Girl Geek Dinners

I kissed a nerd – and I liked it!

Wow, we’ve been WAY quiet lately.  Sorry ladies and gents. It’s due to the fact that I spent all my energy waxing nerdlitical on The Unknown Studio with Adam and Scott.

If you haven’t heard the podcast yet, I was their guest on Season Two, Episode One – The Brittney Show! We really out-geeked ourselves… even talked Heroes for nearly 10 minutes!  I finally got to do  the Fast Fifteen, which I’ve got to say, makes me feel like I’ve finally made it. (Made it where? I’m not sure…)

I’ve also spent a lot of time playing new boardgames, Dungeons and Dragons, and dreaming about Comic-Con, which is only a few short weeks away! I’m also reading a book on Dungeons and Dragons for ladies, and will be posting about it when I finish. (It will probably be a plane book for the trip to San Diego, so don’t expect it next week!)

Anyways, on my trips around the Internet, I came across this little ditty, which is a parody of Katy Perry’s “I kissed a girl and  I liked it”.

With lines like: “For you I’ll do roleplaying games / And learn to factor” and “I kissed a nerd  just for science”, this parody is pretty fun.  Give it a whirl!

Thanks to Geekologie for the original post on the parody video.

GGD #6 – July 13, 2010 – Socializing @ Finn’s Pub

By popular request, this month’s Girl Geek Dinner will be a socializing night. Join us on Tuesday, July 13, 2010, at Finn’s Pub starting at 6:00 PM for some great food, networking, and a few rounds of pool.

Everyone is invited; if you plan on attending, please RSVP via Eventbrite or Facebook.

Summer hours / Horaire d’été

It’s that time of year.. Summer… and we are sure feeling it!

The MTL GGD events will be taking a little break for the season but we’ll be back at it again in the Fall.

Any suggestions for speakers or topics are very much appreciated so send them my way. Anything goes so don’t hesitate!

I also want to take the time to see if anyone’s interested in being a speaker at WordCamp Montreal this summer.

Details can be found here http://wordcampmontreal.org/become-a-speaker/#propose

Enjoy the heat!
Tanya
______________________________________________________

C’est l’été – et nous sommes sûrs de le sentir!

Les événements MTL GGD prendra une petite pause pour la saison, mais nous serons de retour à nouveau dans l’automne.

Toutes les suggestions des conférenciers ou les sujets sont très appréciés -STP envoyer à ma façon.

Je tiens également à prendre le temps de voir si quelqu’un est intéressé à être conférencier à WordCamp Montréal cet été.

Invitée du mois de juillet : Catherine Morissette

Celle que l’on surnomme affectueusement « legal geek » ou « techno avocate », membre du Barreau depuis mai 2005, avocate en droit civil et corporatif et ex-députée à l’Assemblée nationale du Québec, Catherine Morissette / @catavocate est notre invitée du Girl Geek Dinner de juillet.

Dans le cadre de la deuxième de trois rencontres traitant des réseaux sociaux et d’internet, Catherine viendra nous expliquer le rôle de ceux-ci dans sa relation avec ses clients et dans le développement de sa clientèle. Nous aurons entre autres l’occasion de comprendre comment l’avocate 2.0 est parvenu a développer plus de 40% de sa clientèle grâce au réseau social Twitter tel qu’elle le révèle dans cet article paru dans Le Soleil

Avant d’accéder au Barreau, Catherine a fait ses études à l’École du Barreau de Québec et à l’Université Laval.  Elle a aussi complété un stage à la firme Pothier Delisle avocats (maintenant Morency avocats) et durant ses études elle a complété un profil international en allant faire une session de son baccalauréat en France, à l’Université René-Descartes.

Elle a exercé sa pratique dans un bureau privé jusqu’à son élection en tant que députée de Charlesbourg à l’Assemblée nationale. Elle a été élue sous la bannière de l’Action démocratique du Québec en mars 2007. En tant que députée, elle a été la porte-parole de l’opposition officielle en matière d’immigration et de communautés culturelles. Elle a également présidé la Commission de l’économie et du travail, devenant la plus jeune élue à présider une commission permanente.

C’est après avoir perdu ses élections en décembre 2008 qu’elle a profité d’un congé de maternité bien mérité.

Elle a recommencé à pratiquer le droit en septembre 2009.

Date: le mercredi 7 juillet

Lieu: À 18h30 au restaurant TABLE de l’hôtel PUR

Pour vous inscrire, envoyez un courriel de motivation avec vos coordonnées à l’adresse suivant: qcgirlgeekdinners@gmail.com

Next Girl Geek Dinner Ottawa – June 29th with Cate Huston

Code is like a paintbrush, and the Internet is the world’s biggest art gallery. Invented just 20 years ago, the Web has changed everything. Less than 24% of humanity has access to the Internet; there is more change to come. What can we expect technology to change in the future?

Join us on June 29th when Cate Huston shares with us some of the highlights from her “Art, Life and Programming” lecture.

Cate is working on completing her Masters degree in Computer Science at the University of Ottawa and is also an Intern at IBM.   You may know her as @kittenthebad on Twitter, and if you don’t, well what are you waiting for? She is also the  Instigator of Awesome for Awesome Ottawa.

