• We don’t know any women who would be qualified.
• We asked many women and most of them said no.

The good news is that when conferences organizers actually try the can be very successful in having a strong line up of women speakers.

The Privacy Identity and Innovation (pii) , the brain child of Natalie Fonseca, (who has run the Tech Policy Summit for years) is coming up August 17-19th in Seattle, Washington.  Natalie took proactive approach to recruiting women to speak and voila – their are women speakers at this technology conference.

I (Kaliya Hamlin) am speaking at the event on a panel about personal data stores (a new project I will write more about here soon).  I am really proud to be amongst many other women industry leaders speaking.

• Denise Tayloe, CEO of Privo
• Marie Alexander, CEO of Quova
• Linda Criddle, CEO of Reputation Share
• Fran Maier, President of TRUSTe
• Anne Toth, Chief Privacy Officer for Yahoo
• Michelle Dennedy, VP at Oracle
• Judith Spencer of GSA
• Christine Lemke, CTO of Sense Networks
• Betsy Masiello of Google
• Heather West of Center for Democracy and Technology
• Eve Maler of PayPal
• Susan Lyon of Perkins Coie
• Deborah Estrin of UCLA

It should be a great event – the guys on the program are equally cool.

I encourage any women out there who want to learn more about or get involved in the issues and technology around privacy and identity to attend .

She’s Geeky community members can save $100 off a pii2010 ticket with this Discount Code: 4GEEKY

Register here

She’s Geeky hosts unConferences across North America, providing a unique environment for women working in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) fields to learn from one another, grow networks, connect across generations and discuss issues (for more on the what, why, and how of She’s Geeky, scroll down the page).  

As the host committee of the first She’s Geeky event in the Twin Cities, we’re excited and committed to making this event for women and girls in tech rock. Please join us for 2 days of shared learning and networking.  

Sincerely,  

Liz Tupper (@etupper)
Jacque Urick (@moarinternets)
Tami Esslinger (@too_much_boredm)
Whitney Shaw ( @whitneytaylor)
Nicky Witters ( @nickywitters) 
Amelie Colllins ( @panelectric)   
Elizabeth Pettersen ( @betz_mn) 
Karen Scott
Jody Colbeen
along with the She’s Geeky national organizer –
Heidi Nobantu Saul (@nobantu)  

She’s Geeky — Twin Cities  

We are very excited to announce the Science Museum of Minnesota will be hosting the She’s Geeky unConference and thank them for their generous support! The (very) exact location is at 44° 56′ 34″ North latitude, 93° 05′ 54″ West longitude. For more information about how latitude and longitude are determined, visit this NASA page.  

The Science Museum’s address is 120 W. Kellogg Boulevard (map here), across from the RiverCentre in downtown St. Paul, MN.  

(Image by Melissa Lewis, taken January 31, 2009 at She's Geeky, Mountain View, CA)

What is She’s Geeky about?  

She’s Geeky convenes to inspire women technologists for the future and advance systemic change in tech culture. She’s Geeky provides a space to create enduring communities to foster collaboration and innovation among women professionals working in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). She’s Geeky invites women to propose and lead sessions of direct interest to share knowledge and leadership.   

(CA Sec of State, Debra Bowen. Image by Melissa Lewis.)

She’s Geeky events have already fostered some amazing technical conversations and changed the world. For example, at She’s Geeky 2009, Debra Bowen, Secretary of State for California, attended a She’s Geeky session on cloud computing. With budget pressures looming, she faced having to cut staff positions in the following few months. But by summer of 2009, she had worked with her staff to use what she learned at She’s Geeky and other follow up research, to move California’s state records and business sites and data to servers in the cloud. This move meant she saved enough money that she didn’t have to cut the three staff she otherwise would have.  

How did She’s Geeky start?
In early 2007 a group of women working in the high-tech sector in the San Francisco Bay Area recognized the 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.  

She's Geeky Unconference Agenda Wall, 2007

What is an unConference?
Beginning at 9 AM each day, we start with a agenda blank wall. 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 you can add yourself to the wiki list of attendees and also propose sessions. You can read more about unConferences here.  

(Image by Melissa Lewis, She's Geeky 2009)

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: 

• Engineers
  
• Scientists
• CEO’s
• Coders/Programmers
• Designers
• Open Source
• Entrepreneurs
• Product Managers
• Project Managers
• Internet Marketers
• Users of Tech Tools
• Gadget Enthusiasts
• Hardcore Hackers
• Video Geeks
• Gamers
• Nonprofit Technology
• ….whatever you think is

Image by Taken by Heidi Nobantu Saul, She's Geeky Bay Area 3 - 2010

How does She’s Geeky work for girls?
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 their mothers / aunts / mentors.  

There is a lot of research showing that women and girls need role models and mentors, as examples of what they can do professionally. She’s Geeky is an opportunity to show girls what other women are doing professionally in technical fields, and to help them network with potential mentors.  

