Girl Geek Dinners

Girl Geeks are back!

Girl Geeks are back!

Be a part of shaping future events and come along to the Pitcher and Piano at 7:30 on Wednesday 22th October. We want to know what is was about the old Girl Geek events that made you come back time and time again. We would like to hear about what Girl Geeks means to you and what you want to see more of in the meetings. We want to hear about why you are a geek and what passions you have, and what we can do to share and build on your knowledge and interests. We want Girl Geeks to be about you and for you and we are inviting you to come along to help us achieve just that.

This is an informal social in the run up to more events coming in the near future.

Old rules still apply, guys are allowed but only by invite from a girl.

Sign up on the wiki.

Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner on October 2nd

Always wanted a Girl Geek Dinner in Frankfurt? Well, now you can have it! I am extremly happy to introduce Carmen Villadar to you (@digitalfemme on Twitter) who will start of the Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinners on October 2nd. It is hosted together with Claudia Rauch.

The official invitation is posted below, and do have a look at the guest list.

October is the month for our 1st Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner. We’re excited and looking forward to this event and we hope you are too.

Our 1st Frankfurt Girl Geek Dinner will take place on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at the Brotfabrik. An old bread factory in the Frankfurt neighbourhood of Hausen.

It will actually be in the very comfortable kp-21 Café. You’ll be able to find drinks and a wide variety of delicious treats to enjoy while the evening rolls out. We’ll be expecting you at 6:30pm for the “mixer & elixir” part. This is where you don name tags, settle in, grab a drink (elixir) and mingle with others (mixer).

We should all be seated around 7:15pm just in time for the usual Welcome & Introductions. Feel free to enjoy your meal while the talks get underway. We’ll start the presentations when everyone appears finished with their meal.

There will be a program and it will involve your participation ).

We’ve set an initial seating limit to 20 people. If you plan on attending please let us know ASAP by registering via email at contact@frankfurtgirlgeekdinners.com. Deadline for registration will be Wednesday, October 1 at 12 noon. If we receive a registration of more than 20 attendees we’ll still be able to accommodate everyone as long as we receive your email by the deadline stated.

Guys can definitely attend but you need to bring a female guest. If you plan on coming with a female guest please include your name and her name in the email.

We’ll be posting a list of names of people (and their guests) that have registered via email on the *official* site as we get them.

We hope to see you there.

Brotfabrik Hausen e.V.
Bachmannstr. 2-4

D-60488 Frankfurt am Main

Tel. 069/24790800
Fax.069/24790809

Directions

Montreal Girl Geek Dinners Participate in Blog Action Day – How about YOU?

TGGD #8: Amber MacArthur talks Personal Brand

We’re thrilled to have Amber MacArthur, aka Amber Mac as our guest speaker at Toronto Girl Geek Dinner #8 on October 29, 2008.

Amber is a new media journalist and web strategist. She creates and co-hosts a video podcast called commandN and co-hosts net@nite. She also works for Toronto’s CP24 as New Media Specialist. Learn more about Amber.

The theme for Amber’s talk is how to build (and maintain) your personal brand.

Over a decade ago, Tom Peters wrote:

It’s a new brand world.

That cross-trainer you’re wearing — one look at the distinctive swoosh on the side tells everyone who’s got you branded. That coffee travel mug you’re carrying — ah, you’re a Starbucks woman! Your T-shirt with the distinctive Champion “C” on the sleeve, the blue jeans with the prominent Levi’s rivets, the watch with the hey-this-certifies-I-made-it icon on the face, your fountain pen with the maker’s symbol crafted into the end …

You’re branded, branded, branded, branded.

It’s time for me — and you — to take a lesson from the big brands, a lesson that’s true for anyone who’s interested in what it takes to stand out and prosper in the new world of work.

Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.

To get the conversation started, Amber will share her experiences, insights and the tools she uses to manager her own personal brand.

We’re heading back to Fionn MacCool’s, a pub at University and Adelaide. The good folks there take good care of us! We’ll kick off with drinks and some nosh (cash and carry) at 7:00 p.m. and ask Amber to start her talk around 7:30 p.m.

