If you didn’t reserve a space on Eventbrite, we’re sorry and hope to see you at future events.

Thanks for your understanding….

Our speaker is Michal (Mic) Berman, founder of EmbarkOnIt.

Mic will share her experiences and perspectives:

• strategies and tips for start-ups and entrepreneurs
• lessons learned from two web giants (Yahoo!, Mozilla)
• how companies can do more with less

Please take a couple of seconds and vote on our poll at Meetup.com to let Mic know which themes appeal to you the most.

About our Speaker

Michal Berman is dedicated to fostering successful entrepreneurship in Canada. She began her career with McKinsey & Company, after spending a super almost 4 years there, she started her first company, B‐Innovative, Inc., building software for clients like Bell Canada. B‐Innovative grew to launch several Enterprise Performance based software products and then was sold to itemus, an Incubator founded in 2000. She joined itemus as part of the deal as their Chief of Staff responsible for product synergy across our investments.

After itemus, she launched Avatar, a peer to peer knowledge discovery tool (think StumbleUpon+IM+Facebook). CGI was interested in the technology and so she took a deal to develop the product further within the Telecom space while working for CGI. Following that, Michal worked for Yahoo as Head of Products to re‐build their Canadian operations. Next, she worked with Mozilla to launch Firefox in many more languages and now as part of the founding team of Embarkonit.com enabling companies to achieve more with less.

photo: Michal Berman by Will Pate

Meetup.com, Our Wiki and Sponsors Needed

We’ve migrated registrations for this month’s event to Meetup.com. With over 300 Toronto Girl Geeks in our community (and more coming out to each event), I was finding managing registrations on our wiki a tad unwieldy. Meetup.com should help us manage better. As always, I’d love your thoughts and feedback.

Don’t get me wrong. I still love our wiki. In fact, Rachel Young just built out a job resource page for us. I’m confident we’ll continue to use our wiki for collaborative projects and sharing.

Your organizers are on the hunt for a sponsor for this event. Sponsorship of TGGD is very reasonable and keeps our events accessible to everyone. Details about sponsorship are available on the wiki. Please drop us a line if you’re interested.

After a TGGD a few months ago some of us were chatting about projects to implement for the community. One of them was a job board for girl geeks, and given the economic climate we’re facing, this is a good time to launch a list.

I’ve added the Toronto Girl Geek Job Resource Board to the wiki. It is a list of job search sites and other resources to help you find the perfect job. While there are some well known job sites listed, these are typically not just classified listings. As well, this list is not meant to advertise for recruiters. As a starting point I wanted to keep this strictly to where you can find a job now to guide your career in the appropriate direction.

Here’s how it breaks down:

Tech/New Media jobs
- we meet once a month because we all have one thing in common: we’re geeks

Other industries
- your dream job could be found in any industry

General job listings
- a short list of the more common general job search sites

Twitter feeds for tech jobs
- find a job in your field in under 140characters

Job search resources
- tips and guidance for job hunting, as well as a link to an extensive list of upcoming career fairs

This list is always evolving as great new services become available. Maybe you have some you’d like to add?

All the best in your job search!

Our speaker/facilitator for the evening was Candice Faktor, Managing Director, Corporate Development and Innovation, TorStar Digital. Most recently, Candice was promoted to Managing Director, Corporate Development and Innovation where she is charged with fuelling innovation in the company and exploring acquisitions and partnerships to drive Torstar Digital’s growth and leadership in the industry. Candice was instrumental in the 2005 creation of Torstar Digital. Prior to this, Candice held the role of GM, toronto.com, one of Torstar Digital’s most prominent and trafficked consumer websites. She also played a key role in the foundation of several start-up ventures and partnerships including Olive Canada Network, which has become one of Canada’s most successful premium online ad networks.

Candice led us through some discussion, and gave us some solid examples both from her own experience and from other industries while inviting us to share our own experience. This session very much picked up where TGGD #9 roundtable in December left off.

We started off with a quick review of what people consider innovation to be, and then Candice took us through a warm-up exercise. Each table was given a regular drinking straw, and everyone was invited to share an innovative idea of what they could do with that straw. Ideas ranged the gamut from blowing bubbles to making an earring to learning how to circle breathe (something I had never heard of!). This showed us that, even with constraints, one can be very creative, and sometimes those constraints can even drive innovation.

