7 minute read
Digital Focus — Kasey Machin
Kasey Machin witnessed the destructiveness of trolls. Digital Focus
asey Machin is the co-founder of Parity YEG and the Chief Oper-K ating Officer at Areto Labs. She and her colleagues at Areto Labs found that they could do something about trolls who attacked female candidates running for elections. She worked as a policy and communications adviser to Edmonton City Councillor Andrew Knack and witnessed first hand how nasty trolls are. She was resolved to change the vitriolic narrative for women who would like to serve in a political capacity but are damaged by these trolls emotionally. ParityBOT, a Twitter bot that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to track, measure, and analyze tweets sent to women candidates running for office and for every extremely toxic tweet sent, a positive message of support is automatically posted in response. The idea resonated with people and there was clearly a broader need for this type of technology so they decided to start Areto Labs as a social impact company in 2020. ParityBot has been used across Canada, Australia and the United States of America. They are on a mission to build a suite of culture-building apps and bots to help leaders foster more positive and inclusive digital communities. LCCMedia was excited to chat with Kasey about her work.
May I ask what inspired the work you do at ParityYeg?
Before we started ParityYEG, I had been volunteering on many campaigns and boards aiming to increase gender parity in politics, but after the 2017 municipal election where we saw just two women elected to city council, after almost 100 years of gender disparity on council, I became really motivated to get involved specifically at a local level. Founding ParityYEG was a way for us to pool our efforts, networks, and resources together with the sole mission of encouraging and supporting gender diverse candidates to run for office. Gender parity is critical to a healthy democracy and governments should reflect those they represent. For too long they haven’t and we wanted to do something about it.
Are you pleased with the progress PartyYEG is making at the moment in Alberta?
Absolutely! From a ParityYEG perspective, Edmonton not
only elected our first gender parity city council since 1989, we also elected the first two BIPOC women councillors, and for the first time in a long time, Edmonton city council is going to look a whole lot more like the city it represents! We worked hard to not only recruit women to run for office, but support them along the way by developing a number of resources, including workshops and campaign resource kits. We were able to commission the City of Edmonton’s Historian Laureate to write a report on the history of gender representation in Edmonton’s municipal elections, which helps us understand some of the ways in which people from BIPOC and gender-diverse backgrounds have been systematically excluded from voting and running for office within municipal government. We’ve seen three of our own board members run for office, which I hope continues and only builds a larger funnel of candidates for future elections, and partnered with many other incredible organizations to make change. Lastly, we’ve managed to engage with most—if not all the candidates—to just congratulate them on their campaigns. It takes a lot of courage to put your name forward and we want to celebrate that—regardless of the outcome. This was a collective effort from so many volunteers and supporters, other great organizations working on similar goals, people in positions of power advocating for it, along with all the work so many people did long before us to get to this point. When I think about the fact that it was only around 1960 when ALL women were granted the right to vote, let alone run for office, I am amazed at how far we’ve come.
While we’ve made gains, we still are not seeing the full diversity of our communities being reflected in those elected to represent us, so there is more work to do and certainly something ParityYEG needs to improve on in order to ensure our work is intersectional and representative of a broader group of people.
How are you able to finance your excellent business ideas?
As an early stage tech startup, we rely on grants, investments, and our own finances to bootstrap our company while we scale. We’ve been fortunate to have received support early on from a variety of funding streams which has been critical to our growth.
Why was there a need for Areto Labs? Can you explain what you do here and the concept behind the Areto Labs?
Areto Labs was formed due to a lot of our work with ParityYEG. Lana, my co-founder, and I were recruiting women to run for office and more often than not we heard women say that online toxicity and abuse was a major barrier and deterrent to running for office. It was something we knew was a major problem and had all kinds of research to back up, but no real solutions for those impacted by it. That was what led us to invent ParityBOT—a Twitter bot that uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to track, measure, and analyze tweets sent to women candidates running for office and for every extremely toxic tweet sent, a positive message of support is automatically posted in response. The idea resonated with people and there was clearly a broader need for this type of technology so we decided to start Areto Labs as a social impact company in 2020. It was through our market research that we realized digital inclusion and safety is critical for people to do their jobs effectively on both private and public digital platforms, and we’re on a mission to build a suite of culture-building apps and bots to help leaders foster more positive and inclusive digital communities.
Does your digital work life ever end?
It’s tough, some days are better than others, but I find it very tough to ‘turn off’ work for a variety of reasons (startups are a lot of work!) but especially because Areto Labs is a fully remote company with employees all over the world, which means my living room is my office and sometimes I have to work on New Zealand time!
What are your plans for 2022?
I really hope to do some travelling and enjoy a bit of down time. I also hope to celebrate an Oilers Stanley Cup win (one can hope right?!) and see some family and friends I haven’t been able to see since March 2020.
Do you ever rest? What do you do for your mental health?
Yes! Not as much as I should, but I do carve out time daily to go for a walk with my dog, which is very good for my mental wellness. I see a therapist and business coach regularly, along with my mentors and advisors, which helps me navigate the challenges of work and personal life. And I spend as much time as possible with my family and friends who bring me joy and keep me smiling through tough times.
What books are by your bedside table? Please share a poem or favorite quote with us.
Right now I’m reading Radical Candor by Kim Scott and Hacking Growth by Sean Ellis and Morgan Brown. Both are related to work but I love reading novels the most. Fall On Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald and Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese are two of my favourites!
The theme of our holiday edition is around recipes. Please can you kindly share a special holiday recipe with us?
I don’t cook but I love a good holiday cocktail! Here is my recipe for Mistletoe Margarita which can be mocktail or cocktail style—cheers!
To find out more please visit www.aretolabs.com
Kasey Machin’s Mistletoe Margarita Recipe Ingredients
1/2 c. whole cranberries 1/4 c. granulated sugar, divided 2 tbsp. kosher salt 1 wedge lime, for rim 2 c. cranberry juice 12 oz. silver tequila 8 oz. Triple Sec 1/2 c. plus 1 tbsp. lime juice, divided 12 c. ice
Mint, for garnish
Directions
• In a medium bowl, toss cranberries with 1 tablespoon lime juice. Drain out lime juice, then toss with 2 tablespoons of sugar. Pour onto a baking sheet to dry. • Combine remaining sugar with salt on a shallow plate and mix to combine. Using the lime wedge, wet rim of each glass, then dip in sugar salt mixture. • Combine cranberry juice, tequila, Triple Sec, remaining 1/2 cup lime juice, and ice in a large blender, working in batches if necessary. Blend until smooth. • Pour into prepared glasses and garnish with a sprig of mint and a couple of sugared cranberries.
