March 31, 2010
Ireland, Locations
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WHEN: Thursday, April 15th at 6:30pm
WHERE: Science Gallery on Pearse Street, Dublin
HOW MUCH: €15 / person for buffet provided by Caffe di Napoli in the Science Gallery – includes pasta salads, antipasti platters, crostini, cheeses and fresh leaf salads, plus desserts & tea/coffee. Wine can be purchased at a cost of €5/glass.
REGISTER: http://irelandgirlgeekdinnerapril.eventbrite.com/
Our next event in Dublin is schedule for April 15th. We’re doing a dinner in conjunction with the Science Gallery on Pearse Street, and the theme is mobile.
- What mobile devices do you use, have you used?
- What would you be lost without?
- Are you addicted to your iPhone or your Blackberry?
- Are you building any mobile applications or mobile versions of websites? How do you choose which?
- What’s the worst phone you’ve ever used and why?
- What one application do you use that makes your phone indispensible?
- If you’re in the market for a new mobile device, what do you care and not care about?
- What is foursquare, how is it related to mobile devices and work?
We’ll be covering all of this and more, so come with your favourite device and come prepared to ask and answer the tough questions around mobile today. 
The Science Gallery is conveniently located on Pearse Street in Trinity College, and it’s very close to the Pearse Street DART station. You can view a map to the Science Gallery by clicking here: http://sciencegallery.com/find_us
Register today at http://irelandgirlgeekdinnerapril.eventbrite.com/ and we’ll see you on April 15th in the Science Gallery.
March 3, 2010
Ireland, Locations
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Monday, March 8th is International Women’s Day. To celebrate, WITS (Women in Technology and Science) has graciously organized an informal lunchtime networking event and invited Ireland Girl Geeks to attend.
Additionally it is WITS’s 20th anniversary and the launch of their new website, so there is a lot to celebrate! Please come along and join for champagne, canapes and catching up with WITS and Ireland Girl Geeks.
WHEN: Monday, March 8th at 12:30pm
WHERE: Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Clare Street, Dublin 2
REGISTER: http://witsireland.eventbrite.com/
See you Monday.
February 28, 2010
Ireland, Locations
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We’re putting together a dinner for the end of March and decided to do a vote for the date of the event.
What suits you best? We’ll be talking about mobile devices of all types and want to get a good discussion going around what your must-have device is, how you use your phone[s], what are the must-have features for portables and much more.
Please use the link below to vote on which day you prefer: March 25th, 29th, or 30th.
Have an idea for a future event? We’ve also had a suggestion for a women in gaming event, and are looking for other suggestions for events in 2010. See you soon!
October 27, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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Attention Cork Girl Geeks! Attention BarCamp Cork Girl Geeks!
Thanks to the help of Sabrina Dent, Ciara Crossan and Gordon Murray, we have a pre-BarCamp Cork Girl
Geek Dinner organized. So if you’re heading down to Cork for BarCamp Cork, come join us for a fun evening on the Friday before.
WHEN: Friday, November 13th at 8pm
WHERE: Gourmet Burger Bistro, 8 Bridge Street, Cork city
HOW MUCH: €18 / person for starters, your choice of burger/chicken/falafel, dessert, tea/coffee.
Please leave your name in the comments below if you plan on attending. See you on Friday November 13th.
October 2, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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Hope everyone has had a great summer!
We’re meeting up in October for some dinner and to say farewell and bon voyage to the very lovely girl geek Jaime Hemmett who is leaving Dublin at the end of the month.
I’m still waiting on Ciao Bella Roma to give me final prices, but I wanted to open registration anyway. I’ll update the blog post when they get back to me.
- WHEN: Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 7:30pm
- COST: Still waiting for confirmation from Ciao Bella Roma, but will be between €15-€20 per person
- WHERE: Ciao Bella Roma (downstairs), which is on Parliament Street across from the Porterhouse in Temple Bar.
Please leave your name in the comments below if you plan on attending. See you on the 13th!
September 5, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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Hi:
Sorry for the short notice, we will do an impromptu meet up Monday the 7th of September at 7 pm in The Central Hotel, in the Library Bar.
See you there 
July 22, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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It’s been a while and folks want to see each other and catch up, so we’re going to meet up on Wednesday 5th August at 8pm at Kennedy’s on Westland Road.
Kennedy’s is a funky bar around the corner from Trinity College.Kennedy’s is a traditional bar situated on the corner of Westland Row near the back entrance of Trinity College and a stone’s throw from the busy crowds of Grafton Street and Dame Street.
So come along and catch up, or if you’ve never been before come and join us.
April 27, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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Thanks to everyone who came along to our dinner at Herbstreet. We all had a great time and learned a lot from our guest speaker, Amanda Scott. If you have any feedback, suggestions, ideas, please send them along to martha@irelandgirlgeekdinners.com.
