We’re bringing together engineers, designers, and product managers to connect and learn from each other, all while cruising the San Francisco Bay! You’ll hear 4 TED-style talks, given by speakers from Bay Area tech companies that are using technology to improve the everyday lives of people across the world. There will also be plenty of time for networking and relationship building over the course of the evening, along with food and beverages.
Tech Talks at Sea is free to attend, but it’s an invite-only event. Spots will fill up fast, so let us know if you’re interested in attending today! Â
Flexport is dedicated to holding events where everyone is comfortable and has fun, as written out in our Code of Conduct.
Ryan Petersen is the founder and CEO of Flexport, the platform for global trade. Trade is one of the greatest forces for good in the modern world—it’s possible that no technology lifted more people out of poverty than the shipping container. And yet as anyone who has ever shipped a pallet of freight across an international border can testify, trade is still too hard.
Nick Clinton is on the Earth Engine developer relations team. He received a bachelors, masters and PhD from the department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley. From 2008-2011, Nick worked in the Airborne Sensor Facility of NASA Ames Research Center, producing science quality calibrated imagery and supporting sensor maintenance for thermal, multispectral and hyperspectral imagers. From 2012-2015, he was on the faculty of the Center for Earth System Science at Tsinghua University, in Beijing, China. He joined Google in 2015.
Kevin is a software engineer at Flexport. His responsibilities are on the backend infrastructure team, and include security, performance, devops, and CI/CD. Before starting the team in 2017 he spent a year on trucking, where he also built Flexport's bug bounty program, China network, and developer servers in his spare time. When he's not rock climbing, you'll see Kevin reading up on new developments in cloud infrastructure and playing way too much Mario Kart.
Steven has been a software engineer at Airbnb for four years, with a focus on social impact. He became a founding member of the Airbnb Anti-discrimination product team in 2016, and in 2017 joined the recently formed humanitarian team, Human. There, he has been building features and infrastructure for the Open Homes program, which is a not-for-profit effort that aims to extend the core strengths of Airbnb toward addressing the short-term housing needs of vulnerable populations. Steven is a tech lead and core contributor on projects that range from Airbnb’s global disaster response tooling, to a more streamlined booking experience for non-profit agencies. His technical interests include both frontend and backend development, and he’s passionate about tackling challenges that will ultimately benefit others.
Sushu is a tech lead on the Human team at Airbnb, particularly focusing on donations. She has a strong interest in leveraging technology to creatively help people in need. Prior to Airbnb, she expanded her technical interests among multiple areas, including system-level architecture, operating systems, and big data solutions. She worked as senior software engineer at Microsoft and Intel and developed two patents. In 2016, she was attracted by Airbnb’s mission and moved to the Bay Area. She started work on the Market Dynamics team to build personalized pricing tools for Airbnb hosts. Later she joined the Human team with a passion for creating tools for exponential generosity. She’s actively working on building Open Homes features, and leading the development of donation tools at Airbnb.
Susy is an experienced logistics professional and leads Flexport.org, a cross-functional group within Flexport that ensures that sustainable solutions are integrated across the company. She is passionate about matching corporate assets to the needs of nonprofit organizations to tackle humanity’s biggest challenges. Prior to joining Flexport, Susy worked in corporate strategy and sustainability management at Deutsche Bahn/DB Schenker, one of the largest mobility and logistics companies in the world. Susy lived in Europe and Asia for her undergraduate studies and holds an MBA from UC Berkeley.
Will hails from Canada, where he has always had a penchant for startups and cycling. After graduating from school, he became the first employee at Meldium, a YC startup that was acquired by LogMeIn. Will has been at Flexport for two years as a software engineer, tech lead, and engineering manager. He’s been instrumental in developing and automating Flexport's ocean freight products and has also supported Flexport.org, building a shipping emissions calculator during a hackathon to help Flexport customers offset the carbon emissions of their freight.
You’ll join fellow software engineers from around the Bay Area and hear brief talks on how technology can be used for good. You’ll also get a close up look at a container port as we pass by the Port of Oakland.
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We'll be cruising on the luxurious San Francisco Spirit. More details will be provided upon confirmation of attendance.
Flexport is the modern freight forwarder. Flexport uniquely delivers a combination of advanced technology, physical logistics infrastructure and human expertise, providing fast and predictable transit times, visibility and control, and lower supply chain costs to logistics and supply chain professionals across the globe.
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First to market with a purpose-built cloud software and data analytics platform, Flexport today connects almost 10,000 clients and suppliers across 109 countries, including established global brands like Georgia-Pacific as well as emerging innovators like Sonos. Flexport offers a full range of services, including ocean, air, truck and rail freight, drayage and cartage, warehousing, customs and trade advisory, financing, and insurance.