She then took us through some stories of innovation during times of constraint. Among the stories that emerged:

• how her Torstar Digital endeavour was originally a minor player at Toronto Star, there were just two of them in a small office with barely any budget or readership, and over time they have found ways to make it a major part of the organization;
• the use of Open Source is rising as organizations seek alternatives to expensive systems;
• the Cheap Eats series of books came about when Alexa Clark left her job and was trying to find a project to do for 3-4 months until she found something else. Today it is a growing series of publications.

The last recession was in 2001; what emerged in 2001?

• Google
• first iPod in Oct 2001 – we had CD players and small mp3 players that held about 100 songs. It was a huge leap for Apple – 1000 songs and beautiful design. There was no clear leader in music player industry. 19 product innovations since the launch. They kept investing in the product. 2008 the iPod was apple’s top product, not their computers.
• Napster – 99 cents for a song – closed down in 2001 but left a mark on how we buy music

In times of cut-backs, you still have to invest in innovation. For example, Toronto.com was created in 2000; in 2001 they cut everything e.g. the link with the prominent Citysearch website in the U.S., and put it under newspaper leadership who did not understand. They have been playing catch up ever since. Meanwhile, for Workopolis which was also created in 2000, they kept investing. It is now the top Canadian job search site; US competitors have left the market.

What does it mean to be in technology and digital media today? The group seemed to agree things are different today than in past recessions:

• people can take things online, build podcasts and blogs online, take part in the market conversation
• investment still needs to be made in the projects
• Apple – now iTunes and app store are innovative ways to bring in money, even if they do not sell new iPods and computers
• people may go to the web because they are desperate but don’t necessarily understand it; the ones who do it well will stand out
• a lot of things are challenging conventional wisdom; the difficulty is figuring out whether you will get it right

Is it a good time to be in tech/digital media?

• yes, as far as setting the groundwork, but money is not good at this time
• transform or die – things are not going back – digital and technology are helping businesses to transform. It is a good time to be helping businesses transform.

According to industry statistics, only digital and gaming are growing (digital = Internet media and digital formats of traditional media eg. Tv, mobile)

Challenges we are facing:

• people want more for less – how can you offer more without spending money?
• organizations are behind the times
• companies don’t understand that they have to innovate to get ahead
• the expectation that everything is free (how do you bring in an income without breaking the trust you have built with your clients or audience?)
• finding a viable business model
• access to capital; currently there is little or no venture capital (VC) available, especially in Canada where the market is small
• traditional communications on their own are no longer working; how do you use a mix between traditional and new communications; how do you bridge that gap and find the right balance?
• gaining access to the right people (people senior enough, for example) to show them innovative ideas and have them acted upon so your ideas will really make a difference
• FEAR: it can be paralyzing; how do you move beyond fear of uncertainty, cut-backs, and the unknown? Defensiveness starts to kick in as a result of fear.

We came away from the evening with a sense of optimism and potential for the future. From the enthusiasm in the room, I also sense a feeling that people want to really find ways to support each other beyond just talking once a month at meetings. We seem to be gelling into a real community.

Thank you to our generous sponsor for the evening, FITC Conferences, providing conferences for those who work in the new media development and design field. All in attendance are being offered free admission to FITC Toronto 2009 April 25-28.

Our speaker for the evening will be Candice Faktor, Managing Director, Corporate Development and Innovation, TorStar Digital. Candice will speak to us about the role and importance of innovation in a tough economy.

An innovator and strategist in the Canadian online media industry, Candice is passionate about where the web is headed.

Most recently, Candice was promoted to Managing Director, Corporate Development and Innovation where she is charged with fuelling innovation in the company and exploring acquisitions and partnerships to drive Torstar Digital’s growth and leadership in the industry. Prior to this, Candice held the role of GM, toronto.com, one of Torstar Digital’s most prominent and trafficked consumer websites.

Candice has also distinguished herself as founder of ourfaves.com, a site that harnesses the power of user-generated content, city search and social networking, allowing users to share and discover local favourites on a citywide scale. Since its launch in May 2007, traffic has grown tremendously and the site will launch in other cities across North America soon.

Candice was instrumental in the 2005 creation of Torstar Digital. She played a key role in the foundation of several start-up ventures and partnerships including Olive Canada Network, which has become one of Canada’s most successful premium online ad networks.

Before joining Torstar, Candice spent four years with the Monitor Group, a top tier strategy consulting firm, acting as consultant to a range of international organizations.