As we discussed at the dinner, we’re incorporating more informal events to Ireland Girl Geek Dinners. Our next Dublin meetup will be a casual drinks meetup next week.
- WHEN: Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 7:30pm
- WHERE: The Secret Bar, which is upstairs at No. 3 Fade Street in city centre
Please leave your name in the comments below if you plan on attending. See you on Wednesday.
April 4, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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After a great night out last night for Belfast Girl Geek Dinner, registration is now open for the Dublin Girl Geek dinner on Tuesday, April 21st. Dinner will be at herbstreet restaurant on Hanover Quay, and will be a three-course dinner for 30 euros / person, drinks are not included. Menu will be posted early next week.
There are two speakers for this event. First of all, Ireland Girl Geek Dinners is delighted to welcome guest speaker Amanda Scott of changeatwork.ie. Amanda is a career development coach, as well as a fantastic speaker and will be joining Dublin Girl Geeks to chat about her experiences and women in technology. The title of her talk is “Career Success, in Girl Terms.” The second speaker, Martha Rotter, will be doing a quick, ten-minute talk on Robotics using Roomba demo machines.
Please register now so that we can update the restaurant booking. Please use the comments form below to register your attendance. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to martharo [at] microsoft.com.
See you at herbstreet on April 21st. Thanks to herbstreet and Amanda for their help!
UPDATE: I confirmed menus with herbstreet yesterday and they look delicious. Menu includes choice of pulled pork wrap, chunky ratatouille tart, or orechiette (”little ears”) pasta plus starters, desserts, tea and coffee. There are vegetarian choices, but if you have any other special dietary needs, please let me know at martharo [at] microsoft.com.
March 25, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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It’s time for another Belfast Girl Geek Dinner. We’re meeting at Madison’s in Botanic on FRIDAY APRIL 3rd. The dinner will begin at 7:30pm. The fabulous Leeanne Lowe has arranged for us a 2-course meal for £16.95, and we have pre-booked a set amount of seats.
http://www.madisonshotel.com
Please register now so that we can update the restaurant booking if necessary. Please use the comments form below to register your attendance. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to martharo [at] microsoft.com.
Please note that attendees at this dinner will be paying for their own dinner and drinks. They are sending us the sample menu & I’ll post it here when it’s ready.
See you in Belfast! And thanks so much to Leeanne for all the help!
March 22, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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It’s less than a week to Girl Geek Day. Many people have emailed asking do they need to sign up, plain answer is no, I just asked that folks do so that I have an idea of numbers. Don’t worry if you haven’t.
Some information, it’s going to be a very informal day. Mostly foscused on discussion groups. I have added a timetable, if folks want to add in a topic, discussion, something they want to show off and explain to people. Please do. One suggestion was 20 slides in five minuets, how do you think you’d do ? Perhaps there is a topic you’d like to discuss, put it up there, maybe others would like to talk about it.
This day was just something I decided to put out there, I hope folks come along and actively take part in it. Thanks
March 19, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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We have a Dublin dinner getting scheduled for April with a fantastic speaker, but thought we might do an informal meetup next week as well just to catch up.
At this meetup we’ll be discussing having a regular, monthly informal meetup for Dublin as well.
We’ll be at the top of the Long Stone Pub (http://www.thelongstone.com/location.html) at 7pm on Tuesday March 24th , and I’ll bring along a sign so people can find us easily.
Please leave your name in the comments below if you’ll be attending. See you on Tuesday.
March 18, 2009
Ireland, Locations
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In session three last week, we covered the following:
Topic: Grooving and Improving
- o Handling Q&A
- o Techniques for self-improvment
- o Critiquing your own performance
- o Finding your honest feedback crowd
Here are some notes that might be useful for everyone:
Handling Q&A
First the important decisions:
- Will you save time for questions? Sometimes taking questions aren’t an option
- Will you allow questions during the talk? For some people or for unfamiliar topics, it can throw you off.
- Will you pause during the talk at sensible points in the talk to ask for questions?
- What will you say if there aren’t any questions? Do you have a filler or do you just say thanks, bye?
ALWAYS repeat the question. ALWAYS.
Handling “I don’t know”:
- Admit when you don’t know!
- Respond with, “I don’t know, but I can find out / will post answers on my blog / will e-mail you the answer / etc.”
- Rephrase the question, maybe you misunderstood
- Redirect the question: “Does anyone here know?” “Ooh, we’re out of time – lets answer that next time!”
- Stall for time using water, note rustling, and obvious pauses to give yourself some more time to think through.
Some dos and don’ts:
- Don’t get defensive. Don’t even bristle – people can smell it.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for more details – lots of speakers answer questions they weren’t even asked because they didn’t clarify. And the question asker is too polite to stop you in the middle, so they let you finish and then say, “Okay thanks but actually my question was…”
- Do compliment good and thoughtful questions.
