Collision from Home: Shaquille O'Neal, Steady announce $2 million contribution to Covid-19 campaign

TORONTO, June 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal today announced a $2 million donation to people struggling financially because of Covid-19. O'Neal made the announcement at the 30,000-attendee online conference Collision from Home, produced by the team behind Web Summit – the world's largest tech conference.

O'Neal has teamed up with Steady – a platform that helps  users find jobs, seek financial advice and save money – and joined CEO Adam Roseman to speak about why the company is making the $2 million donation.

"We, as Steady, are giving away $2 million in emergency cash grants for those people that we've identified that have had losses due to Covid-19. Even though as a business we're not where we want to be, our aim is still to help people make income. Looking at the stats – 40 million people out of work – that saddens me," said O'Neal.

O'Neal explained why he got involved with Steady, remembering the financial hardship his family experienced.

"I had to go back to my childhood, and you know what, my mom and dad needed something like this. Because I used to see them struggle, going through newspapers, borrowing money from people, trying to go to the bank. I thought this is the right thing to do," said O'Neal.  

Using data that users have uploaded to the app, Steady has been able to see how Covid-19 has disproportionately affected African-Americans in the US.

"What's unbelievably shocking is that over 70 percent of these individuals have stated that they've had to skip meals as a result of the income loss they've suffered. What's equally as shocking, relevant to everything that's going on around us right now, is that roughly 50 percent of these individuals are African-American," said CEO Adam Roseman.

Download a clip from the interview  here.

About Shaquille O'Neal:

Shaquille O'Neal is considered one of the greatest players in NBA history and has long been a proponent of smart financial planning. Over the years, this instinct has led him to invest in a diverse set of companies, including esports team NRG Esports and restaurant chain Five Guys. In August 2018, Shaquille joined Steady as an adviser and advocate. Steady helps to ease the crisis facing millions of gig economy and hourly workers.

About Collision:

Collision is known by CBC as the "TIFF for tech", while Inc. Magazine calls it the "fastest-growing tech conference in North America". Collision is set to move online for 2020 with Collision from Home. Collision will return to Toronto as a physical event for the second year from June 21-24, 2021 at the Enercare Centre.

About Web Summit:

Forbes says Web Summit is "the best tech conference on the planet"; Bloomberg calls it "Davos for geeks"; Politico, "the Olympics of tech"; The Guardian, "Glastonbury for geeks"; and, in the words of Inc. Magazine, "Web Summit is the largest technology conference in the world".

Whatever Web Summit is, it wouldn't be possible without an incredible team of over 200 employees based in Dublin, Lisbon, Toronto and Hong Kong, including world-class engineers, data scientists, designers, producers, marketers, salespeople, and more. They've disrupted an old industry by building incredible software and designing mind-blowing events, revolutionising how people and ideas come together to change the world.

Useful links:

Collision images: https://www.flickr.com/photos/collisionconf/
Collision speaker lineup: https://collisionconf.com/speakers

Collision schedule: https://collisionconf.com/schedule