Candice has a genuine love for new technology and media and finds keeping up with where the web is heading fun. Candice is also passionate about enjoying the city, reading, movies, traveling to new countries, spending time with her family, friends and husband Corey, learning new things and giving back to the community.

As per last months’ dinner, we’d like the evening to be open and collaborative, with lots of time for group discussion – so bring your questions for Candice and each other, and please sign up on the wiki if you plan to attend!

We also have a very generous sponsorship provided by FITC conferences for those who work in the new media development and design field – free admission for all January TGGD attendees to FITC Toronto 2009 April 25-28, a $650 value!

There is no better time to create a community of friends who can come together and execute on your brilliant idea. – Passion is recession proof, 12Seconds blog (Oct. 9, 2008)

We had a fantastic turn-out for the first ever Girl Geek Dinner round table, with excellent participation by everyone. And the feedback has been very positive. I was invited to summarize the session for us–if I missed your idea, or if you have additional thoughts, please do add to the comments.

The Warm-Up

We started out the discussion after dinner with a warm-up exercise. I asked everyone to write words or phrases that describe “innovation” onto sticky notes. We then posted them to a wall, and we had three fine volunteers sort them by theme. This is what we came up with:

The energy just jumps off the page as you read through that list, doesn’t it? And I love that cartoon that someone added in! What struck us is that there were very few mentions of technology. It was more about ways of thinking.

Two Questions

Our second exercise was to answer these two questions:

1. How do you get new ideas?
2. How are you already innovating?

We went around the whole room on the first question, and it was amazing the number of ways that people use to either focus themselves down or broaden their thinking. There were some who tap into the subconscious by going for a walk, taking a shower, exercising or sleeping. Others changed something as a stimulus, such as learning something new or even moving some place new. Others had more practical suggestions, such as looking to areas outside their own for ideas, copying others, or walking backwards through a problem to find a solution. There were some who found playing with children opened them up to seeing things with fresh eyes. For the second question, people described their various projects and ways of working. It was good to be a little introspective.

Your Questions

We then opened the questions up to the room. Here is a summary:

1. Q: Are bad economic times an opportunity or a challenge?

   A:

   • it depends upon your organization
   • being on a smaller budget helps you stay focussed and come up with creative solutions; it is easier to watch what you are spending with $20 than it is with $100,000.
   • look for people already in your organization for hidden interests and skills and leverage those
   • it forces you to listen to your customer, become more customer-focussed.
2. Q: How do you get a conservative company to innovate?

   A:

   • persistence
   • patience
   • find someone who will listen
   • celebrate and build on small victories
   • you have to show the company that it will hurt the organization not to innovate
   • if the guy at the top cannot see the benefit, it may be too difficult in the end

My Suggestions (& Questions) for the Next Step

The number of deep thinkers in the room was impressive, and I was amazed as to how engaged in the topic everyone was. This is indeed building into a real community!

We didn’t have enough time to talk about it, but I believe the next step in making this group valuable is to find ways for us to further support each other in our projects and career aspirations. We already do that on a one-to-one basis as we meet each other and get to know what we all do. But how can we take that to a more organized level? How can we promote one another so that we all succeed?

Ideas for Another Round Table?

I believe our illustrious organizers Jenny Bullough, Leona Hobbs and Maggie Fox would like to try another round table discussion in the future. If you have a topic you would like to discuss, or if you would like to volunteer to lead a discussion, let them know.

Thank you to Leona for inviting me to facilitate this discussion. And a big thank you to PriceWaterhouseCoopers who sponsored the dinner!

Cheers,
Connie

The 9th Toronto Girl Geek Dinner, sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, will feature a discussion about how we, as leaders in our respective areas of technology, can continue to innovate during tough economic times.

Connie Crosby has agreed to facilitate our discussion.

Some of the topics Connie will cover include taking smart risks, using a downturn as a catalyst for innovation, finding a solid strategy, and the opportunities for people inside organizations and for entrepreneurs.

Connie helps organizations and individuals start their social networking and knowledge management projects. She is an expert in social networking, communication and information organization. Connie has acted as a leader in the Canadian legal and library industries, blogging, writing and speaking to lawyers and librarians, and has connections with social media innovators around the world. She is an instructor with the Professional Learning Centre at the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto, teaching continuing education courses on social networking tools. She is also a teacher with the Special Libraries Association Click University.