When: Tuesday, June 29 at 6 p.m.

Where: Biagio’s Italian Kitchen on 1394 Richmond Road (Get directions)

Register now!

**UPDATE**

We have TWO student spots available (it is summer after all!) courtesy of Thornley Fallis Communication. Leave a comment and you’ll get free admission and $25 of your dinner covered! Same routine as always-leave a comment and let us know what and where you study and why you want to attend.

Send your face into space!

Have you ever wanted to head into space? Seriously… space – the final frontier if you will.

Alright… so I can’t promise that you can go into space. I mean, what is this? Spacecamp? Let’s face facts… it takes a lot of training to be an astronaut.

Next best thing? NASA is going to fly YOUR face into space.

Not to be confused with Space Your Face, another NASA site… which… okay, what the what is that?

Oh… kay then.

So, anyways… Face in Space is a program where NASA will put a picture of you on one of two remaining space shuttle missions and launch it into orbit. You’ll become a part of history, and, after the missions, download a special certificate that shows that you’ve left your mark on space travel.

So how does this work? Head to the site and click the big Participate button towards the bottom. Then select a picture you’d like to see on a space shuttle, and add your name.

Don’t want your picture included? You can just sign up with your name.

Then, you’ll be given a confirmation page with your flight information. Print this off.

After the landing of the shuttle mission, return to the website. You’ll be able to print off your very own Flight Certificate – which will be signed by the Mission Commander.

How freaking awesome is that?

So send your face into Space! I’m sure it will be out of this world. (Ha! I’m hilarious.)

Retour sur la première Réunion Officielle

C’est hier le 15 juin 2010 qu’avait lieu le premier “dinner” officiel des Québec GirlGeeks!

Pour casser la glace, notre invitée Évelyne Audet et les participantes ont discuté de la réalité de son métier d’animatrice et de sa relation avec les technologies. Les questions abondaient et ses réponses dépassaient plus souvent qu’autrement nos attentes.

L’authenticité d’Évelyne a créé une ambiance des plus intimes et suscité des conversations captivantes.  C’est unanime, la passion et la curiosité étaient au rendez-vous.

Évelyne en a même profité pour nous poser des questions techniques au sujet de son utilisation de Twitter, comme quoi chacune y a trouvé son compte et a appris quelque chose! Pour une première, c’est une belle réussite puisque les échanges furent nombreux, diversifiés et enrichissants.

Finalement, l’on peut dire que la mission des Girl Geek Dinners  de promouvoir l’apprentissage informel basé sur les échanges entre techno-femmes a été pleinement remplie.

Un merci tout spécial à notre photographe Jean-François Frenette (@DezJeff) voici quelques photos de la soirée.

Pour voir toutes les photos de la soirée : C’est ici!

The Booth Babe

E3 is on this week. How much do you wish you could be there? I’d even wear a stupid poncho to attend.

But, with any geek convention, comes the Booth Babes. You know the ones, those perky ladies in their tight sometimes-skimpy outfits. Their purpose: to draw the male geeks like flies to honey. Do they work? Yes, yes, they do. But with the growing number of women attending geek conventions, are they really still necessary?

This week, the Geek Girls Network announced Geek Girls are taking over Comic Con. There will be a massive Girl Geek tweetup, and a panel about how we (gasp) do exist! I’m surprised it’s really taken this long. (Also worth noting: I hope to be at both events and provide you guys with an update)

So, there are so many of us that we’re getting our own panel at San Diego Comic Con, one of the biggest geek events in North America.

And yet, things like this still happen.

@dkaszor on Twitter pointed out this video from the 1Up Network. To quote Dan: “To show off the new 3DS, Nintendo tethered each one to a ‘booth babe.” I find this deeply unsettling.” I too, find this unsettling. (Except for the 3DS, that looks cool.)

Watch the video, (which for some reason I can’t embed) and let me know what you think. Should Booth Babes still be around? Are you okay with geeky conventions still using women to hawk their wares? Would you let a guy play a 3DS that’s chained to you?

And if you’re not comfortable with the Booth Babes, what should/can we do about it?

s1e1 – post dinner recap

Thank you all for coming last night to the first ever Girl Geek Dinner in Edmonton! Shauna and I can’t begin to tell you how much we appreciate all the support. You folks have been fabulous! If you weren’t able to make it out to the dinner last night, don’t worry. There will be a lot more in the future.

Here’s a recap of last night in case you missed it, were overwhelmed at finally being able to get geeky with ladies, or were just consumed by the thought of painting robots. Now that you ladies know, I won’t be stopping until a robot paints me a picture.

So we all arrived, and put stickers on our name tags. Then people chose a seat and began to mingle with other attendees. Some attendees include: Ruth, Adam from the Unknown Studio, Kathleen, David, Rhonda, Kimberly, Jeanne-Marie, Angela, Allie, Duncan, Jaynne, Rachelle, Lea, Kim, Jodine, Cam, Ken, Cindy, Sam, Chelsea, Adam, and of course, Shauna and Brittney. (If you’re not on the list and want to be, or are on the list and don’t want to be. Just tweet/email Shauna/Brittney)

The Registration table

Lea starts a trend by standing on her chair to introduce herself.

