My experience at the Departure 2025 conference

It was nice to see someone who looks like me on the stage speaking to the audience while inspiring change for the future conferences to come.

As a Sikh journalist, I’ve covered many conferences. I’ve sat through endless industry panels where the South Asian presence was either non-existent or tacked on like an afterthought. So, walking into Departure 2025, I braced myself for the usual: a sea of industry folks who looked nothing like me, talking about things that had nothing to do with my com…