You guys know how this works. Cruise on over to the Toronto Girl Geek Dinner wiki to sign up to participate on October 29. Don’t forget to hit up our Facebook Group, give us some love on your blogs, post some tweets on Twitter and help us get the word out about our event on October 29.

WHAT did She Say?! I can't hear HER!?

AMS GGD #3 – Current Attendee List

Wednesday, 8 October — 7-11 PM
Flexbar @ Westergasfabriek
Pazzanistraat 1, Amsterdam

This is a list of attendees for AMS Girl Geek Dinner #3:

(Last updated: 7 October, 2008)

• Julie Lerman
• Melanie Rieback
• Donna Metzlar
• Janna Schouten
• Tanja Sihvonen
• Marjon Wiendels
• Sarah Kendrew
• Roxana Konig
• Baukje Stamm
• Lora Aroyo
• Christine Fischer
• Anu Määttä
• Tancha Christiaase
• Daphne Horn
• Hendrike Peetz
• Anna Tordai
• Monique Vael
• Laura Hollink
• Sarah Kraynick
• Ace Medlock
• Sophie van Waesberghe
• Paulien Dresscher
• Minke Kampman
• Karlijn van den Berg
• Namita Bhargava
• Hulya (MEETin.org)
• Jeantine Mankelow
• Karen Roche
• MariCarmen Perez
• Danielle Loppe

And..

• Bram Visser (guest of Christine Fischer)
• Wilco Verdoold (guest of Tancha Christiaase)
• Django Bestenbreur (guest of Monique Vael)
• Eric Herman (guest of Ace Medlock)
• Chris Tzolov (guest of Lora Aroyo)
• Baran Sari (guest of Melanie Rieback)
• Wolf Schouten (guest of Janna Schouten)
• Venkatasubramani Sambandan (guest of Hulya)
• Matthew Dobson

If you want to be added to the attendee list, please send an email to the organizers. Also, please specify if you will be bringing a male guest along.

Amsterdam Girl Geek Dinner #3

Julie Lerman

Staying dry while drinking from the technology firehose

Date: Wednesday, 8 October, 2008
Time: 7-11 PM
Location: Flexbar (Pazzanistraat 1, Amsterdam)
Cost: 22.50 Euros (buffet dinner, excluding drinks)

The Flexbar is located on the Westergasfabriek terrain.

Abstract: Julie Lerman has been programming for over 20 years, with the glorious beginnings of a single BASIC computer class while acquiring a degree in Russian history. At her first job (nothing to do with history) the only computer in a company of over 1000 people quickly ended up on her desk. Since then she has used about 10 programming languages, but it took 13 years before she attended her first programming class. Julie will talk to the Amsterdam Girl Geeks about the challenge of trying to remain sane while keeping up with constantly changing technology and some of the extra challenges that being a girl geek added along the way.

Speaker Bio: Julie Lerman is an independent consultant and .NET Mentor who has been designing and writing software applications for over 20 years. Julie is the author of “Programming Entity Framework” (O’Reilly) and is well known in the .NET community as a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider and INETA Speaker. She is a prolific blogger, a frequent presenter at conferences around the world and author of articles in many technical publications. Julie lives in the tiny U.S. state of Vermont where she runs the Vermont.NET User Group and serves on the board of the Vermont Software Developers Alliance. You can read Julie’s blog at www.thedatafarm.com/blog.

Sponsor:

Drinks at the Clock in Surry Hills

Come along for a drink at the Clock in Surry Hills.

I plan to be sitting upstairs so I’ll grab an area when up there when I get there.

This is an informal unsponsored event.

Coding Dojo tomorrow (18 Sept) at Atlassian

SyXPAC is running a Coding Dojo tomorrow, 18 Sept, at Atlassian. So if any girl geeks are interested in learning what pair programming and test driven development feels like (albeit with an abnormally high switching rate), please drop by and join in. We’ll be doing Madlibs from Ruby Quiz, probably using Ruby unless the people vote differently on the night.

Coding Dojo is intended to be a non-competitive, collaborative, fun event where all skill levels are welcome and it’s safe to try new ideas.

173-185 Sussex St, Sydney 2001, 18:00 to 20:30 ish.

Sorry for the short notice but I wasn’t sure I was going to be in the city…

Microsoft Canada's TechDays 2008

Our friends at Microsoft Canada have given me the scoop on TechDays 2008 which is Microsoft’s largest technical education conference series for IT Professionals and Developers in Canada, ever. The multi-city series promises to provide skills development through deep technical training, a place to connect with peers and the opportunity to learn and evaluate across a wide range of technical sessions.

D’Arcy Lussier wrote on his blog, TechDays 2008 promises to be, “All Thriller. No Filler. This is *NOT* a marketing tour! It’s a one to two day conference (depending on your city) that focuses on learning and using Microsoft technologies. Think of it as a Microsoft focused code camp of sorts.”

The education at TechDays is delivered by Microsoft and their partners along with industry experts. The gang at Microsoft have been working hard to bring this high-quality event to Canadians.

Here are some highlights of Microsoft TechDays 2008:

• Technology training conference for Canadian IT Professionals and Developers
• Coming to Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Halifax and Vancouver
• Forty skill strengthening sessions – with a customizable agenda
• The latest technologies – Including Virtualization
• All attendees receive a learning kit valued at approximately $1,000 plus bonuses
• A tour to spark your passion for technology
• Connect with Experts and Peers
• Apply what you learn

Miguel Carrasco writes, “If you are a software developer, you should email your boss or team lead immediately and ask them if you can attend the event in your city. Not only will you get a chance to participate in some amazing technical presentations, but you’ll also get a ton of free stuff!”

TechDays 2008 are going social. For Twitter, please use #TechDays_CA as the hashtag. Also, you can follow http://twitter.com/techdays_ca for tweets and information. There’s also a Flickr group (please tag with TechDays_CA) and a Facebook fan page.

Get more information and sign-up for TechDays 2008.

Web 2.0 Expo, Berlin Girl Geek Dinner & Barcamp Berlin

OK so this one isn’t strictly a London Announcement but it is useful for any of you planning on going ot the Web 2.0 Expo.

A week full of events in Berlin
Web 2.0 Expo Europe (http://europe.web2expo.com/), co-produced by TechWeb and O’Reilly Media, is a conference for web designers and developers, product managers, entrepreneurs, VCs, marketers, and business strategists who are embracing the opportunities created by Web 2.0 technologies.

It takes place in Berlin, on 21 – 23 October 2008, and is integrated into a whole week of events, starting with the international Barcamp Berlin 3, a Facebook Developper Garage, some yet unannounced events plus a lot of parties. It truly will be a another step in bringing the European community together.

For an overview of all events, there is a dedicated website called Berlin Web Week:
http://berlinwebweek.de/

You can register with a 35% discount using this code: webeu08gr28
http://en.oreilly.com/webexberlin2008/public/register/

International Barcamp Berlin 3
Before the Expo there is an international Barcamp Berlin 3 with a special list for international attendees (the rest is already fully booked).

http://barcampberlin3.mixxt.org/networks/events/show_event.1755

Girl Geek Dinner Berlin
Also there is going to be a Girl Geek Dinner, though it is not decided yet when
exactly it will be held – your input is very much appreciated here:
http://girlgeekdinner.de/entry/29/ggd_berlin_during_web_20_expo

Next Girl Geek Melbourne event – Wednesday, 8 October

Girl Geeks Game On – a night of computer gaming and fun.  Visit the event on Facebook to find out more and to RSVP for the event. Food and drink being provided by ThoughtWorks (thanks!) so please RSVP by 29 September.

Girl Geek Dinners Melbourne moves to WordPress

Hi and thanks for visiting the blog of Girl Geek DInners Melbourne. Why not visit us on our Facebook Group where we organise our social events? We always welcome new women (and their invited geek guy friends!) to our events.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!

London Girl Geek Dinner October Sponsored by Microsoft

Following the success of the London Girl Geek Dinner 3 year Anniversary we have been fortunate enough to gain access to Microsoft’s Auditorium for one of our biggest events yet.  We have an awesome speaker lineup including none other than the wonderful Julie Lerman of The Data Farm and the inspirational Dr Elizabeth Kelan bringing with them a wealth of expertise, knowledge and experience for us all to learn from.

The Talks

Julie Lerman: “Defining the –ette in Geekette”

Twenty years ago, Julie Lerman learned that she had to act and dress like the guys in order to fit into the IT Industry. Today she’s found that the cover-up is no longer necessary. Many of her “girly” qualities have become advantageous in a world of geeks where she now speaks at conferences all over the world and has just finished writing her first programming book for O’Reilly Press. Julie will share with the London Girl Geeks some of this historical perspective and lessons learned.

Bio

Julie Lerman is an independent consultant and .NET Mentor who has been designing and writing software applications for over 20 years. Julie is the author of “Programming Entity Framework” (O’Reilly) and is well known in the .NET community as a Microsoft MVP, ASPInsider and INETA Speaker. She is a prolific blogger, a frequent presenter at conferences around the world and author of articles in many technical publications. Julie lives in the tiny U.S. state of Vermont where she runs the Vermont.NET User Group and serves on the board of the Vermont Software Developers Alliance. You can read Julie’s blog at www.thedatafarm.com/blog

Dr Elisabeth Kelan – Innovation, Technology and Gender Stereotypes

In this talk Dr Elisabeth Kelan will talk about two pieces of research she conducted at the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business at London Business School (http://www.london.edu/womeninbusiness.html). The first research takes a look at the impact gender proportions have on innovation in teams. By studying knowledge intensive teams, the research shows that teams with equal proportions of men and women perform particularly well in regards to innovation indicators. In the second part of this talk, Elisabeth will address the importance of gender stereotypes at work. Drawing on examples from the Ladygeek research (www.ladygeek.org.uk) and cutting edge academic insights, Elisabeth will highlight why making gender stereotypes visible at work is crucial to work with them creatively.

Dr Elisabeth Kelan is senior research fellow in the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business at London Business School (http://www.london.edu/womeninbusiness.html). Elisabeth has researched best practices in relation to gender in organisations and gender, team composition and innovation. Elisabeth has also focused on gender relations in high-tech businesses, gender representations in popular management literature, and the so-called “glass-ceiling”. Her current research interests include identities in organisations, socialisation into organisational cultures, young professionals and technologies at work. Elisabeth has presented her research internationally, published widely, and has received various awards for her research. She has provided advice to supranational and business organisations and is co-authoring the Lady Geek blog (www.ladygeek.org.uk) with Belinda Parmar. She is also founder of Athena Associates (http://www.athena-associates.com), a consultancy that specialises in advising organisations in respect to gender and diversity. Prior to her appointment at London Business School, Elisabeth worked at the University of Zurich as well as at the London School of Economics and Political Science where she also received her PhD.

If you would like to attend this event there are spaces for 150 people.  The details of the event can be found on our sign up page.

There are three rounds of tickets being released.

Round 1 9pm 15th September

Round 2 7pm 16th September

Round 3 9pm 30th September

This should give people the opportunity to plan their time and be able to get hold of tickets for the event.

London Girl Geek September Event :: Superstruct ‘Play the Game, Invent the Future’

London Girl Geek September Event :: Superstruct ‘Play the Game, Invent the Future’

• Date & Time: Tuesday, 30th September 2008 from 7pm
• Venue: Worshipful Company of Information Technologists’ Hall
• Format: Brain/Blamestorming to Invent the Future
• Capacity: 60 people
• Attendees: Sign Up to Superstruct! – As ever, Boy Geeks are welcome to attend if invited by a Girl Geek

We’re doing something different for September’s Girl Geek Event, we’re inventing the future! We’re going to complete Superstruct Missions to focus on ways to address the below-listed five Superthreats (from the Superstruct game site) that may face Earth’s inhabitants in the year 2019. So if you’d like to join us at the WCIT, please reserve your place here and we’ll provide the lowdown as all is announced on 22nd September when the game launches.

Girl Geeks of the World Unite - It would be fantastic to have our fellow Girl Geeks in other countries also join us for the 30th September in their own location if they’re interested – as this is more a game event and informal get-together then just holding the event at a local pub/cafe might be a nice option! If you’d like to arrange this just email nicole dot mathison at londongirlgeekdinners.co.uk who will send you links and materials to run your local workshop!

Superstruct is the world’s first massively multiplayer forecasting game. By playing the game, you’ll help us chronicle the world of 2019–and imagine how we might solve the problems we’ll face. Because this is about more than just envisioning the future. It’s about making the future, inventing new ways to organise the human race and augment our collective human potential. *The Superstruct story starts SEPT 22 and the game launches OCT 6.

The five Superthreats are:

OUTLAW PLANET - In 2019, the mobile internet and sensor networks we rely on to hold our societies together are being hacked, griefed, and gamed.

GENERATION EXILE – In 2019, our neighbors are climate refugees and economic collapse victims who are swarming the planet, looking for a place to live.

QUARANTINE – In 2019, Respiratory Distress Syndrome is here, and it’s not going anywhere. Outbreaks are just something we live with.

POWER STRUGGLE – In 2019, we’re all caught up in the “alternative fuel” wars as the world fights over what will take the place of oil.

RAVENOUS - In 2019, the food chain is broken. So we’re inventing new ways to feed ourselves.

For more info. visit Superstruct and the Superstruct Facebook Group to sign up for news and updates!

If you’d like to get involved before the 30th September events then participate in the Advance Missions, for example, read the dinner 2019 stories people have submitted, based on the question, “You’re you, but ten years in the future. What are you having for dinner, where are you living, and what are you thinking or talking about?” Visit http://www.iftf.org/node/2098 and submit your own.

Many thanks to Anne Stafford at iT4Communities and Barry Easton from the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists for helping arrange this event!

GGD Berlin during Web 2.0 Expo – the question is when?

Update: We have now decided that Monday the 20th is the best day to host the GGD – List for invitation will come soon.

As the Web 2.0 Expo Europe is coming Berlin again from Oct 21-23rd, we are also going to have a Girl Geek Dinner.

The part about which I am currently undecided is just when to have it. I will be in town for the international Barcamp Berlin 3 as well as the Expo and the Facebook Dev Garage, but depending on other party schedules and such I am torn when to have it. If you would like to see all events happening: Berlin Web Week has all the details!

Current favourite of mine: Around lunch time at the 21st or 22nd evening before the official Party with Berlin Partner.

What do you think?
Leave a comment about the time you would suggest and when you are interested, I added a special option to the newsletter form “Special Entry: International Girl Geek Dinner Berlin during the Web 2.0 Expo.” which you can check when you want to be informed about the date.

Nachlese GGD Hamburg und München

Für Hamburg berichtet Christine Stumpf von Weblin von dem Frauenüberschuß dieses Mal und Nina Höppner von Projektwerk von der Sache mit dem Namen. Bedauerlicherweise sind alle meine Bilder verwackelt.

Für München hat Stefani Akins den Abend schön zusammengefaßt – Probleme beim Eingang inklusive – und Alex Ciorapciu hat ein paar schöne Fotos zusammengestellt. Neuer Trend eingeführt von Adobe: Rosen für die Anwesenden zum Schluß – tolle Idee.

Wer noch weiterschauen möchte, wie am Tag drauf das Frauenbarcamp abgelaufen ist, dem seien die geposteten Ergebnisse hier empfohlen.

Report on TGGD #7 with Sandi Jones

I think I can safely say that last night’s Toronto Girl Geek Dinner with Sandi Jones from Rogers was a resounding success.

A special thank you to our sponsor Microsoft. It was good to hear about all the impressive initiatives for women in technology that Microsoft Canada is working on. If you’re interested in being involved in the mentoring program Qixing spoke about last night, please leave a note in the comments and I’ll send along her contact details.

Last night’s discussion (wonderfully facilitated by Sandi, don’t you think?) about the fundamental shift in technology from big business to the consumer was great. Here are just a few of the examples you shared last night of how we’re doing neat things with consumer technology:

• At Jack.fm radio personalities are using Twitter for audience interaction.
• Heather is getting a grassroots project up and running with free wiki + FriendFeed + Twitter
• Allison who works for a publishing company is overlaying their subscriber data with Google maps to help them decide where to hold events
• Julia worked on a Facebook application that overlays Google Maps to show people where to find dog parks. She’s also pitched a pharma company on using Twitter + Facebook ads.
• We are using Google Docs for a side project to collaborate (cheap & easy)
• Meredith is using Google Calendar to keep track of remote employees and share schedules
• Qixing at her team at Microsoft Canada are applying social bookmarking features to three big technical resource sites and so users can easily save, find and share useful information
• I know we had a bunch more examples, feel free to leave the ones I missed in the comments!

A big thank-you again to Sandi. I think you’ll all agree that this is an exciting time to be in technology. And that being smart about the tools and technology options available for you (in your personal and business lives) is a great advantage for Girl Geeks.

Update:

Roxana Vidal-Shand took some great photos. She says, “they capture the camaraderie of the evening…” Thank you for sharing, Roxana. View the rest of her photo set on Flickr.

Conflict Already. Reschedule of DinnerZero.

DemoCamp Calgary has pointed out that it’s, well, DemoCamp Calgary on the 25th September.

We don’t want to get all Cripps and Bloods about this, so we’re going to move CalgaryGirlGeekDinner to Thursday October 2nd. All other details remain the same:

Time: 5.30pm to 8.30pm (maybe onto a bar)
Where: ThoughtWorks Offices (Level P, 600 6th Avenue)
What: Cheese and Wine
Who: We figure that if you have the vaguest interest in something called GirlGeek whatever, then you should come along. This is a self-organising group. It’s meant to be technical and kinda geeky. But Geeky comes in all sort of flavours these days. Interested in UX? Come along. Interested in DSLs? Come along. Interested in enterprise Java? Come along. Interested in working out how to get your developers to talk to you? Come along.

GirlGeekDinners are, most of all, about community within the technical world. It’s a pretty broad church. Come along once, we hope you’ll love it, and keep coming back.

Details for tonight’s dinner

Hello Geek Girls!

We wanted to post some information about parking at tonight’s dinner! We’re starting at 5:30 pm at:

Pac Med Bldg
Conference rooms: AV West, East, and Central – 8th floor
1200 12th Ave South, Suite 1200,
Seattle, WA 98144

We will also be doing a drawing for an Amazon.com $100 dollar gift card!

Parking:

• Parking at the Amazon We highly recommend car pooling, but parking will be located behind the Pac Med building, and is the 1^st driveway on your right-hand side after you cross the intersection from 12^th Street bridge.  Parking is $5.00 per day.
• Street Parking:  There is free street parking around the Amazon building, please make sure to note that all day parking is only available on the east side of Golf Street/15^th.  Please do not park at The Dr. Jose Rizal Park as this is only 2 hours max, parking on the west side of 12^th near the park is typically day, please read signs.
• Amazon Employees ONLY: If you work downtown, you can connect to the Pac Med building via a Amazon Shuttle for free.  The Amazon shuttles are white, and run by Standard Parking, look for Amazonians with blue employee badges.  Shuttles start running early in the morning, until after our event will be over. We have two locations downtown:
  • International District – The Amazon shuttle picks up on the corner of Weller Street & 5^th Avenue across from Uwajimaya every 15 minutes.
  • Downtown (The Columbia Center-TCC) – The Amazon shuttle picks up in front of The Colombia Center (TCC) on 5^th Avenue every 25 minutes

Thanks again to Amazon for sponsoring our 2nd Seattle Girl Geek Dinner!

See you tonight!

Liz and Stevi

Tomorrow's Girl Geek Dinner – Sponsored by

Just a little over 24 hours to September’s Girl Geek Dinner, and we’re pleased to announce a sponsor. Microsoft Canada has stepped up to the plate and agreed to cover event costs AND provide dinner for ten female students.

If you are a student, please visit the wiki and move your name under the student heading and enjoy a free meal on Microsoft, if you’re not, visit the wiki anyway since we still have about 7 spots left for tomorrow’s dinner and about 15 people on the waiting list.

Thanks again to Microsoft Canada for their support of this great tech community event!

London Girl Geek Dinner 3 Year Anniversary Round Up

Wow what can I say… it’s been an amazing three years… I still can’t believe that they have gone so fast and how the events have grown over the years.  Looking back at that very first Girl Geek Dinner I don’t think I could ever have imagined that one little idea ending up as far reaching and as well recieved as it has been.   I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next.  Its all one very big adventure and I’m looking forward to seeing what unfolds in the next few years!

So now that I’ve got over being all sentimental about it… lets get down to the details of what happened at the 3 year anniversary which we were fortunate enough to hold at the Google offices.  First of all we had a great dinner courtesy of the Google’s hospitality and catering facilities.  They do wonderful food and were great hosts for this event.

We kicked off the evening with a presentation from Google’s very own Karen Groenink who spoke on UI design, the thoughs behind some of the design work that went into the YouTube mobile UI and some of the challenges of working with mobile devices.

After this we went and moved onto Technology and Schools with Drew Buddie who is a teacher at a London School.  He spoke about the technologies that schools use, the challenges that they face and some of the solutions that they have come up with to get children involved with technology.

And finally we had the discussion on Work Life balance hosted by Dr Al James who has been researching this subject in depth.  The session was well structured, focusing on key aspects of work life balance and bringing forward suggestions to problems when balancing work and home life.

The video from all the sessions will follow in due course, however in the meantime I’ve placed some of the slides onto slideshare for you to browse.  We will post the video up as soon as it’s been edited and uploaded!

If you would like to read what others have said about this event then feel free to take a look here:

Girl Geek Dinner 3rd Birthday @ Google Towers

Girl Geek Dinner at Google and other stories

Happy Birthday Girl Geek Dinners!

Climbing Mountains to The Cloud

Girl Geek Dinner in London at Google

Dining with girl geeks at Google

Partying it up Google style

Girl Geek Diner – 3 Year Anniversary

Girls Geek Dinner @ Google

It's alive – Get the Toronto Girl Geek blog feed

I’ve created the Toronto Girl Geek Dinner Blogs feed using RSS Mixer. Check it out.

If you’d like to have your blog added to our mix, please add your name to the wiki and I’ll update the feed.

Let me know if you notice anything wonky about the feed, or if you’ve got any feedback.

Update: Last night at TGGD #7, Eden reported strange behaviour with the feed not showing her latest posts. Please let me know if you experience any RSS strangeness. I just added 4 more blogs to the feed. RSS Mixer is an Alpha service, so there may be bugs.

Girl Geek Dinner 1

28th of August we had our first Brisbane Girl Geek Dinner. We had 25 people attend our first dinner with about 10 people pulling out at the last minute due to illness. We had some great feedback and will start planning the next event very soon so watch this space.

Photos are courtesy of Tim: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alborath/sets/72157606993717214/

We have a winner

Now that Developer Day voting is open the competition to an MSDN subscription is closed. We ended up with three potential female speakers, one from an MVP, Bev Hatchard who spoke at DDD Scotland and is now bitten by the presenting bug, one from Chris Hart on virtual worlds and a submission from Helen Emerson.

Now the competition was going to end when voting ended; but as Bev is an MVP and already has an MSDN subscription and Chris has a subscription from Dave Sussman that leaves Helen. This isn’t a win by default; Helen has been ramping up her talks at usergroups as well, so last night when she spoke at my usergroup last week I presented her with her prize; please enjoy it Helen!

From speaking to a few others some potential speakers had considered it but were too nervous to attempt it; this is perfectly understandable – my first speaking engagement was a favour for a friend at work who forgot to tell me it was for a major conference and there could be up to 100 people in the room. Nerves are unfortunately part of it, they never go away and I’m not sure how to address that. If you’re one of the nervous folks would a mentor help? I’ve been thinking about this for a while and popping emails back and forth between a few of us; the community needs more speakers – how can the community help you overcome your nerves or objections and get you up to the front?

If you missed the change to submit for DDD you have another option. With REMIX around the corner on 18/19^th September 2008, once again the community is gearing up to provide its own unique brand of  “entertainment while you learn” plus opportunities for all members of the UK Community to take part in events and promote their groups and themselves.

To that end, the REMIX team are organising another Speaking Competition along the lines seen at TechEd and the UK Launch.  The community team is offering a fantastic opportunity to do just this by offering the chance to speak at a major event to your user group members.  In the process they can get some help in improving their speaking skills plus have a chance to win an Xbox 360!  Yes “Ready Steady Speak” is back for REMIX.

For those of you not familiar with it, the format is as follows;

Contestants will present a 5 minute session on a subject of their choice relating to Web Development or Web Design.  They will present in front of the REMIX audience and in front of a panel of judges.  If there are more than a  certain number of contestants (TBD), there will be ‘heats’ earlier in the day with the winners of the heats in a ‘speak-off’ in the evening session.  The ‘speak-off’ will take place as stated in the evening of the first day of MIX and the first prize is an XBox 360 and some goodies!

Mandatory Prerequisites:

• Speakers must NOT have previously presented ‘full sessions’ at DDD, TechEd, DevWeek, SDN, SQLBITS, VBUG Conference, NxtGenUG FEST or any similar such conferences.
• Speakers must create a new session of their own with new material which can be based on existing material but cannot be a simple copy of it.
• Speakers must limit their session to as close to 5 minutes as possible (overrunning time will cause the speaker to be marked down.)
• Speakers must not have previously won Speaker Idol or “Ready Steady Speak” UK Launch
• Speakers must state their desire to enter the competition by no later than COP Monday 15^th September 2008.

Desirable

• Speakers should provide if at all possible their own laptop, but one can be provided if necessary.  The speaker should notify the organisers of any software prerequisites.
• Speakers should have spoken previously at a User Group meeting even if only for a 10 min mini-session or ‘nugget’.  This is NOT mandatory.

This is a great starting point for your speaking “career”; all you need is a five minute topic and the feedback you receive will be constructive and helpful, unlike the real Pop Idol. If this is tempting then Dave McMahon is the person to email.

Two More Sleeps until our Toronto Girl Geek Dinner

All 50 spots for Thursday night’s Toronto Girl Geek Dinner are booked! If you’re on the waiting list, watch the wiki closely. If you’re on the list and can’t make it, please be sure to remove your name from the list so someone else can take your spot!

See you Thursday Sept. 10 at Fionn MacCool’s, 181 University Ave, at Adelaide. Drinks and food are cash and carry. Sandi Jones from Rogers will start her talk at 7:30 p.m.

Help us kick off the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners season with a Bang! Or maybe a 'Tweet'!

Paris Girl Geek Dinners Announced!

I am happy to announce that Kate Bourdet is bringing together the very first Paris Girl Geek Dinner.  If you are in Paris and would like to get involved with this group then do join their Facebook Group.  The details for their first event will be announced there in the coming months.  If you would like to get involved with the planning and running of the events then please do get in touch with Kate via the facebook page as I’m sure she would be happy to have an extra few pairs of hands helping her out.

I’m looking forward to seeing what those sophistocated Parisiennes get up to!

Announcing Dinner Zero

What are you doing on Thursday September 25th at 5.30pm?

Hopefully you’re going to join us for Calgary GirlGeekDinners.

Dinner Zero is the planning one. The one where we decide what we want, where we’ll meet, what we’re going do. I am hoping that some people will show up!

It’s dead informal, there will be some food and drinks (sponsored by ThoughtWorks, because I work there and they are kind), a chance to network with other GirlGeeks (and their invited BoyGeeks) and a brainstorm to share ideas about what happens next.

It’s going to be at the ThoughtWorks offices on Level P, 600 6th Avenue, Calgary. If you plan to come, please either join the Facebook group (http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=26258257001), post a comment on here or email me at suziedwards@gmail.com with your name, guest name (if you’re bringing one) and email address.

Please also feel free to pass this one to any GirlGeeks you may know.