Duncan comes prepared. The introduction questions were sent out in advance, and he had them ready.

After introductions and appetizers came more mingling and dinner ordering. While everyone enjoyed dinner, Shauna and I explained our thoughts about Girl Geek Dinners in Edmonton, our geekiness, and where we want to go from here.

We also mentioned that we’re opening up the blog to our fellow geeks! So if you want to talk about the reason why Buffy is the best geek show on television, or about the space shuttle orbiting Edmonton, or anything inbetween – send us an email! Keep the email addy handy to give us a heads up on any events going on around town that you think our ladies (and gents) will want to know about.

But we’re not just about dinners! Every fourth Girl Geek Dinner or so – will actually be an event night! Whether that means lazer tag, trivia, bowling, a movie night… it’s all up to you.

That gives me the opportunity to say… We want your input! Who do you want to come speak? What topics do you want to learn about? What sort of events do you want to do? Please say build painting robots. Because I want that to happen! Also, where do you want to have dinners? Do you know of any gems around town? Or do you know of any groups that want to sponsor us, or that we should invite out? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, or by sending us an email. Thanks to everyone who’s already given us feedbank and ideas, Shauna and I will be meeting within the next few weeks to go over them and to tweak our plans.

Shauna talking to the attendees.

Next was mingling, door prizes, and goodbyes. With the last of us stragglers leaving around 11:00pm. Thanks again to Ceili’s for the sponsorship, and fantastic service!

Our next Girl Geek Dinner (s1e2) will be on July 29 at Lux Steakhouse. Tickets will cost $25.00 and will include a family-style meal. Tickets will be going on sale sometime this next week.

Until next time… Robotically yours,

Brittney

Our very first interview…

As Brit mentioned in her last post, YEG Girl Geek’s were recently interviewed by local bloggers & podcasters, The Unknown Studio… here are some snippets from that interview…

Unknown Studio: What is your ultimate goal with Girl Geek Dinners?

Shauna: When I started thinking about bringing Girl Geek Dinners to Edmonton it was to bring a group of strong, witty, sassy, smart, unique women together. Social Media has opened to door to conversations about pretty much anything, including geeky topics… sometimes especially geeky topics. It has been very interesting to witness how many chicks out there have such passion for technology. It was apparent that we have a solid online conversation going on in Edmonton, we want to take it offline. So the ultimate goal is to create a solid, open and tolerant community of gals and guys who have a common interest: geekiness.

TUS: How would you respond to guys who feel like they’re being excluded?

S: Well the feminist in me would have to bite her tongue… And then I would say men are certainly not excluded from Girl Geek Dinners. It is the mandate of GGD to allow men to attend events but only by invitation from one of the attending women. Each woman attendee is allowed to invite one man each if they chose. This club is not exclusive by any means — at the most we’re “niche.” Personally, I am keen to hear what the attending fellas have to say about the event.

TUS: Do you have any plans to build robots? If so, will they be evil or friendly?

S: I have always been partial to the Buffy-bot, but she would have to come with the Buffy wardrobe, that way we could share clothes. Do I have plans to build one? Not at the moment — I’m too busy with my preparedness manual for the inevitable zombie apocalypse.

To read the rest of the interview, head to theunknownstudio.ca

Best Girl Geek Week (of this year)

I don’t like to brag, fellow geeks… but I’ve had a fantastic geek week. It all started last Saturday when I went downstairs at work and visited the garage sale we were having in our warehouse. There, I spotted… this:

Yes, an original NES. And I scored it for $20, including two original Zelda games, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!! and Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt. I also got a few other games and some controllers.

Also on Saturday, I attended the User Created Content birthday bash at Hi-Tech Gaming. I competed in two tournaments – a Super Mario Bros 3 tourney and a Bomberman tourney. Other tournaments were Street Fighter 4, Rockband, and Call of Duty 4. (None of which am I any good at.) I was second in the SMB:3 tourney, and completely suicidal in the Bomberman tourney. In my defense, it was the first time I had ever played Bomberman.

After purchasing my NES, a fantastic hero on Twitter, @adampatterson, offered to sell me his old NES and games as well. I picked a huge box of games up from him in exchange for mere pocket change. More on the amazing-NES (ha! Amazing-NES) later.

Because that was Tuesday, and next comes… Wednesday! And a trip down to Calgary to see Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, LIVE at the Vertigo Theatre! (If you have never seen Dr. Horrible’s Sing Along Blog… watch it NOW!) The adaptation was pretty good, but I was left wondering if the actor playing Captain Hammer had ever seen the musicial. He seemed to not understand subtley.

Phew. I haven’t even mentioned Adam Rozenhart‘s amazing Q&A with YegGirlGeek Dinners founder Shauna McConechy yet! You can read the post on the Unknown Studio’s website. My favourite part? When she mentions the Buffy-bot.

