>> Welcome to Microsoft Unboxed.
I'm one of your hosts Sonia Dara,
and I'm joined by Colleen O'Brian
who's one of my friends co-host
just a lovely human being all around.
>> Thank you. Hello world.
>> We have a super special episode of Microsoft Unboxed today,
where Colleen and I are going to be celebrating 'Pride'.
>> Pride.
>> But before we dive in,
please remember to subscribe.
Hit that button right over there, it's red.
You can probably see it. Give it a click.
>> So we're inviting two very special guests to join us today.
We have ALeksey and Selena from the Pride Campaign committee,
coming in to share all the great things that Microsoft is
doing this month in throughout the year for 'Pride'.
>> It is a lot of stuff that is getting done for 'Pride'.
We have great product activations,
events and donations to non-profits
that support the LGBTQ I Plus community.
>> Yeah. There's a lot going on.
>> Why don't we check in with Aleksey and
Selena in our interview and hear about more of that.
>> Yeah. Let's go and check it out. We're super
excited to welcome today.
We have Aleksey and Selena who
are heavily involved with Microsoft pride campaign.
Welcome thank you so much for joining us.
So obviously pride huge investment from your guys' side,
Microsoft's side everyone is super excited.
What is your involvement with the pride campaign right now?
>> I'm the Program Manager.
So basically working alongside Aleksey
taking the campaign and bringing it to life.
So these wonderful posters you see behind you.
A lot of the videos that we produced to the employees.
We've made products this year,
and actually then also just getting everyone lined up
behind within Microsoft to promote those.
>> She makes the pride train run on time.
>> I do.
>> It's a very colorful train and it wants to turn one there.
She was like No, no, no go.. There.
>> Keeps it on track.
>> So what I do, I'm a co-chair of a Pride.
The role is more of curating
Pride and figuring out what is our message?
What are we trying to accomplish internally and externally?
Really activating it with employees as well as with our customers.
We're here just two people but there
is two hundred and fifty eight volunteers.
>> Wow.
>> Two hundred and fifty eight?
>> Two hundred and fifty eight volunteers,
and this is around the world.
>> That's fantastic.
>> I love that.
>> Your conducting that pride drain.
>> So taking it a step back,
we'd love to hear a little bit more about you two,
where you're from, where you grew
up and what brought you to Microsoft?
>> I'm originally from Canada from Vancouver.
Just up the road here from Seattle. I grew up there.
I lived in London England for a long time and
then moved to Seattle now working at
Microsoft working on surface computers
and bringing those to market to launch.
>> I'm coming from Russia across the Narrow Sea.
I joined Microsoft right after business school.
So my team won
the business case competition and accompany about us over,
and that's how I joined.
I did consumer marketing for Windows, for apps.
So when I moved in here to take on
the brand strategy in the Microsoft store,
I felt that doing pride was a way for me to explore
my identity understand me better,
but also help others who might be in
the similar position globally as well as here.
>> What is the Pride campaign all about this year?
>> It's the 50th anniversary of Stonewall uprising.
Stonewall uprising happened in 1969
in New York Stonewall in essentially a bar.
At that time, the bars were
the only safe space for LGBTQI plus people,
and the safe space.
What it means is that the police would burst not every day,
but every other day,
and it would have [inaudible] and arrested for
maybe cross-dressing or just being indecent.
Because being an acqui-hire bar at the time was indecent.
So on June 28th,
the patrons of the Stonewall ends enough,
and for three days,
they went to the streets and they rioted.
That was really very interdisciplinary movement.
It was people have colored, it was drag queens,
it was young people,
it was people from like elderly in the community,
it was a bunch of people who said enough is enough.
The next year the very first Pride happened,
and it changed the Civil Rights Movement holds LGBTQI
plus people in a way that it started more about,
hey let's be out, let's demand equality,
let's fight for rights instead of
assimilationist policies that existed before.
So for us when we talked internally about
pride campaign and they were like
hundreds of us in this conversation.
We said, "it's not just about celebrating the community.
It's not just about uplifting our voices.
We all need to take action.
We need to move this train going forward.
We need to continue progress because there was
so much that still needs to happen."
That's why our key message is,
what actions will you take?
That's the action for our employees internally.
We ask them to share the actions they're
taking and it's how external message as well,
where we ask people to share the actions Microsoft is
taking and also take action themselves.
>> Yeah exactly that.
From last year's campaign,
we were asking, who will you lift up?
We're really amplifying people's voices and stories,
and then when we were talking about it for this year that's how we
moved it onto what actions will we take?
It can be a small action.
It can just be being invisible ally to
somebody at work or a friend or donating to a charity.
So you know they can be very small actions.
We then develop this creative internally with
some really great partners here as well at
Microsoft to develop these buttons,
and the employees we crowd source for
what people wanted on the buttons this.
>> Awesome.
>> Yeah, and so these are
actual submissions by employees at Microsoft.
I think there's about hundred and twenty five designs.
>> One hundred and fifty.
>> One hundred and fifty now designs of these buttons,
and we created all of those. We had them printed.
But you can also go to the website
Microsoft.com for such pride and at the bottom there,
you can download the button
templates yourself and all these buttons and create them.
So for your own message.
>> Print off and button.
>> Yeah.
>> Or 20.
An action. Like just wearing a button.
It takes a stand that's an action you can take.
>> Has anyone won all one hundred and fifty.
>> All the pieces of flare can you imagine.
>> [inaudible] Idea for Pride that's what I'll do.
>> All backyard.
>> Conductor hat.
>> What has been the hardest part
of working on the pride campaign?
>> Running out wine.
>> I was going to say working.
I was going to say working with you.
>> Thank you.
>> I think for me,
I mean we're doing things across Surface,
Windows, Bing, Office, Xbox, Mixer, Skype.
>> Microsoft Store, Rewards.
>> Rewards. We're going across so many teams.
>> Sixty-one cities, 30 countries.
>> Yeah. Making sure that
all the latest information is shared
back and forth between all these teams,
bringing them on board to our launch moment which was May 31st,
and so just really trying to keep all those plates spinning.
>> You got all month, right?
>> Yeah. We have the whole year.
If you look at the calendar, it's nine months out of 12.
>> Okay.
>> Somewhere around the world,
there is the March,
nine months out of 12.
>> So the Seattle Pride March will be on June 30th.
What are you most looking forward to about that event?
>> Not wearing high heels because I did this
for the kickoff and my legs fell off.
I were like, I don't know how people do it.
What are you most excited?
>> The whole buildup to the parade.
You congregate in the street
where you're lining up for the march and everyone's
getting their signs and everyone gets to
personalize their sign in the Microsoft March.
So that's really exciting.
But then when you actually set off and
start the March, that's the best part.
That's where the magic really starts when
you start moving and doing the procession.
So I'm really looking forward to that
and seeing everybody lining the streets,
it feels like you're making a difference.
>> I feel these small moments when last year
a couple of people brought their kids
and they just smiling and happy.
There was a person in a wheelchair with a flag on the back and
they're now procession and everybody's there because they care,
and that's what makes Pride happy place for me.
>> So it sounds like in addition to,
we added products across the board you mentioned that we released.
Do mind talking a little bit about this?
>> So this is Surface Pro and we made two products in
limited quantities as limited edition but we made
this type cover which was inspired,
this font from Stonewall,
and we took the Pride flag with the brown and
the black stripes to be inclusive.
>> People of color.
>> People of color. So I had this made in limited editions.
>> When we think about pride,
it's actually many communities,
it's not just the rainbow flag.
There is much more and that's what we're
doing with the skin on the bag,
is we embracing 16 flags of LGBTQ+ community,
and they're across gender identity spectrums
and sexual orientation spectrums.
What we're doing here, we're reflecting on our roots as
a technology company and we're
inspiring a little bit about infographic,
digital age feeling while
using these flags and embracing this design.
>> Yeah. We are actually donating to charities as well.
So we're selling these in four countries and
we've made a donation in each of those countries,
to put our money where our mouth is to
support the LGBTQ+ community.
>> Pride for us is not profiting off people.
Microsoft has a history of inclusion since 1989
where almost the industry-leading
company with a same-sex benefits,
with a gender affirming,
a healthcare services in
this country and in many countries around the world.
We want to say, when we released these products,
it's not for us to make the buck.
It's to give visibility to
these groups and showcase how we value them.
That's why we make a lump sum donation of 100K.
Also there is another nonprofit destination
Tomorrow which is based
in New York and Microsoft Store Team awarded them at grand,
and what destination Tomorrow does is that they
empower people of color to
learn coding and they create an equity in the community in Bronx.
