At AFROTECH™ Conference, connecting directly with industry leaders feels effortless.
Jamell Watson attended AFROTECH™ Conference 2025 as Attentive’s director of office operations, an SMS and email marketing platform. He is responsible for running the workplace across three different offices in the U.S., London, and Australia. He is also one of the founding members of the company’s Black union employee resource group, which sponsored some employees’ attendance at this year’s conference under the Executive badge.
“We thought we would [be] boots on the ground and talk to students and people looking for jobs for recruitment purposes,” Watson told AFROTECH™.
“We had some shirts made that made us kind of stand out, along with the Executive badge,” Watson said. “That kind of signifies to people that ‘I’m not looking for a job. I’m here for a purpose.”
“Our main goal was to recruit for some of our sales roles, our engineering roles, and then also to, I wanted the Black union members that went to just learn,” he added.
The Attentive team strategically touched down at the conference on Monday because the sessions and activations primarily targeted student ticket holders. The team aimed to engage with at least five different attendees, and Watson set out to show students that non-technical roles at tech companies are possible, too.
Watson said feedback from students was positive.
“I saw myself a lot in them. I’m a proud graduate of Florida A&M University, and I remember when I was graduating, and I just wanted a chance,” he explained. “And how intimidated it could feel to talk to someone from a big corporation. I wanted us to break that barrier down and approach the students, have a human connection with them, talk to them, put them at ease, and really show them that … we are a big company and a thriving company, and have a place here for you.”
Beyond recruiting, the team leveraged the conference to expand their knowledge and deepen their understanding of the market. They also benefited from sessions and activations exclusive to Executive pass holders. For Watson, the experience included an executive brunch co-sponsored by Airbnb and Twilio, as well as a panel featuring former BET CEO Debra Lee, which was a personal highlight.
“The Executive pass puts you in a different class … It gives you a higher level of access,” Watson explained.
“There were some speaking engagements and some sessions that were open to the executives and up, and not open to the students or Premier [pass holders]. So I wanted our team to get access to as many sessions as possible, and also us as a company, investing in our employees by giving them the Executive pass, I want them to show them ‘Hey we’re serious about your learning development, giving you opportunities to travel and to do different things’ … I thought the Executive pass was appropriate for our team in terms of how we showed up at AFROTECH™ and how it represented Attentive at the conference.”
Watson also said that attending the event with an Executive pass made it easier to identify and spark conversations with industry peers from Howard University, Prairie View A&M University, and more.
“I was able to break that ice a little bit better,” he explained.
Looking ahead, Watson says he is considering returning to AFROTECH™ Conference, which is coming back to Houston for a third year from Nov. 2-6.
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