Thursday I drove back to Edmonton, and attended the fantastic event Pecha Kucha for the first time. It definitely, definitely will not be my last. It was inspiring, and it’s great to be in a room with so many talented and brilliant people. I’ll echo Jeff’s remarks, it gives me hope for the future of our city! You should absolutely read Mack‘s post on the evening at his blog, and follow the presenters on Twitter.

Which brings me to Friday, where I caught up on some much needed sleep, had a great pre-Girl Geek Dinner meeting with Shauna, and then took the NES for a test drive with new friend Matt Bisson.

You can get the full rundown of the evening’s events by checking out my flickr stream – but here are some highlights.

We played Super Mario Bros 3, Excitebike, Captain America and the Avengers and Track and Field II.

To get the cartridges to play, we had to jam The Beatles White Album into the console to hold down the game.

We MacGyver’d the games, and in the end, there were many wins by a certain player 2. (That would be me!)

So that’s been my awesome Girl Geek Week… how’s your week been? Any rad geek moments?

And anyone know where I can get my hands on some NES games on the cheap to free scale?

Huge thanks to our May #GGDOttawa Supporters

One of the things that sets Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa (#GGDOttawa) apart from other events that happen in the city is our awesome door prizes, and every event they seem to get better and better. We are so lucky to have an enthusiastic community of supporters both attending the events and contributing via sponsorships and door prizes.

We usually include info about the door prizes and photos of the winners in our recap post for each event we hold, but since our May 25 event had so many amazing prizes we felt this month’s sponsors deserved their own acknowledgement.

National Arts Centre

The people of the National Arts Centre (NAC) have been great supporters of Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa. Not only do many of them come out to our events regularly, but they’ve donated NAC event tickets as a door prize to almost every single dinner we’ve held! This month the voucher for two tickets to Bronfman & Brahms performance went to Della Siemens. Congrats Della!

Essence Catering

A new supporter and one I am personally extremely excited about, Essence Catering, is a catering company based in the Hintonburg/Wellington West area of Ottawa. In October, the company I work for (MediaMiser) hosted an Open House event to celebrate our new office and it was catered by Essence Catering. The food was delicious, beautifully presented and received tons of compliments! I know winner Mar Warrender will not be disappointed, especially with an amazing $250 gift certificate!

Shanti Consulting

Dr. Hema Murty is a personal trainer and Yoga consultant who attended our December Open Mic event and has been a #GGDOttawa fan ever since! She runs Shanti Consulting–and donated a free personal training session valued at $90. Congratulations to prize winner Cameron Wilson!

Swing Dynamite

Yet another new supporter, Claudia from Swing Dynamite attended an event earlier this year and soon after offered to donate a prize.

Claudia was generous enough to donate two gift certificates for a six-week swing dance course! I like to think that along with this dance company’s awesome skill, their generosity and good will helped them out a little at the Canadian Swing Championship where they took home tons of awards. Congrats!

Hope to see some Girl Geeks (perhaps winners Brigitte Van Aert and Cassandra Wilson?) competing in future years!

Randy Little

Anyone in Ottawa on Twitter knows @littlerandy, a financial advisor who has quickly established himself as a pillar in the Ottawa  social media community.

In fact, he’s even offered (on television) to help his Twitter friends get unstuck in a snowy driveway if needed! We’re also grateful of his support, donating rosewood wine boxes (with accessories) as door prizes for several of our events. Tanya Snook is this month’s lucky recipient!

Thornley Fallis Communications

We also need to offer our appreciation and thanks to Joseph Thornley and Thornley Fallis Communications, now our longest running sponsor! Each event, Thornley Fallis provides financial support that enables us to offer 5-10 students the opportunity to attend our Girl Geek dinners at no cost. We appreciate this support and know our student attendees do too. Thanks so much!

Virtual Eye See

And finally, a huge thanks to Natasha D’Souza of  Virtual Eye See for providing domain and hosting support for Girl Geek Dinners Ottawa blog!

We are always appreciative of the support we receive from the Ottawa business community. If you’re interested in sponsoring or donating a prize for future Girl Geek Dinners, please contact us: info@girlgeekdinnersottawa.com

GGD # 5 – June 8th, 2010 – Blogging

This month’s Winnipeg Girl Geek dinner is all about blogging. Liz Hover and Polly Washburn will be sharing their experience, from the technical aspects of applications, tools, and themes, to the creative aspects of choosing a focal point, post composition, and how to keep content fresh and readers coming back for more.

Join us on Tuesday, June 8th, 2010, 6:00 PM at Aqua Books for a bite to eat and a chat at the EAT! Bistro. From there, we will move upstairs to the Live! Lounge for the interactive presentation.

Everyone is invited; if you plan on attending, please RSVP via Facebook or Eventbrite.

May 25th GGD Ottawa Event Recap

Truthfulness, consultative decision-making and constant learning.  Simple concepts to understand but so hard to implement! Who doesn’t want to work in an environment where opportunities and challenges are always out in the open, where challenges are overcome as a team and where lessons are  applied the next time around?

Guest speaker Ellen Grove shares information on Agile principles and practices.

