ELC Attends AFROTECH and Celebrates the Future of High-Touch Tech

The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) attended AFROTECH this November for the first year as an official sponsor. Colleagues had the opportunity to connect with leading talent in tech, deliver branded activations, and speak on the Women’s Summit mainstage for conversations focused on the advancement of technology in the beauty industry.

Advancing Inclusion and Representation in Talent Pipelines

As the largest conference of the year for Black talent in tech with a global community of more than 20,000 innovators, AFROTECH offers a series of digital and in-person events filled with dynamic programming on emerging trends, networking opportunities with industry leaders, and conversations with top tech recruiters. Partnering with AFROTECH allows ELC to build on our commitment to advancing inclusion, diversity, and equity in talent pipelines through networking opportunities.

Throughout the 4-day conference, recruiters from Online/E-Commerce, Information Technology, Enterprise Marketing & Data, Supply Chain, regions, and brands engaged with more than 1,300 attendees who expressed interest in opportunities at ELC.

When speaking to the importance of active recruiting, Joy Brown, Executive Director, Talent Management, Global Online, ELC, shared, “Partnerships like these change the narrative. We get to see ourselves represented in spaces that we previously were told we don’t belong in or we're not qualified for. It’s beautiful to see people who look like me being celebrated for the work that they do in the community and in business. As I look around, I am most excited for those attending who are earlier in career. They’re engaging with startup founders and executives from major corporations and it’s expanding their understanding of what’s possible.”

Delivering High-Touch Tech and Inclusion in Beauty

To kick off the conference, M·A·C and Bumble and bumble hosted an opening night VIP experience in partnership with Blavity House Party, where up to 300 conference attendees celebrated the start of AFROTECH with the latest Amapiano music tracks. Throughout the event, attendees enjoyed makeup activations by M·A·C and mini education sessions around hair care products from Bumble and bumble with product distribution of the Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Ultra Rich Deep Conditioning Mask meant to refresh curls and coils. 

Attendees also had the opportunity to meet with product specialists from The Ordinary to learn about personalized skin care regimens and techniques, experience a demo of the Voice-Enabled Makeup Assistant app for visually impaired users, and connect with recruiters at ELC’s career expo booth. 

On the Women’s Summit mainstage, André Branch, Senior Vice President/General Manager M·A·C, North America, joined moderator and ELC alumna Chanel Tyler for an insightful discussion about transformative beauty and shifting the industry through high-touch tech. During the session, André highlighted the importance of balancing tradition and technology at a company with more than 75 years of heritage and consumer insight.

When speaking to tradition and technology, André stated, “I think tradition and technology work synergistically—they are additive, they embellish, and enhance one another. We [ELC] have 75 years of heritage, which is a competitive advantage for us. We have access to data that we can plug into our models and algorithms that give us insights that no one can match.”

As a leader in high-touch tech, ELC seeks to invent the future of beauty as well as create a workforce that is representative and responsive to people of all backgrounds. Serving as an official sponsor of AFROTECH helped reinforce the mission to power possibilities for all people.