Women Leading the Industry: Lori H. Schwartz

Lori H. Schwartz, affectionately known as the “Tech Cat (Technology Catalyst),” is a leading voice at the crossroads of media, technology, and storytelling. As Founder and CEO of StoryTech, she guides brands and executives through the fast-changing innovation landscape with curated tech tours, salon-style gatherings, and strategy sessions.

A longtime champion of turning complex trends into practical insights, Lori is recognized for creating VIP experiences at global events such as CES, NAB Show, Infinity Festival, and now the HPA Retreat! She brings leaders face-to-face with transformative ideas in AI, immersive media, and next-gen connectivity, helping them understand not just what’s coming, but how to act on it.

As a sought-after host and moderator, Lori is known for her mix of insights, humor, and authority. She has led hundreds of panels and fireside chats with senior executives, producers, and technologists, bridging Hollywood creativity with Silicon Valley innovation.

A frequent CNN contributor, Lori also designs conversations that spark community and collaboration across industries. Her mission is simple: to help organizations and audiences embrace change with confidence, curiosity, and imagination and have fun doing it.

She is the proud mom of GEN Zer and animator, Sadie Bee, who teaches her new stuff daily.

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What advice would you give a young woman starting in the industry?

Stay passionate and focused and don’t sweat the small stuff.  We all get so consumed by the idea of what we are supposed to be like or how things are supposed to play out, but if you can find ways to be in the moment of it all, you’ll let go of all of that self-analysis and just be in your life.  I know for women of my generation, we had these preconceived notions of how a woman was supposed to navigate in work situations. I think current generations seem to process this much more healthily, but as a reminder, I think it’s important to ‘do you’.

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If you could give your younger self one piece of career advice, what would it be?

It’s important to have passion and aim for doing what turns you on. I don’t remember ever stopping to think, “I’m not going to be able to make this happen for myself,” I just kept picking myself up and iterating to figure out what made me happy. But I never did set smaller goals so I could be strategic; I just kept throwing myself in the direction of things that excited me. I do think it’s important to set mini-goals so you can re-evaluate and not get stuck in something that’s not working or stay too long somewhere simply because it becomes comfortable.

Things change all the time, especially now, with AI and other socio-economic situations, so it’s good to be nimble. But you must always find your joy.

Have you ever had a moment in your career where you felt especially proud to be a woman in this industry? What made it meaningful?

When younger women reach out to me with questions and ask for guidance and later tell me how much it helped.  It’s a wonderful feeling and an important gift to mentor and when you receive some feedback on that, it’s very rewarding. It’s like, oh yeah, I know my stuff! And if I can solve a problem for someone else, isn’t that kind of the point?

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Who are some female role models who have inspired you?

Diane Keaton. For being just, her…for her fashion sense, for her not wanting to be defined by her romantic relationships, for portraying parts, for the most part, that showcased multi-dimensional women even if the writing didn’t afford it. It was how she lived her life. And while I didn’t know her personally, what I was exposed to as a fan was inspirational.  She was unique and different before it was cool and never showboated that aspect of her life or personality as a marketing ploy. It just was who she was.

I am also daily inspired by women in the civil services, who have high-profile roles in our government and who must put up with so much to just show up every day and let their voices be heard.  They live with the constant 1,000 papercuts that Sheryl Sandberg referenced and that has never stopped them from staying the course and representing their constituents in the best way that they can.

What do you think are the most significant barriers for women in our industry, and how can we work together to overcome them?  

Something we don’t always acknowledge is that careers grow through opportunity.  You need hours, experience, and the chance to take on real challenges. It’s basically about what Malcolm Gladwell talked about in Outliers: The Story of Success. Gladwell talked about the 10,000-hour rule, “Success requires immense practice, but the opportunity to practice for that long is not equally distributed.” If certain groups, whether it’s women or people of color, aren’t given those chances at the same rate, they never get the time, the access, to build the expertise needed to reach the next level.  We need to be driven to create those opportunities, we need to ‘fill the pipe’ with up-and-coming resources who will contribute to our world and lastly, we need to be responsible for creating an easier path for those resources.   

What does International Women’s Day mean to you personally?

I tend to prefer the word global over international.
“International” often implies borders and travel.
“Global” reflects the world we live in today — one shaped by technology, multicultural collaboration, distributed teams, and the ability to build and scale ideas across geographies without needing to physically be everywhere.  

I have never been a big fan of creating ‘days’ to celebrate groups because as Hillary Clinton said, “Women’s rights are human rights”, so I almost wish we were celebrating ‘global humanity’. 

One thing we don’t always talk about openly—because it can drift into politics or religion—is the role that family planning plays in economic and social development globally.

Across many regions of the world, when women can make decisions about when and how they build their families, we consistently see stronger outcomes for communities; economies grow, education levels rise, and families tend to be healthier and more stable. And those women can go on to contribute to their communities, their local businesses, their countries and beyond when given the freedom to do so.

So, when conversations arise about funding for global programs that support family planning, it’s important to recognize that for many families this isn’t primarily a religious question—it’s often an economic one. These decisions shape how families grow, how communities sustain themselves, and ultimately how societies thrive. We are truly one world right now and should all be setting each other up for success.

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