because we'd love for
people who have any interest
to come join us
or send us people.
And then we're going to tell
you about things where it's
all hands on deck, again,
coming through APIs and
Civic Tech or whatever your
company or products or
services, they can be
commercial or nonprofit
into that.
We also have an area of
policy work that we do,
which we call TQ, like Tech
Quotient, TQIQ Tech
Use and Policy.
And so there's a lot of
work there on things like
encryption and net
neutrality, where a media
technical team meets there
as well and there's a whole
crew there.
So thank you for being here,
and I'll be around during
the day.
I think we're going to
do really great stuff.
Leanne is our amazing leader
who pulled many of you
guys together.
The last thing I say is we
had 3,500 people try to
come, and so we think
there's energy here that we
should capture, and I think,
Leanne, you're going to talk
a little more about that.
Thank you, everybody.
Leanne Pittsford: Can't
do the podium thing.
Let's turn this on.
Good morning.
You're at the White House.
Congratulations.
You made it.
So I'm Leanne Pittsford.
I'm the founder of an
organization called Lesbians
Who Tech and the
people who love them.
We just hit 20,000
members worldwide.
We've done events
in 37 cities.
We just launched a coding
scholarship program after
Edie Windsor, who was a
software engineer in the
'60s at IBM.
I tell the story a lot, but
she's literally the first
person in all of Manhattan
to receive a personal
computer, so pretty amazing.
She won technical skills
for all of her work.
And we're about to launch
a mentoring program called
Bring a Lesbian to Work Day,
which will be out soon.
So this is the group
participation part of today.
We start every Lesbians Who
Tech event with a high five
just, you know, it's the
morning, and I know we
haven't had coffee yet.
So turn to your neighbor.
You're going to get to
know them a lot today.
Give them a high five.
You can do more than one.
High fives for all.
All right.
We'll have time later
for more high fives.
This is clearly the
over-achiever crowd.
So one of -- well, first of
all, thank you to the
White House.
Like everyone said, this is
our third annual event, and
I could not be more proud to
partner with the White House
on this event.
And one of my favorite
things about this event, I
have -- I go back and
forth between D.C. and San
Francisco, and that's been
a recent thing for me.
But really bringing together
people from all over the
country, from all over the
world, so I want to see
who's in the room.
So if you live in San
Francisco or the Bay Area,
please stand up.
Wow.
Stay standing.
If you live in Portland,
Seattle, other West Coast, L.A.
All right.
That's pretty amazing
representation here in D.C.,
so okay, sit down.
If you live in New
York, stand up.
I think San Francisco beat
New York for the first time
ever at a D.C. event, so
that's pretty incredible.
D.C. people, stand up; New
York, stay standing; D.C.,
stand up.
Boston, other
East Coast areas.
Philly.
Florida.
South, yeah, will count
on the East Coast.
Okay, sit down.
All right.
Middle of the country,
Chicago, Atlanta, yes.
Anywhere else in the
middle of the country?
All right.
Sit down.
All right.
How many people here
are software engineers?
Stand up.
Front end, back end.
All right.
Stay standing.
Designers, stand up.
Data scientists.
Other technical skills that
I'm not going to list off.
So this is something we were
really intentional about.
We wanted to bring together
the most talented group of
people in this country
together to solve problems
that affect all Americans,
so it's really exciting to
see all of you here.
Okay, you can sit down.
The other thing I want to
mention is that today is
really about relationships.
As Megan said, we had
over 3,500 people apply.
The first year, we actually
invited people to come.
Obviously, they had never
heard of this event,
especially if you lived
in the West Coast.
The second year, we had 600
people apply and actually,
dozens of them thought
the email was spam.
They didn't really -- they
didn't really believe that
it was the White
House inviting them.
And this year, we had over
3,500 people apply, and I
think that's the power of
what we can do here today is
to bring everyone together.
So last year, the concept
was really around LGBTQ
people are Americans, right?
I think sometimes we bring
together the queer community
and we focus on
homelessness, youth,
HIV/AIDS, marriage, right?
These are sort of the
issues, and last year we
really wanted to expand
it to all issues that are
affecting Americans because
LGBTQ people are women,
we're people of color,
we're people living with a
disability, we're
veterans, right?
We hold intersectional
identities.
And so we worked together,
we started the White House,
we broke into teams and then
people focused on topics
that interested them and
then they presented their
concepts and ideas
three months later.
This was one of the great
projects, Trans Needs,
literally just a hashtag,
collected over 2,000 sets of
data that went back to the
White House so that they
could at some of the issues
that were affecting the
transgender community.
This year, because so many
people applied, and in the
spirit of inclusiveness,
we wanted to do something
bigger, right?
We were a little surprised.
I myself went through
all 3,500 applications.