- Don’t compliment every question though!
- Do give prizes for good questions – this sometimes helps with shy audiences.
- Do go find people who asked tough questions in the bar later to discuss further.
- Don’t be afraid to buy time by drinking water or flipping through your notes.
- Do beware of hypothetical questions – they are often weak attempts at disguising an agenda.
- Do ask for examples if you don’t understand the question
- Do acknowledge comments and move on.
Some excellent responses to hecklers:
“You seem to know a lot about this topic. Would you have a few minutes after this to chat & compare notes?”
“You’ve asked a lot of great questions. I need to move on and answer a few other audience members, but would you come chat with me afterwards please?”
“I value/respect/appreciate your opinion, but I respectfully disagree. And you know what? That’s okay!”
“Is your concern around X?” (good for someone who seems to have a hidden issue/agenda)
If all else fails, you can fake the “Oh, sorry, the guys in the back are giving me the time signal, gotta run. Thanks!”
There aren’t a lot of resources around answering tough questions. One book is In the Line of Fire: How to Handle Tough Questions When It Counts by Jerry Weissman.
Techniques for Self-Improvement
1) When you’re watching other speakers, pretend you’re critiquing yourself. Notice which words they repeat over and over, which phrases they repeat over and over. Write them down & see if you do that too.
Common culprits include:
- Um
- Like
- So
- Or something like that
- There you go
- You see
2) Try changing your voice pitch and tone. Do this to get rid of monotonous speech or to just try altering your sound. This can add interesting dramatic effects or can make your speech more impactful. But you must try this at home first, try it in front of a camera or voice recorder. If this sounds faked it will not work.
3) Try using storytelling techniques such as giving different characters different voices or using background sounds. This is normally not appropriate for describing code or demoing an application, but may lend a unique touch to a keynote or high-level talk. Again if you don’t practice this first, you’ll sound silly and forced.
4) Try injecting dramatic pauses to create anticipation, create drama, and give interesting effects. Pausing can be incredibly effective for helping people to refocus on your subject and building an audience’s interest.
Critiquing Your Own Performance:
My number one technique for critiquing is to keep a journal. Nothing extravagant. In fact it’s best if it’s small and can fit in your purse or laptop bag, like a small moleskine.
Write down things like:
- How you feel before a talk
- How you think the talk went
- Feedback you received from attendees
- Followups you need to do with attendees or things you said you’d post on your blog
- Impressions you have of other speakers when you watch them
- Anything else that springs to mind
Another great exercise is “Pick a word.” Pick a word, any word, preferably one you use too much. Get a rubberband or a board game buzzer. Practice your talk, and any time you say the word or phrase, snap the rubber band around your wrist or hit the game buzzer hard. This will draw your attention to how often you use it and allow you to be more conscious of using the word/phrase.
Finding Your Honest Feedback Crowd:
There are a lot of great ways to find people to help you obtain useful and honest feedback for your talks. Some suggestions are:
- Websites like meetup.com or other “birds of a feather” group meeting websites
- Friends but be careful: your friends love you and sometimes don’t want to hurt your feelings. Be really cautious about using friends to get feedback. Also if they’re non-technical friends, they may not be able to give you reasonable feedback on the technical parts of your presentation.
- Colleagues at work
- Your immediate manager – this can be a great option if you approach it the right way. Good managers are often very open to their employees wanting to improve professional skills. You can phrase this something like, “I noticed our team could use some education around X. I’d love to deliver that material to them, but it would be great if we could have some 1:1 coaching sessions so that I do a great job.”
- Professional speaking groups like Toastmasters
- Groups of peers, such as groups like this speaking series
- Other speakers or wannabe speakers you’ve met at community events. It’s really easy to go up to someone at a BarCamp and say, “These talks have been great today. Do you ever talk at events like these? I’m working on my own speaking skills, let me know if you would be interested in meeting up some time and practicing?”
The last thing that came up was a question around good presentation websites and other resources. Here are a few:
http://www.presentationzen.com/ (Garr Reynolds, also the title of his excellent book)
http://www.duarte.com/ (Nancy Duarte’s corporate site)
http://blog.duarte.com/seminars/spring-slideology-workshop/ (Slideology workshops, Silicon Valley only)
http://blog.slideshare.net/ (Slideshare application’s blog)
http://blog.ericfeng.com/ (The public speaking blog)
http://greatpublicspeaking.blogspot.com/ (Another public speaking blog)
http://www.bertdecker.com/ (Bert Decker on public communications)
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ (Seth Godin’s Blog)
http://headrush.typepad.com/ (Creating Passionate Users)
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/ (Guy Kawasaki – How to Change the World)
Any other resources you’d add? Please leave them in the comments below:
