Alissa Constable is an award-winning marketing consultant, executive producer, and strategic partnerships leader who works in the fields of media, entertainment, and technology. As the founder of the Teen Innovation Summit, she hopes to bring the fields of technology, business, and creativity to the youth. The latest event brought out over 300 high school students from the Chicagoland area.
Constable shared what she does in her professional role, the impact of the Teen Innovation Summit, and tips for students interested in tech.
What does a day-to-day look like for you?
I have been working on this experience for almost two decades, but we have moved through different pillars. So, we stay in creativity, technology, and business. So, that’s kind of what we have focused our energy on. To be able to educate young people about career opportunities in that sector.
In my personal life, I’m a consultant. I have clients from design firms through technology and I’ve also worked with businesses. I’m on the advisory board of an information cybersecurity company. So across my career, I’ve worked in all of these sectors and I see the gap. So, I wanted to try to fill that gap with this program.
What impact did the Teen Innovation Summit have on the community in Chicago?
First of all, it was inviting. The second you saw them walking, you saw their faces [light up] like, “Oh, this is it.” They didn’t know what to expect. On one side of the room, we had robotics. On [the other] side of the room, we had an opportunity for them to [experience] old-school gaming. Then we also had colleges. So, we had a layout of kind of the past to the future [through] gaming to the interactive.
We had booths where they could interact with technology. Then we had the opportunity to introduce the three different panels, which were technology, creativity, and business. They had the opportunity to hear from four different professionals and we had a young Emerging Leaders host, which is really important because it helped them connect with the information [better].
Give us three tips for youth who are interested in tech, but don’t know where to start.
I think to start where you are. If you’re in high school and you have a teacher that needs help, intern [with them]. Interning is a big deal. From an adult perspective – educator, parent, or community leader – take a step back and make sure that we’re listening to young people and their thoughts, even if we just don’t understand it. If I had a third one, you have to [just] do it. You have to put one foot in front of the other and not be afraid to fail. Learning how to take a [loss] is really important. You know you’re going to fail, [but focus on] failing fast and failing forward.
