FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
OHUB + New Orleans BioInnovation Center Host AI Driven Equity Program at Essence Fest | July 5th
-Top innovators to discuss ownership, opportunity, and inclusion in the age of AI at the Essence Festival’s New Voices Entrepreneur Village.
(New Orleans, LA)– OHUB and the New Orleans BioInnovation Center are hosting “Owning our Future: What’s Next for Industry 4.0 on July 5th at 1pm in Essence Fest’s New Voices Entrepreneur Village.
In partnership with the New Voices Foundation, the program dives into navigating AI and making it accessible to everyone. AI isn’t just disrupting the future—it’s redefining who owns it. This session shows how to shift from being a consumer of technology to an owner of systems. Guests will learn how they can build businesses, shape platforms, and claim power in the next economy to own their future and lead in industry 4.0.
The conversation will spotlight the urgent need to broaden AI access and ownership especially among in our most overlooked, historically marginalized communities—and feature a powerhouse lineup of leaders, including:
- Kieran Blanks, MBA — Chief Product Officer at OHUB and Founder of The Blankslate Group
- Dr. Trivia Frazier — Co-Founder, President & CEO, Obatala Sciences
- Victoria Adams Phipps — Vice President, Global Philanthropy, JPMorgan Chase
- Moderated by Daphine Barnes, Executive Director of Economic Mobility at Greater New Orleans, Inc.
“Too often, our most vulnerable communities are the last to access the tools that shape and define new economies. The AI Product School & Lab we’re building is here to change that,” said Kieran Blanks, MBA, Chief Product Officer at OHUB and Founder of The Blankslate Group. “We’re not slow dancing around AI—we’re choreographing a new playbook. One that’s narrative-driven, context-rich, and built to bring historically sidelined talent to the center stage of the next economy.”
Blanks is the AI Expert-in-Residence at OHUB, where he leads product strategy for emerging tech. An Aspen Institute Fellow, he has spent the past decade applying human-centered design to frontier technologies and shaping education and workforce policy nationwide.
The New Orleans BioInnovation Center (NOBIC) is a nonprofit committed to building a cycle of entrepreneurial support from high school to company exit. This program is part of their Advancing Diversity in Life Sciences initiative (ADLS) sponsored by JP Morgan Chase.
“NOBIC provides educational programming for founders who are underinvested and underrepresented in bioentrepreneurship to help them grow their startups,” said CEO of Obatala Sciences and NOBIC ADLS Co-Chair Trivia Frazier, PhD, MBA. “I’m honored to be on this panel and share my experience as a female founder of a biotechnology company in New Orleans. NOBIC and I are thrilled to have OHUB and the New Voices Foundation partnering with us on this important programming.”
The program is located in the New Voices Village at Essence fest and is open to entrepreneurs, policymakers, city leaders, philanthropic investors, workforce innovators, BioScience Majors and technologists committed to equity in the digital economy. To RSVP, Click Here.
About OHUB
Founded in 2013, Opportunity Hub (OHUB) is the leading technology, startup, and venture ecosystem development platform committed to ensuring that everyone, regardless of background, has direct access to the future of work, fourth industrial revolution and beyond as a path to multi-generational wealth creation with no reliance on pre-existing multi-generational wealth.
One of its most recent initiatives is OHUB’s High-Growth Company Building Certificate Program, a rigorous, self-paced, 100% virtual course designed for founders, investors, and professionals ready to launch, grow, and scale businesses built for long-term growth and investment.
About New Orleans BioInnovation Center
The New Orleans BioInnovation Center (NOBIC) is a nonprofit business incubator focused on advancing life science entrepreneurship and technology commercialization in Louisiana. The mission of NOBIC is to create a successful biotech ecosystem by providing emerging companies with customized commercialization services, premier facilities, and a comprehensive support network. Through relationships with research institutions, economic development organizations, and industry stakeholders, NOBIC helps its clients de-risk novel technologies, attract funding, and improve global health outcomes.
About New Voices Foundation
New Voices Foundation is a ground-breaking, community-building effort designed to build a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem for women of color to advance their significant contributions to our economy and society. Driven by its PACE (Purpose.Access.Capital.Expertise.) model, New Voices offers women of color entrepreneurs access to capital, leadership development, skill-building, and networking opportunities via entrepreneurial summits, accelerators, bootcamps, grants, mentoring and coaching, and more.
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