These Agile principles and practices is what our speaker, Ellen Grove, came to talk to us about….in 30 minutes. So here are some of the highlights and links for you to get the full story:

• Agile is highly collaborative in nature
• Work can get started with just enough information, there is no need  to predict all the changes up front
• Work is prioritized by the customer and priorities can change from one iteration to the next
• Openeness with the customer is not only OK, it is expected
• Agile is a rich method for collecting data and feeding it back into your processes
• When an iteration is two weeks, what’s the risk of trying something out?
• Agile methods are great at exposing impediments

Additional links:

• http://www.openagile.com
• http://wiki.openagile.org
• Scrum in 5 minutes
• InfoQ’s Agile Stream

All this being said, you’ve read our event summary, reviewed the above links and see the value Agile implementations offer.  The issue is you’re not in a position to change your company’s project delivery methodology.  How can you become more Agile as a team member? Ellen recommends two things:

1. Use a task board – it’s a great way to visualize work and expose bottlenecks.
2. Nothing beats a team face-to-face sanity check. Not an hour long status meeting, just a quick (15-minute time boxed) way to update one another on work accomplished, work coming up and to expose any roadblocks standing in the way of completing the work.

More questions? You can find Ellen on Twitter and LinkedIn, you can send her an email or you can access her bookmarks for more information.

So there you have it.  Go out and be Agile!

p.s.: We’re already planning our next event so stay tuned.  We plan these events for the GGD Ottawa community so please send any topic or speaker suggestions or general feedback our way.

Journée de la fierté GEEK

Depuis 2006, c’est le 25 mai que l’on peut sortir dans les rues avec nos PS3, nos macbook et nos light sabers en criant fierté!!!

Malheureusement pas encore…

… À défaut d’organiser ce genre de manifestation entourant cette journée soulignant notre fierté, voici plutôt un court billet en l’honneur de nous, les geekettes!

Avant tout, (selon notre ami Wiki) l’on dit d’un geek qu’il est une personne passionnée, parfois de manière intense, par un domaine précis. Dans ce cas ci, les technologies. Ce qui n’est pas faux.

Saviez-vous cependant que le terme est dans plusieurs langues associé à la folie? Eh bien oui… Heureusement il s’est développé et a bien évolué, tout comme le geek lui même. Ce qui le rend aujourd’hui beaucoup plus large. Si autrefois être geek était associé aux jeux vidéos, à la science-fiction et aux jeux de grandeur nature, aujourd’hui l’on peut aisément l’associer aux technologies, à l’informatique, au cinéma, aux communautés et bien plus.

Mais encore…

Il faut savoir que la première Geekette était Ada Lovelace, une anglaise née à Londres à qui l’on doit le langage Ada. Elle est aussi connue pour avoir écrit une description de la machine analytique de l’ancêtre mécanique de l’ordinateur.

Et vous? Êtes vous geek?

En cette journée bien spéciale, pourquoi ne pas le découvrir?!

Voici Le Geek Test qui vous permettra de savoir quel type de geek vous êtes! Mais surtout, à quel point vous l’êtes.

Montreal Girl Geek Dinner: June 2009 – PUBLIC SPEAKING 1.0 with Suzannah Baum

Presenting our June Montreal Girl Geek Dinner event – Public Speaking 1.0 with Suzannah Baum.

Do you ever shy away from giving presentations because of a fear of public speaking? Or when you do speak, do you know the best ways to engage your audience and structure your presentation for maximum impact?

As an entrepreneur or business professional, you have to be able to get your point across clearly, concisely, and confidently. All too often, however, we spend our time focusing on creating cool websites, blogs, marketing materials, and PowerPoint presentations – but fail to spend enough time preparing what we’re going to say and how we’re going to say it when they are in front of our clients (or our audiences), and in a position to sell our product or ideas. It’s time to showcase your knowledge and get the credit that you deserve! This workshop will provide concrete steps to introduce the public speaking skills you need to create and deliver a career-building, reputation-enhancing presentation – and to deliver it powerfully and persuasively.

Bio -

Suzannah Baum is a public speaking and presentation skills trainer, speaker, and coach. As President of Ideal Communications, Suzannah teaches public speaking classes at McGill University, gives presentation skills seminars at companies across Montreal, and provides executive speech coaching to help her clients unleash their ultimate public speaking potential. An executive member of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers and Toastmasters, she has published numerous articles about public speaking in various online publications as well as her blog and monthly newsletter. For more information, visit her website and blog at www.idealcommunications.ca and www.idealcommunications.ca/blog

BONUS: Get a copy of the FREE Special Report, “10 Tips to Bulletproof Your Presentations,” when you sign up for The Ideal Communicator newsletter. Sign up at http://www.idealcommunications.ca/news/newsletter.php

Date- Thursday June 3rd at 6:30pm

Go Agile with us May 25th!

Join us Tuesday, May 25 as our guest speaker Ellen Grove, an experienced Agile coach and software tester, discusses how to apply Agile principles and practices to all kinds of endeavours, from software development to social change.

Ellen will present OpenAgile, a non-software-focused approach to Agile work that emphasizes truthfulness, consultative decision-making and constant learning. OpenAgile enhances the ability of individuals, teams, and organizations to deliver value to their stakeholders by developing human capacity, improving processes, and, most importantly, encouraging rapid and deep learning.

