Please note: This event includes a documentary and an interview which you can watch on demand between December 6th and December 20th. On December 6th, you will receive an email with a link to access both the documentary and panel discussion. Space is limited for this event so please register early.
From delivering food and driving ride shares to tagging images for AI, millions of people around the world are finding work task by task online. The gig economy is worth over 5 trillion USD globally, and growing. And yet the stories of the workers behind this tech revolution have gone largely neglected.
Who are the people in this shadow workforce? THE GIG IS UP brings their stories into the light.Lured by the promise of flexible work hours, independence, and control over time and money, workers from around the world have found a very different reality. Work conditions are often dangerous, pay often changes without notice, and workers can effectively be fired through deactivation or a bad rating.
Through an engaging global cast of characters, THE GIG IS UP reveals how the magic of technology we are being sold might not be magic at all.
About Our Speakers:
Speaker: Shannon Walsh has written and directed 5 award-winning feature documentaries. Her work has been theatrically released in the US, UK, Canada, and South Africa, and broadcast on ARTE, Al-Jazeera, CBC, Discovery channel, Netflix and others. Walsh’s films have screened in more than 100 festivals globally such as Hot Docs, CPH:DOX, IDFA, DOC NYC, Visions du Réel, Bejing and others. Walsh is an Associate Professor of Film Production at the University of British Columbia, and a 2020-2021 Guggenheim Fellow. She is currently touring with The Gig is Up (2021), and in development on the hybrid doc Adrianne in the Castle.
In Conversation With: Dr. Sharla Alegria is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and affiliate faculty in the Women and Gender Studies Institute at the University of Toronto. Her research works to understand how race and gender inequality persist in places and organizations that reject discrimination and aspire towards diversity and inclusion. Her current focus is on high-tech, scientific, and knowledge-work and workplaces.
Introduction By: Dr. Sarah Kaplan is Director, Institute for Gender and the Economy, Distinguished Professor of Gender & the Economy and Professor of Strategic Management at Rotman. She is a co-author of the bestselling business book, Creative Destruction as well as Survive and Thrive: Winning Against Strategic Threats to Your Business. Her latest book, The 360° Corporation: From Stakeholder Trade-offs to Transformation was published in September 2019. Her research has covered how organizations participate in and respond to the emergence of new fields and technologies in biotechnology, fiber optics, financial services, nanotechnology and most recently, the field emerging at the nexus of gender and finance. Her current work focuses on applying an innovation lens to understanding the challenges for achieving gender equality.
Location: Online
Venue: On December 6th Rotman events will send all registrants the link for the panel discussion and access to the documentary.