This one-day event, held February 27th from 9-4 on the Foothill College campus in Los Altos Hills, is designed to provide middle school and high school girls with a better understanding of what a career in technology is all about.  During the event, students interact with members of the industry to gain exposure to careers in business and technology and to get an inside look at what it’s like to work in technology. This exciting event provides girls with information about technology and business roles, thought-provoking exercises, and interesting hands-on experience. By participating in the Dare 2B Digital event, young women can find out about the variety of opportunities available in the high-tech industry and can explore future career paths. You will be making it possible for these girls to have a great, positive experience with technology that could help to mold their future.

The workshops are hands on and there will be instructors for 25-30 girls.  They also want to have  proctors for every 5-6 girls to help out.

Proctoring is: supporting a hands-on class by working with the one or two instructors in the classroom. Proctors help participants (girls) to be successful in their activities in the class. Proctors can just ‘show up’ on class day / time if their time is constrained.

If proctors would like to do more preparation they can:
1) request to proctor a specific session – session list is
2) request that the instructor send the session info to them in advance
3) listen to a recorded train-the-trainer session
4) attend a train-the-trainer session on the day before (Fri, Feb 26) two sessions am 10am – 11:30 or
1:30 to 3:00

Want to get involved?  We are looking for volunteers to help in many areas! And in case you were wondering – we want to also demonstrate diversity in our volunteers so we want to emphasize that everyone is welcome. There are various roles and time commitments to accommodate schedules:

Directional Sign Setup: Place signs the morning of the event directing traffic to the correct parking areas.

Parking Attendants: Positioned at the parking lot entrance and along the walk to the registration area, direct people where to go, and make sure that the girls have their signed waivers with them.

Morning Greeters: Assist with Check In, Distribution on Name Tags and Interacting with Early Arrivals

Lunch Monitors: Ensure everyone is fed and happy.  Answer any questions the girls may have.

Group Leaders: After the general sessions, the students will be divided into groups. The group leader will escort the students to the technology sessions.

Lab Assistants / Proctors: We will have a number of Technology Sessions. Each hands-on session will have a lead presenter. Additional volunteers are needed to assist with hands on activities.

Room Monitors: Ensure rooms are secure and that we don’t run into any problems with hardware being left unattended.

End of Day Dismissal: An important part of the day – You can help by collecting surveys and handing out t-shirts.

Cleanup After Event: After the event, we will need help taking down signs, putting classrooms back in order if anything was moved, and making sure that we leave the campus at least as clean as it was when we got there.

Pre-event Setup: (3 hour Commitment on Feb 19th from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM) These folks will be responsible for helping setup for the event including stuffing bags, rolling shirts, etc.

Please send an email to our volunteer coordinator at dare2bdigital@gmail.com to let us know in which roles you are interested and for which days you can participate. Also make sure to let us know if there is anything that you would not like to do so we can make sure you are doing something you enjoy.

DRESS CODE: Casual, but remember that you are acting as a role model to the girls in attendance. All volunteers will have a name badge, and will be given t-shirt at the event to make them easy to spot. In order to make sure you get a shirt your size, please register as a volunteer as soon as possible.

Many, Many Thanks!

Schedule for girls:

• 9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.   Check-in
• 9:45 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.  Welcome
• 10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Opening Keynote
• 10:45 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Workshop
• 12:00 p.m. – 12:50 p.m. Lunch
• 1:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.   Workshop
• 2:30 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.   Snack
• 3:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.   Closing Keynote/Giveaways

Speakers include:

• Leah Culver; Product Manager, Six Apart
• Poornima Vijayashanker; Senior Software Engineer, Mint.com
• Sandy Jen, Co-founder & VP Engineering, Meebo
• Rebecca Parsons, CTO, ThoughtWorks

She’s Geeky the following weekend will offer a great opportunity to continue the conversations begun on Tuesday the 29th.

Girls in Tech Presents: The Catalyst Conference

January 26th, 2010

Commonwealth Club, San Francisco

The Catalyst Conference presented by Girls in Tech catalyzes the career development of women working in high-tech. By offering high-level keynotes and discussions from successful women at the top of their game alongside workshops led by experts in innovation and collaboration the Catalyst Conference enables & propels women to take the next step whether they’re launching a venture making waves in the corporate world looking to join an innovative startup or building their online and digital-media media brand. Our 2010 theme is “Curiosity” which we believe is essential for inspiration innovation and driving change.

Who Attends the Catalyst Conference?

Professionals in high-technology sectors attend Girls in Tech’s Catalyst Conference to share concrete technology tools and tactics meet energetic leaders and entrepreneurs and develop their business ventures. We bring together women at the top of their industries & those leading their first ventures to discuss successes and strategy. Approximately 350 passionate creative women will come together January 26 to fuel new relationships and ideas.

Financial aid for PyCon 2010 has just gotten even better. Because of some very generous donations from the community, we are adding a second grant fund called the Financial Assistance Grant for Women. This fund is geared specifically toward helping women who are interested in using Python in their research, school work, careers or other avenues. It includes help with:

• registration
• tutorials
• lodging
• transportation

The existing Python Software Foundation Grant will continue to be funded at the same level and can provide assistance for:

• registration
• lodging
• transportation

Please see here for details & instructions. The deadline for applications is December 18, 2009.

Update – Astia, Women Who Tech, Digital Sistas and NCWIT have also joined in.

Update – CodeChix and GirlsInTech have joined the booth.

If you run a women in tech group group and want to be a part of the booth please contact us info@shesgeeky.org and we will get in touch with you with details.

Each group is chipping in a small amount of money so we can all afford to have a presence at the event together.  Each group will have their logo on a banner, a logo, link and blurb in a “meta-brochure” that will cover all of the different groups in the booth & the ability to put out group specific brochure-ware. You don’t have to have anyone from your group in attendance at SXSW to participate. Contributing to the both does not cover your admission to the conference.

http://con-techie.com/index.php/con-techie-blog/138-girls-get-their-nerd-on-at-shes-geeky-dc

Loved seeing you all there and I hope to see you in the Bay Area!
Amelia

This panel will be moderated by Kaliya but consist of men who not only agree there is an issue that need to be addressed with the lack of women in technical fields and particularly in fields where women’s participation is significantly lower then the graduation rates or the percentages found in the corporate sector.

This is the description submitted:
Many tech fields have a low percentage of women. If you are a guy do you wonder what you can do about it? Learn about successful strategies and proactive approaches for supporting women you work with and participate in community with. We will even cover some well-intentioned efforts that have gone awry.

We hop to answer these questions on the panel:

1. How many women by percentage participate in different technical fields?
2. Why does it matter that they are underrepresented in these fields?
3. What are the cultural norms that men and women have about performance and self-promotion?
4. What is Male Programmer Privilege?
5. What can a guy do who has a sister that is math/science inclined but being steered away from the field?
6. How have the men on the panel improved things in their workplaces?
7. How have the men on the panel addressed the challenges that arise in open communities? (that is where you don’t have a boss that fires people for inappropriate behavior/comments)
8. What are the qualities of a workplace that is friendly for women?
9. How to go beyond tokenism in workplaces, communities and conferences?
10. How to encourage women more?

We need to find some good men to populate this panel. Kaliya has some in mind but this is an opportunity to discover some guys that are doing great things that should be highlighted.  I invite you to nominate guys you know or if you are a guy and want to raise your hand – I welcome that too.  SXSW wants to know who is on the panel by the end of November.  After She’s Geeky DC we will go through the submissions and decide who should be on the panel.

Comments below or e-mails to info@shesgeeky.org are the best two ways to submit information.

REGISTER HERE

Who is invited?
Are you a woman? Are you a Geek?  This event is for you!  We invite women from a diverse array of technological fields and those doing technology within non-technical fields.  This includes:

• Entrepreneurs
• Coders / Programmers
• Open Source & Standards Advocates
• Nonprofit Technology
• BioTech
• Users of Tech tools
• Gadget Enthusiasts
• Hardware Hackers
• Programmers
• Engineers
• Video Geeks
• Gamers
• …..what ever you think is geeky

You can bring your daughters! We even created a special ticket price for them.  Girls as young as 9 years old have attended She’s Geeky with thier mothers / aunts / mentors.

Sponsors: We are actively seeking sponsors please see this page to learn more about levels.

About She’s Geeky:

She’s Geeky convenes to inspire women technologists for the future and advance systemic change in tech culture, providing a space to create enduring communities that foster collaboration and innovation among women professionals working in Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

In early 2007 a group of women working in the high-tech sector in the San Francisco Bay Area recognized a need for a gathering space where women who self-identify as geeky could meet in person to support, educate, and share experiences with each other. Although many organizations already existed for women in different areas of technology and as well to encourage girls to pursue careers in such fields, there was no commons area that:

• brought all  interested individuals and organizations together;
• supported peer-to-peer learning exchange;
• built connections and established relationships across diverse communities and disciplines to support women technologists; and
• specifically attended to retaining women in technology fields through community.

Rather than creating another niche women-in-tech organization, we decided to work with and promote existing activists and organizations, inviting them all to meet at an interactive event called an unConference.

What is an Unconference?

Beginning at 9 AM each day, we start with a blank wall and, in less than an hour, with a facilitator guiding the process attendees create a full day, multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone there.  All are welcome to put forward presentations or propose conversations.As women register we will be posting proposed topics on our wiki.
If this is an unconference – why does it cost money?

We operate She’s Geeky as a not for profit event and raise enough funds to cover the expenses of producing a quality event.  About half (1/2) the cost of putting it on  is covered by ticket sales and half (1/2) from sponsors. Our no-show rate is only 10% vis up to 60% for free camps. We can’t provide food economically and unwastefully if we don’t create a contract with attendess to attend. Your payment covers food and a portion of the related venue and event expenses and in exchange we provide a well organized, adequately staffed, engaging event at a reasonable price that is considerably less than regular conferences.  To understand more about this please see our post about money and unconferences.

Contact and Follow us:

• Our main website is www.shesgeeky.org
• If you have any questions you can contact us at info@shesgeeky.org
• You can subscribe to our BLOG here: www.shesgeeky.org/sg/blog
• You can follow us on twitter @shesgeeky

Register Here

We have an amazing DC based organizing team Andrea Baker, Kety Esquivel, Allyson Kapin,  Amy Senger,  Shireen Mitchell along with the She’s Geeky home base organizers – Kaliya Hamlin & Heidi Nobantu Saul

Who is invited?

Are you a woman? Are you a Geek?  This event is for you.  We are invite women from a diverse array of technological fields and those doing technology within non-technical fields

• Nonprofit Technology
• Open Source
• Intelligence Community
• Entrepreneurs
• Advocacy Campaigning
• Coders / Programmers
• Product Managers
• Users of Tech tools
• Gadget Enthusiasts
• Hardware Hackers
• Engineers
• Video Geeks
• Gamers
• …..what ever you think is geeky

You can bring your daughters! We even created a special ticket price for them.  Girls as young as 9 years old have attended She’s Geeky with thier mothers / aunts / mentors.

Sponsors:

This event would not be possible without our sponsors - you can learn more about the levels here.

Venue Donation:

Corporate Sponsors:

Community Sponsors:

What is an Unconference?
Beginning at 9 AM each day, we start with a blank wall and, in less than an hour, with a facilitator guiding the process attendees create a full day, multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone there.  All are welcome to put forward presentations or propose conversations.As women register we will be posting proposed topics on our wiki.
If this is an unconference – why does it cost money?
We operate She’s Geeky as a not for profit event and raise enough funds to cover the expenses of producing a quality event.  About half (1/2) the cost of putting it on  is covered by ticket sales and half (1/2) from sponsors. Our no-show rate is only 10% vis up to 60% for free camps. We can’t provide food economically and unwastefully if we don’t create a contract with attendess to attend. Your payment covers food and a portion of the related venue and event expenses and in exchange we provide a well organized, adequately staffed, engaging event at a reasonable price that is considerably less than regular conferences.  To understand more about this please see our post about money and unconferences.

About She’s Geeky:

In early 2007 a group of women working in the high-tech sector in the San Francisco Bay Area recognized a need for a gathering space where women who self-identify as geeky could meet in person to support, educate, and share experiences with each other. Although many organizations already existed for women in different areas of technology and as well to encourage girls to pursue careers in such fields, there was no commons area that:

* brought all interested individuals and organizations together;
* supported peer-to-peer learning exchange;
* built connections and established relationships across diverse communities and disciplines to support women technologists; and
* specifically attended to retaining women in technology fields through community.

Rather than creating another niche women-in-tech organization, we decided to work with and promote existing activists and organizations, inviting them all to meet at an interactive event called an unConference.

SPONSORS – see our sponsorship information page to see about different levels avaliable

• NCLR – National Council of La Raza has generously donated their conference space to us for these two days.

Community Sponsors

• NavStar
• Sunlight Foundation
• Debbie Well

Contact and Follow us:

If you have any questions you can contact us at info@shesgeeky.org

You can follow us on twitter @shesgeeky

Please send us your ideas for generic Geeky symbols we should include or if you have any particularly “fem” geeky symbols we would like to know about them.

Ideas we have so far:

• computer monitor
• microscope
• math symbols
• HTML code
• geeky glasses
• USB drive
• mouse
• power on button
• circuit boards

You can send ideas and/or sketches in these ways.

1. Comment on this blog with a link or idea.
2. Post an image to our newly formed Flickr Group. She’s Geeky Icons.
3. Tweet to us @shesgeeky or direct message (we follow all the women who follow us back).
4. E-mail us info@shesgeeky.org with the subject “geeky icons”

You have until July 31 to get us your ideas that is next Friday.

Thank you to Portia from RubyPixel who is going to be working with us to make a really beautiful t-shirt design. You should be able to start ordering them in August!  I can’t wait!!