By the attention that
(inaudible) got, literally,
and so we want to do this
again, but bigger, with more
people, maybe 5,000 people,
maybe 6,000 people in
D.C. in November.
And we literally want to
build the most inclusive and
innovative event that's ever
happened in technology.
And I want to talk a little
bit about inclusive -- being
intentional around
inclusiveness because I
think -- one of the things I
want you to think about as
you're literally going to be
doing a little Summit 101
planning, is being
intentional.
So we were really
intentional with this event.
We said we wanted to hit 50
percent women, we wanted to
hit 50 percent people of
color, we wanted to hit 20
percent transgender and
gender nonconforming.
That was something we
set out to do from the
beginning, and we hit all
of those goals because
visibility and
representation matters.
And if we know -- like,
we've had the data that says
inclusion helps us build
the best products, helps us
build the best companies,
and it'll help us create the
best world.
So it's not only the best
thing to do, there's no
reason not to do it.
So we want today to be an
experiment because we want
to show the world this is
what inclusion looks like,
and this is what
innovation looks like.
So Tech Up is actually a
project of Lesbians Who Tech.
It literally has one goal:
to build a tech ecosystem
that is actually
representative of the
country that we live in.
We're going to do that
through a lot of ways, which
I won't get into much now,
but we're going to build the
Inclusion Innovation Week.
That's going to happen in
D.C. November 14th through 20th.
And congratulations, you
are officially the planning
committee for this event.
That is a part
of coming today.
So we're -- and you can see
on your agenda -- if you
want to pull out your
agenda, this is a great time
to go over the
rest of the day.
So you're going to hear
talks about some of these
topics, and then I know
you selected topics that
interest you.
We're going to give you
a chance to select them.
We're going to break out
into smaller groups.
I'm going to ask there to
at least be two project
managers per team that
report back on the end of
the day, and you're going
to get together and you're
going to think about what
problem do you want to solve
that we can do in November
with a larger group of
3,500, 4,000 people.
So I'll help you.
I'll probably stop at each
room and coach you a little
bit on Summit 101 planning.
But look at these topics;
and I want you to think
outside the box a
little bit, right?
Because sometimes we think
about social good
really limited.
Why don't we think about
smart cities or artificial
intelligence, right?
Let's pair some of these
topics together because
bringing worlds together is
what's actually going to
solve some of these
problems, right?
We don't just want people
coming to this event in
November that are focused on
health and human services.
We want the best artificial
data scientists to come, and
so we have to do that
through content, and that's
one of the things I'll coach
you a little bit on
later today.
But I really believe that if
we bring the right people
together, that we can solve
some of the world's
greatest challenges.
And so that's what we'll
be working on today.
And we're going to have Q
and A, so I'm sure you have
questions for later.
Now, we're going to get into
my favorite part of today,
Ask and Offer.
How many of you have done
Ask and Offer before?
Who?
Who?
We have a special guest?
I love special surprises.
Male Speaker: See, this is
sort of it -- this is
fun, right?
Female Speaker: All right. So --
Male Speaker: Go ahead.
Female Speaker: Yeah, so our
awesome colleague, Ellie
Schafer, who actually used
to live next door to me in
San Francisco when she ran
Gavin Newsom's campaign,
came to the White
House early on.
So we're going to ask her
to just welcome you guys.
And she bought two
little somebodies.
Male Speaker: Yeah, we'll
talk about that in a
second, yes.
So Ellie, you
want to come out?
Female Speaker:
Ellie Schafer.
Female Speaker: Great.
Ellie Schafer: We have to
bring our two biggest
tech ambassadors.
Female Speaker: Yay!
Female Speaker: It's not
a gay event without
dogs, right?
Female Speaker:
Yes, it's happening.
Male Speaker: (inaudible) to
do a selfie kind of photo
with everybody?
Female Speaker:
Come on, guys.
Male Speaker: All right.
Female Speaker: The
best day of my life.
Male Speaker: All right.
So for a while, I'm going
to ask you all to turn your
phones down, and we'll see
if we can do -- slide in.
Everybody kind of get in.
Come on, this side.
Okay, one more and me --
kind of get as far back as I
can here.
All right.
All right.
Male Speaker: All right.
There we go.
What's an event without
some special events?
Ellie Schafer: You
guys, this is Dale.
Dale takes care
of Sonny and Bo.
He's amazing.
Female Speaker: Okay, so as
people are grabbing seats,
we want to -- hold
on one second.
Awesome.
We need to do
drinks, for real.
Ellie Schafer: All right.
Are we back?
Okay.
All right.
We're going to go -- we're
going to start back up
again, so
apologies for that.
Sorry, I'm not --
sorry I'm not sorry.
My name is Ellie Schafer.
I am Special Assistant to
the President and Director
of the Visitor's Office.
Ironically, right before we
got here, I was sitting to
myself and I was thinking
what can I talk about, you
know, for tech-related?