>> I really appreciated watching that Destination Tomorrow video.
There was so much passion to learn how to code
but the resources of the organization didn't permit them to do so.
They only had four working computers
and a large population to serve.
So to see the light on their faces when they
had access to all of those new devices was really powerful.
>> Yes.
>> If you have some Microsoft rewards from searching,
you can actually donate them to the Trevor Project.
>> That's awesome and they're matching it.
>> That's right, yeah.
So I just went on yesterday and donated mine.
>> What's jumping overtime?
>> Forty-thousand.
>> I should do that.
>> We're definitely going to do that.
>> So Microsoft is clearly investing in Pride on many fronts.
How does it feel for you to work at a company that
is supporting that mission?
>> I feel seen.
When I was in Russia,
I didn't feel like I existed.
I didn't feel like I mattered.
When I come to work and I know that the company is behind me,
I feel oh my goodness, they value me for who I am.
>> I feel just a little bit
safer listening to both of your description.
Feels like we're living in
an uncertain world and it's nice to
feel like you're backed in some capacity.
>> I agree.
>> Yeah. That's a good description.
>> I think all those little actions have
a ripple effect and make people feel supported and valued.
I personally think that's invaluable.
We want to feel proud for who we work for and I do.
>> I feel all warm and fuzzy.
Okay, yeah I set myself up for that one.
So what are you hoping people outside
of Microsoft could learn from our campaign?
>> Again, I'm just really happy that we're raising up
these issues just really to build on
their empathy and their education and
hopefully global understanding that
really we're all just living life and loving who we want to love.
So I just hope it just feeds into that.
>> I hope it opens up someone's mind and they will say,
"Oh, it's actually a new way to think about those things.
I haven't thought about that way."
Or maybe it will be
new information for somebody and they will say,
"Oh, I never knew that.
I want to learn more, I want to support."
>> When Microsoft does something big like this,
other corporations really take note and
develop and really commit to those best practices.
So again, thank you both for your work here because I
imagine it's going to have a ripple effect
to other companies globally.
>> I want to thank 250 volunteers.
Because there is two of us but there is many people
and that is the beauty of it.
>> Thank you both though, sincerely.
>> If you're watching this YouTube show,
checkout Microsoft.com/pride.
You'll learn all about the actions you can take,
the actions we are taking.
Download the buttons, I love the buttons the most
and just hang out there and learn from Microsoft employees.
It's just such a fun website.
We build it like for two months.
Please go. Go now.
Go click. Click.
>> So I'm feeling super pumped and excited for Pride this year.
I'm feeling all the love already and it was
great to see all the work that Alexi,
Selena, and everyone else who's volunteering to
really help pull all this campaign together. It's awesome.
>> Yeah, their work is really inspirational.
They've thought about so many different ways that
people might want to participate in the celebration,
and they're making it accessible to so many people.
>> Yeah. Like if you wanted to go for a film screening,
you could do that and if you want to go
and participate in a parade,
or if it's helping design even like the posters or
the buttons and a lot of this crowd source campaign, it's awesome.
>> It seems like the program has been incredibly inclusive.
They've really moved in members of the community,
258 volunteers. That's just so huge.
>> Yeah, designing for and
with the community which is really powerful.
So this year's campaign theme was very focused on actions.
So not just words but what are we actually
doing to make and implement change.
So what are you thinking?
What are your actions for Pride this year?
>> Sure. I've participated in the Pride Parade in the past
and I definitely plan to be there again this year.
>> Me too.
>> But I think on that new action that I'm going to
be taking is donating to the Trevor Project.
I learned that I could be using Microsoft Rewards to make
that donation but I'm definitely going to
be making a personal donation on top of that.
>> Yeah, same here for both.
Microsoft Rewards is awesome
matching everyone's donations which is
incredible and this will be my first Pride Parade to march in,
so I'm very excited.
One of my colleagues, he invited all of us to join him.
So I'm excited to support him and
the community and to be an ally. Way to go.
>> Yeah, you too.
>> So that wraps it up for our very special episode
of Microsoft Unbox.
Please make sure to subscribe to
our channel if you haven't done so already.
We have new episode every Thursday at 9:00 AM Pacific,
then you get to see our smiley faces.
>> Thank you so much for watching
and we hope to see you at the march.
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