bigBANG! 2020 will be live online and – if circumstances allow – will also have gatherings live in person.

Equity in Action: The Next 100 Years! the theme of bigBANG! 2020, will explore topics critical to racial, gender, and economic equity in our communities. The evidence of long-standing discrimination in our nation is clear. Disparities in income, wealth, community infrastructure, educational outcomes, health and incarceration rates all point to systems that serve some groups and exclude others. Centuries of history show that many of our systems to serve the prosperity of white people while excluding people of color and women.

In the first half of 2020, the largest civil rights action since the 1960s began against the backdrop of a global pandemic that disproportionately affects communities of color. And in the same year, the country marks the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment and 100 years of women’s suffrage. bigBANG! 2020 is a rally point for our community, an opportunity to mark the progress that has been made and renew our commitment to the arduous struggle toward equity and justice for all.

Building systems that are equitable for women and people of color expands prosperity for everyone. The opportunities for human-centered design, innovation and impact that will take us there are unprecedented. But even as there are growing reasons to hope, we must commit to reform through principles, policies, and practices that level the playing field and create opportunity. bigBANG! 2020 will lift up rightful disruption and its methods to dismantle injustice and intentionally rework and rebuild systems that provide equal opportunity for all people to participate with dignity in the economic life of our society.