To wrap up our Toronto Girl Geek Dinners for 2008, PricewaterhouseCoopers has graciously agreed to pick up the tab for everyone’s dinner. We all thank them for their generosity are thrilled to have them on-board and participating in our event!

p.s. I’m thinking about using some new community tools for TGGD next year. Meetup.com is on my short list. Please let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions.

Amber had a few tips to get the conversation started:

• When you build your online brand, get involved in at least five social sites/services -, i.e. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Delicious. She suggests Squarespace is a good publishing system for personal websites.
• Use the same name or your own nickname consistently so you create equity in your brand.
• Put your URL on everything (online and off) and list it everywhere. Make sure everything links back to your site.

Our discussion was lively. Here are my notes. Feel free to continue the conversation in the comments.

Q: How do you deal with negatives, like haters or trolls?
A: Respond to every comment. Remain calm and in control and recognize there may be some truth in the comment. Try not to get discouraged, but the most important thing is to respond.

Q: Is it important to join a new social network service just to claim your name?
A: Yes, I think its important. You should also own your own name as a domain name. If you can’t get your name exactly, get creative with middle initials, nicknames, or other options.

Q: How do you the draw the line between accepting followers and saying what you want?
A: You may want to keep private things private, but be careful of splitting your audience into too many groups. Don’t discount your social circle as a big helper of building a brand.

Q: Is there a diplomatic way to refuse a friend request?
A: I don’t think there is a diplomatic way. Use the limited profile feature where you can.

Q: It is important to monitor your personal brand online?
A: Yes, you follow up to say thank you, nurture relationship and comment back.

Q: Should you be controversial on your blog to drive traffic?
A: Sure, being controversial will drive traffic. If that’s the way your write, you’ve got to be true to your spirit. Some people can’t force it. It can help, but not if it isn’t sincere or authentic.

photo: AmberMac Website 2008 via insidetwit

That still leaves a lengthy standby list, so I’m going to remind everyone how this works.

If you’re signed up on the wiki to attend but can’t make it, please remove your name from the list and leave your space blank. Your spot is then open to anyone on the standby list. If you’re on the standby list, all you need to confirm your participation is to move your name to the sign-up list.

We want to make sure as many Toronto Girl Geeks have the chance to participate as possible, so we’re counting on you to do your part. I don’t know a single one of us who doesn’t have stuff come up and plans change. Even if have to bail a few hours before, please update the wiki so someone else can take your spot.

Men are welcome at Toronto Girl Geek Dinners. We have one simple request – if you’re a guy attending a Toronto Girl Geek Dinner, you have to bring a female, or be the guest of a female.

A big thank you in advance to our friends at the Web Host Industry Review (the WHIR). They are our sponsors and are funding our a/v and sponsoring up to ten student dinners. As of this writing, we have one spot left for a female technology student.

If you get a chance, check out the awesome resources over the WHIR – find a web hosting provider, get the inside track with webmaster news and resources or learn about how to find and max out your domain name potential. Based here, in the Tee Dot, the WHIR is a great media property run by a bunch of bright and passionate folks.

photo credit: Girl Geek Dinner Cupcakes via Annie Mole

BUT – that’s not all, while the spots on the wiki are quickly filling up, we’d also like to announce that, thanks to the generosity of our sponsor, The Web Host Industry Review, we are also able to open up ten student spots on the TGGD wiki. That is, if you are a female technology student, dinner is on theWHIR.

TheWHIR is,

comprised of theWHIR.com Web site (including WHIR TV and WHIR Blogs), WHIR Newsletters and Web Host Industry Review magazine. Each is geared toward two specific audiences: Web hosting consumers including businesses seeking Web hosting services, and Web host industry professionals keeping abreast of developments in the world of Web hosting and/or further developing their Web hosting operation.

So special thanks to theWHIR for ponying up for the AV equipment and ten student dinners. We’re pretty much sold out for the event already (though there still are a few more student spots open on the wiki). Please be sure to check back on the wiki – there are often drop-offs at the last minute!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

Don’t be shy. All Toronto Girl Geek blogs and podcasts are welcome.

All you need to do is follow the template over on our wiki and add your blog to the list.

Once we’ve got a few blogs together, I’ll create a Yahoo! Pipe with everyone’s feeds, and publish it here on our blog, on the wiki and the Facebook Group.

I know a bunch of you gals are bloggers, so I’m really looking forward to having a quick and easy way to read your posts and share thoughts and ideas.