Event Details

• When: Tuesday, May 25 at 6 p.m.
• Where: Johnny Farina – 216 Elgin Street, between Lisgar and Cooper

To join us, please register here.

Hey students!

Thanks again to generous sponsorship from Joe Thornley of Thornley Fallis, we can offer six student spots to this event. If you are a student wishing to attend, please leave a comment below indicating why or what you want to learn about Agile. The first six students to respond will receive complimentary registration and dinner (up to $25).

A little bit about Ellen

Ellen Grove helps teams make better software through coaching them to create the circumstances in which they can work most productively and effectively. Her Agile coaching practice is founded in over 10 years experience leading software testing, development and implementation teams in global enterprises, a passion for exploratory software testing and user-centered design, and a background in community organization.

She uses team-building and facilitation approaches to support the transition to collaborative Agile work practices at the team, managerial and corporate level, and has conquered the challenges of extending Scrum roll-outs to off-shore development partners and multi-site project teams.

Outside the office, Ellen applies her coaching talents and creativity to keeping her household menagerie of husband, children, dogs, cats, goats, snakes, spiders and birds happy and healthy. Ellen blogs at Mastering the Obvious.

The planning begins…

Good news everyone!

We’ve tweaked our site a bit, to make it a little bit prettier and a little more useful.

Shauna and I had oodles of fun planning, talking, and nerding out this afternoon, and I feel confident that you guys are going to love the Edmonton Girl Geek Dinners. We’ve been looking at what our fellow GGD sisters (and brothers) are doing, and are looking at fun ideas we can bring forward to you guys. I can’t promise anything at the moment… but I was looking at something earlier that involved robots. ROBOTS! I’ve gotten your hopes up now, haven’t I?

While I can’t promise you robots at our first Girl Geek Dinner (Season 1, Episode 1), I can promise you a great time with a group of wonderful like-minded ladies.  The dinner filled up fast, which to us, means that we have geek girls itching to connect to other geek-chic women! (It also means doing bigger and better events in the future.)

So what can I say? Well, we’re offering appetizer platters in partnership with Ceilis Edmonton. The wonderful Grant Sanderson is also offering every Girl Geek Dinner attendee a complimentary high ball, glass of wine, or pint to accompany the snack.  Thursdays are also $5 Fish and Chips night and $5 pints of Alexander Keiths. (Which includes the tasty new Dark Ale!)

Depending on the future events, the amount of attendees, where we hold them and etc – we will be charging attendance fees to cover costs, namely dinner.  We aren’t going to be making money, only asking to cover costs – after all, we’re not-for-profit. We’re doing this because we love it and love connecting with our fellow nerd chicks.

Some more good news! We’ve already been approached by some people to help promote and/or sponsor events, which can only mean great things.  If you or your company would like to sponsor a girl geek event, please let us know by emailing us at: yeggirlgeek@gmail.com. Likewise, if you know of someone you’d like to see present at one of these dinners, email us and we will try our best!

That’s what we’re working on… now, if you’ll excuse me, I have more robot schemes to come up with!

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Retour sur le Lancement Officiel

Comme vous le savez sans doute déjà, le lancement officiel de Québec GirlGeekDinner s’est déroulé le 4 mai dernier au bar l’Inox à Québec.

Josee Levesque, la présidente et fondatrice du groupe confirme que le lancement fut un franc succès puisque vous y étiez nombreux et heureux! Des gens intéressants, des conversations riches, de nouvelles idées, des suggestions et plus encore. Ce fut un premier contact fort agréable.

Maintenant que tout est en marche, n’hésitez pas à communiquer avec Josee via courriel afin de lui soumettre idées, sujets, invitées, lieux, recommandations, questions ou autres. C’est avec plaisir qu’elle attend vos commentaires et suggestions.

Les prochaines réunions et événements seront affichés ici même sur le blog, sur Facebook et sur Twitter.

Voici quelques photos prises au cours de la soirée…

Le restaurant Table et l’Hôtel PUR, fiers partenaires de notre succès!

C’est avec fierté et grand plaisir que Québec GGD annonce avoir conclut un partenariat prometteur  avec Mathieu Poirier du Restaurant Table et Sébastien Thériault de l’Hôtel PUR. Les deux entités situés en basse ville de Québec commanditerons nos événements dès cet été. Puisque nos intérêts et sujets sont sans limites, cela nous permettra de recevoir des invitées expertes venant de Montréal où d’ailleurs.

Très sophistiqué, L’hôtel PUR fraichement rénové est aujourd’hui reconnu pour ses lignes épurées, sa vue spectaculaire sur le centre-ville de Québec et pour ses multiples commodités. Une merveille à découvrir. C’est donc tout un honneur de pouvoir y loger nos invitées.

Le restaurant Table, quant à lui  encore méconnu à l’heure actuelle puisqu’il est ouvert uniquement pour le service du déjeuner et du dîner, ne tardera pas à se faire connaître et à nous recevoir pour le service en soirée. Tant pour l’originalité et l’accessibilité de sa carte que pour la délicatesse et le savoir-faire de son personnel, nous passerons des soirées à la hauteur de nos attentes. Avec son côté lounge, son impressionnant bar, ses baies vitrées, son décor branché, et son salon privé, le restaurant Table est définitivement un endroit idéal pour nos réunions.

Josee est impatiente de vous faire découvrir ces lieux où pleins de surprises et de découvertes nous attendent.

On parle de Québec GGD dans le Soleil

La notoriété des Québec GirlGeekDinners étant l’un de ses principal souci, c’est au grand bonheur de Josee Levesque que mardi le 4 mai dernier l’on parlait du groupe à peine lancé dans le Soleil. L’article tombait à pic avec le Lancement qui avait lieu le soir même à l’Inox. Cela a eu pour effet d’attirer de la belle visite, vous étiez présents en grand nombre! L’article Le souper de filles devient geek est également disponible sur  cyberpresse.ca pour ceux et celles qui voudraient le lire ou le re-lire.

Welcome to YEG Girl Geek Dinners!

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GGD#4 – May 11, 2010 – Planning Meeting

RSVP free via Eventbrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/675523509

We are now into our fourth month of Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinners, and so far the interest shown has been fantastic! We have had great speakers come out and shared excellent company together.

To continue to grow and cater to our members, this month we are holding a planning meeting on Tuesday, May 11th 6:00 PM at Aqua Books.  We will begin as usual in the EAT! Bistro and move up to the small meeting room shortly after 7:00 PM.  So we know how many people to expect, please RSVP via Eventbrite above or via Facebook.

This event is for everyone; those who are interested in helping out, those who want to share their ideas, and those who want to attend and observe. If you are unable to attend, but want to be involved, please send me an email. To get a feel for what people are intersted in, we have prepared this two-question survey: http://polldaddy.com/s/12503A062EC6F079.

Areas where help is needed:

• looking for speakers, venues, sponsorship
• sharing ideas for future events
• making blog posts
• maintaining Facebook group/fan pages
• maintaining Twitter presence

Also, for those of you interested in .Net development, there is a free all-day Visual Studio 2010 launch event on May 11th that is being held at IMAX, Portage Place. It starts at 8:00 AM and ends at 5:00 PM, so you can just walk over to Aqua Books afterward for the Girl Geek dinner. Check out http://www.dotnetwired.com/ for more information.

On parle de Québec GGD à Radio-Canada

C’est ce matin que vous avez pu entendre Josee Levesque lors de  l’émission Première Heure à la radio de Radio-Canada en entrevue avec Claude Bernatchez.

Elle nous expliquait comment et pourquoi lui est venu l’idée de créer Québec GirlGeekDinners. Elle décrit la mission du groupe et nous parle des défis qu’il veut relever.

Si vous n’avez pas eu l’occasion de l’entendre, vous pouvez encore le faire en cliquant ici .

GGD Ottawa event raises funds for ICAfrica

Through Monday’s Girl Geek Dinner (GGD) Ottawa event, coordinated by the 2011 Algonquin College Public Relations (PR) students, the GGD Ottawa community helped raise $520 for ICAfrica. The event was organized as part of the PR students’ month long campaign to raise funds and awareness for this international charity supporting entrepreneurs in Africa.

ICAfrica supports women in Africa pursuing the dream of owning their own small business by offering micro-loans to help them get started. After two years in existence, ICAfrica has a 100 per cent rate of repayment, and most loans are repaid after only six months. Collected funds are then recycled to other entrepreneurs. The PR students organized eight events throughout the Ottawa area with the goal of raising both awareness and financial support for ICAfrica’s various grassroots programs.

Guest speakers, Katie and Regine, co-owners of Victoire Boutique

While raising funds for a great cause, the GGDOttawa event also provided attendees with insight into the entrepreneurial journey of two local small-business owners.

Co-owners of Victoire Boutique, Katie Frappier and Regine Paquette, shared the ups and downs of opening their first boutique on Dalhousie Street and how fours years of business partnership has led to the creation of a jewellery line, an online store and now a second boutique located in Westboro.

Some key points that Katie and Regine shared:

• The risk of owning a small business made them dedicated – they lived, breathed, dreamed their business to make it a success
• To build a successful clothing boutique – where others have failed – they identified their ideal customer and pursued mostly Canadian designers who would appeal to this audience (mostly young women who liked shopping at boutiques but without boutique prices)
• They credit their mentors for providing guidance and sharing real-world experiences that has helped them make smart decisions for their business
• Also built relationships with other small business owners – sharing best practices, lessons learned and collaborating at times
• They used social media as a way to connect with customers, designers and other boutiques
• They use media relations tactics e.g. monthly press releases to garner publicity and worked diligently to make these activities newsworthy i.e. what makes their store different
• Because of their age, Katie and Regine had a difficult time being taken seriously by banks even with a solid business plan; they persevered and built a banking relationship with Ottawa Women’s Credit Union, an institution they highly reccommend to other women looking to pursue an entrepreneurial goal

As two young women pursuing a dream to open their own small business, Katie and Regine’s entrepreneurial journey tied perfectly with the fundraising theme of this event.

The PR students who organized the April GGD Ottawa event, from l. to r.: Lacey, Meg and Kristine

On Wednesday, April 14, the PR students wrapped up their month-long campaign, raising more than $10,000 for the ICAfrica. Says Meg Murray, one of the PR students who helped organize the event,

“The money raised will help to create at least 250 jobs for women in Africa. However, since each women generally cares for a family of four, the money will impact the lives of at least a thousand people.”

How awesome is that?

For more information on this initiative, visit the campaign website at:  Micro-credit, Macro-change. Thanks to our sponsors and to everyone who came out and made this event such a success!

Door Prize Winners

Natasha (on right) accepts her NAC tickets door prize from co-organizer and PR student, Meg

Derek, winner of the wine box door prize courtesy of Indyadvisor.ca

Daniela (on left) accepts her door prize courtesy of Custom Family Photography from event co-organizer and PR student, Kristine

Michele accepts her door prize of Ottawa 67s tickets and autographed hockey stick from Kristine

Mary Lou accepts her Ottawa 67s tickets from Kristine

Nadine accepts her Ottawa 67s tickets from Kristine

GGD #3 – April 13, 2010 – Social Media

Come and geek out with us at the next Winnipeg Girl Geek Dinner at EAT! Bistro in Aqua Books on April 13, 2010, starting at 6:00 PM. Everyone is invited; enthusiasts, students, professionals, young and old. Guys are invited too; the rule of thumb is to be invited by another girl attending. Admission is free, but you pay for your own food and drinks (excellently priced and delicious). There will be some door prizes drawn courtesy of Microsoft.

Please RSVP for free via EventBrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/640270065

Join us April 12 and help fight poverty in Africa

** April 6 Update 5:50 p.m. – the issue with PayPal has been resolved! Thanks to everyone for their patience. You can now go ahead and purchase your ticket for this fundraising-networking event! **

** April 6 Update – we are having issues with the PayPal account so if you have been trying to register, we apologize! We are working on getting the issue resolved as soon as possible and will notify everyone that it is ready to go via this blog and Twitter. **

Algonquin College’s Public Relations students present this month’s Girl Geek Dinner (GGD) Ottawa event!

Women entrepreneurs and students across Ottawa are invited to a night of food, networking, and awareness. Co-owners of Victoire Boutique, Katie Frappier and Regine Paquette, will share their successes and struggles as female entrepreneurs. We’ll also learn about women entrepreneurs in Africa and the challenges they face in establishing economic independence through business ownership.

All proceeds for this event will help support ICAfrica (International Charity for Africa), a non-profit organization that helps fight poverty in Africa through enterprise development.

When: April 12, 2010 at 7 p.m.

Where: Vittoria Trattoria, 35 William St. (in the Market)

Registration: $15 for professionals and $10 for students. To purchase your ticket, click here.

More info about this event

Each year, the Algonquin College first year public relations (PR) class gets together and organizes a community relations project. This year, the class has paired up with ICAfrica, an international charity for entrepreneurs in Africa.

Last month, the PR students approached GGD Ottawa and asked to coordinate a networking event in April to help raise funds for ICAfrica. Kelly, Veronica and myself enthusiastically agreed, and we hope to see the GGD Ottawa community come out and show support for a great cause! More information about the PR students’ fundraising campaign is available at www.icafrica.com/algonquin.

Celebrating Ada Lovelace Day!

The Toronto Girl Geek Dinner community is full of amazingly talented geeks, technologists, developers, web designers, engineers, social media knowledge workers, technology innovators, technology entrepreneurs and the very internet savvy.

Today we honour you: each of our presenters and our attendees. This community shines because of your effort to share your knowledge and experience.

Happy Ada Lovelace Day!

Looking forward to our next conversations.

Invitée du mois de Juin: Évelyne Audet

Québec GirlGeekDinners est fier de recevoir Évelyne Audet comme invitée du mois de juin.

Celle qui a fait ses débuts en radio à NRJ Québec dans le show du matin à titre de remplaçante aux arts et spectacles et sa première expérience en télévision à Télé-Mag Québec en tant qu’animatrice de l’émission Animag en 2006, à laquelle s’ajoutera Féminin Pluriel l’année suivante.

Celle qu’on a également vu à la barre de l’émission CALL-TV enregistrée en Autriche et diffusée à V pendant près de 4 mois, se confiera sur son expérience.

C’est après une courte période très mouvementée dans sa carrière avec plusieurs apparitions dans les médias telles qu’entrevues radio avec Éric Salvail sur NRJ, Christiane Charrette à Radio-Canada, sans oublier une présentation de prix au Gala des Gémeaux, qu’elle a finalement été invitée à Tout le monde en parle.

Depuis octobre, elle a intégré l’équipe de Jean Pagé dans l’Attaque à 5, poste qu’elle occupe depuis. Elle viendra nous parler de ses débuts et de son ascension dans le monde de la télé.

Bientôt au petit écran?!

Date: le mardi 15 juin 2010

Lieu: À 19h au restaurant Erawan