And we were at security.
One of the things I do is
work with security is -- and
there was a little girl with
Poland syndrome, which means
she was born
without any fingers.
And UNLV prints hands for
her -- 3-D prints hands for
her for free.
And she just threw out
the first pitch for the
Baltimore Orioles.
So that was -- I thought
that was like that was a
nice little, you know,
nice little tie-in.
Your fun fact to start out
our speech is that in 1999,
Megan and I were actually
neighbors in San Francisco.
So we've come full circle
at the White House.
So anything that starts
with 19, it's like uh-oh.
Sorry.
So again, my name
is Ellie Schafer.
I spent quite a bit of time
in San Francisco before I
came to work here
at the White House.
I was -- I had a consulting
firm in San Francisco, and
in 2006 I met Barack Obama.
And I went on the road for
him for his book tour, The
Audacity of Hope book tour.
And we finished the book
tour, and I believed in my
heart so much that he was
the right person for this
country and this world and
what we needed, that I
actually ended up selling my
consulting firm, renting out
my house, and
going on the road.
And I spent 654 days living
out of two suitcases,
traveling by his side to do
everything I could to get
him elected President.
It was the best decision
I've ever made.
So it has been an amazing
10-year journey, to say
the least.
And we have seen quite a bit
of changes here at the
White House.
For one, collective
gasp, ready?
When we first started at
the White House, security
information for you guys to
enter was collected from my
office via fax.
And we had to key it in.
So that was -- that
was how we started.
We had tower computers.
You could not remote-access,
and we had no laptops.
So we have come,
you know, very far.
So it's been an amazing
journey just on a
technology front.
And the focus that this
administration has put on
technology, and science and
technology, as well as, you
know, a lot of changes
from the human
rights perspective.
So being an out lesbian
working Barack Obama for so
long, there were
some challenges.
I got a lot of challenges
about why I wasn't
supporting another candidate
-- a female candidate in 2006.
And so we plowed
through that.
We're all on one team now.
So -- but it's been -- it's
been an amazing journey,
and, you know, to start with
everything from, you know,
DOMA to Don't Ask, Don't
Tell and all the journeys
that we've done; to
recently, we displayed the
first transgender flag at
the White House during
public tours, and that
was on display in June.
And, you know, you think
about how far we've come.
It's -- you know, it's
really just an incredible --
it's been an
incredible journey.
So -- to, you
know, gay marriage.
So -- which has been
an amazing time.
So just so you know, we've
gotten, my job is all about
operations and management.
I do all the large events at
the White House and produce
a lot of the
small ones, too.
And everything from the
one-on-one meetings with the
President to the large
Easter Egg Roll, which is
35,000 people.
Over the course of the seven
and a half years of this
administration, my office
alone has gotten in over 4.1
million people in to
visit the White House.
That's 75 percent of all
people who have come to the
White House.
So it's pretty --
it's pretty awesome.
We have a good time.
But it is -- what's been an
amazing journey is who has
come to the white House.
It's not necessarily the
amount of people but the
quality of people
who have come in.
We've had LGBT families,
we've had transgender
families; we have -- you
know, it's been an amazing,
amazing time to be at the
White House, to be out at
the White House, and see the
transformation that this
country has had.
So I just wanted to come
over and say hello, bring
our tech ambassadors,
because they're -- they
really are our
biggest ambassadors.
So it's kind of awesome.
People lose their mind, so
the best part is like the
President will tease me
sometimes and he'll be like,
"Could you not show the dogs
until after the people meet me?"
because, you know, what
happens is they start
talking and then it's
all about the dogs.
And he's like, "I'm here,
I'm here." We had it -- we
were doing a -- we were
doing a greet with the First
Lady, and she was the -- she
came in and she was in her
athletic gear.
She came in with Bo and
Sonny, and the kids just saw
the dogs and went -- like
completely surrounded the
dogs, and she's like, "I'm
here." And they were just
like -- they were
like, "What?"
So that's -- it took them a
good 30 seconds to realize
that the First Lady was the
one that was carrying the
dogs in, so it
was a lot of fun.
But anyway, I just wanted
to come over and say hi,
welcome you guys.
You know, we're doing great
things, hope everybody had
fun at the whiskey bar last
night, not too much fun.
Or too much fun,
one of the two.
And thank you and good
luck and have fun today.
And we'll talk
to you guys soon.
All right.
Female Speaker: We're going
to go to Ask and Offers, but
Ellie, one of the things
that she does which is
really, really great is when
they're doing events, they
often get really special
items and they put them
on display.
And I got to go to the Eve
celebration this year, and
at the entrance to the -- to
the White House was Thomas
Jefferson's (inaudible).
So cool.
So just beautiful, beautiful
things that they -- these
guys put in, really
celebrate all Americans and
welcome all Americans
into our house.