She's Geeky Session: Yoga at your Desk, Image by Heidi Nobantu Saul

How does She’s Geeky run?
Both days format will be the same, beginning with group/interactive agenda setting in the morning for the first hour. Then sessions will commence, with a lunch break in the middle of the day. At the end of each day, we’ll reconvene to talk about what we learned, what mattered, and highlight the best of the day.  

Each day will have new things to offer based upon what happens with the agendas!  

How do I attend?
Register today: Eventbrite
You can choose one or both days of the event, and we have special pricing for girls.  

How can I help?
Consider donating a paid registration for a woman in need on the Eventbrite site.
And ask your company or organization to sponsor the event.

Women Meetups/Workshop in Bay Area

• SDForum – Tech Women’s Program
• Fountain Blue – When She Speaks – 2nd Friday 11:30 – 1”30 pm
• Codechix.org – meetup
• Free workshops for women to learn Ruby programming (no experience OK!)sfrubyworkshops.com Next one: end of Feb or beg of March
• We founded a Female Funders and Entrepreneurs Group this Weekend!  idarose@gmail.com or @idarose  For more information
• Association for Women in Science San Francisco Chapter
• Technovation Challenge – program teaching high school girls how to develop mobile apps – looking for rockstar women-in-tech mentors! Contact w/this form: http://bit.ly/contactcy

Mailing Lists/Sites for Women in Technology

• Devchix.org
• Linuxchix.org
• Women2.org
• Codechix.org
• WomenWhoTech.org
• SFwow.org
• Anitaborg.org
• Systers.org
• Latinas in Computing
• Systers – Researchers
• Systers – LGBT list
• Codelikeagirl.org
• Forum for Women Entrepreneurs and Executives (FWE&E)
• Women In Information Technology (WITI)
• Society of Women Engineers (Santa Clara Valley Section)

General Meet-ups/Groups etc…

• South Bay Hacker DoJo in Mountain View
• SF Ruby Meetup – meetup.com/SFruby
• East Bay Word Press Meetup (@TechLiminal)
• Coworking in San Francisco (Castro) DM me @christineptran on Fridays
• Artificial Intelligence Meetup – 2nd & 4th Sundays Teck Shop Menlo Park
• Pacific IT Professionals (windows/MS/Sys & Net Admins) www.pacitpros.org
• BayCHI.org – UX/Visual Design/Sustainability Engineering
• Augmented Reality Arts Meetups and Yahoo group
• Women-on-Ruby Google Group – we meet up regularly to practice Ruby

Event Announcements & Invitations:

• InfoCamp – Berkley – March 6th : follow  @infoberkley for updates as we plan!
• www.uie.com/events (user interface conference)
• DrupalCon SF is happening in April in SF and accepting Session Proposals until Feb 15, 2010 – Please Submit!
• Call for Participation: Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing – gracehopper.org
• Pii 2010 – privacy, identity and innovation conference – Aug 17 & 18 in Seattle (for more info: Natalie @nfonsecae  tech policy summit.com)
• TechLiminal hosts Drupal 501(c)3 (drupal for non-profits)
• TechLiminal in Oakland – coffee house drop in and occasional speakers
• WILD QUEST! Fundraiser for Environmental Volunteers, non-profit teaching kids to love science – May 2nd 1-4pm Palo Alto Baylands EVols.org for info
• Expression Engine Conference  May 31 – June 2 in SF -www.eeci2010.com

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

 Several women covered the conference on their blogs:

Yahoo! Developer Network folks attended Havi and Erin along with Erin’s daughters Cady and Grace. Lynn Langit, a developer evangelist at MSFT, led a session on teaching kids to program that her kids attended and loved .

At our session, we showed participants how to play the Social Mania Game, a social patterns card game that allows you to build products, gain points for great features, and eventually ‘pitch’ your completed product to the player representing a VC. The game was fun, of course, but the feedback we got was the great benefit. Erin and Christian Crumlish created Social Mania to teach people about social patterns and as a complement to their book, Designing Social Interfaces. Since the game is still in beta, some of the suggestions made at She’s Geeky may make it into future revisions.

Wanda Henning has an extensive post explaining the process:

Let me describe, in brief, the format.

You arrive. You get your biodegradable name tag. You sit on one of the chairs arranged several rows deep in a circle. You order coffee or mocha of your choice (from the only man in the place) and help yourself to bagels, muffins and other breakfast snacks (sponsored).

Then Hamlin does the rounds with her mic and you introduce yourself with the words “I’m geeky because ….

Vabulus writes:

Unlike most conferences, guess that’ s why it’s called an “un-conference,” Kaliya Hamlin invited us to share our names, twitter handles, professions, and “Why we’re geeky.”  It was so awesome to realize that boys were not the only ones messing around in their rooms trying to develop video games or software, most of these women were doing the very same thing.

….

The next day, Saturday, I was asked by my fellow carpool geeks if I was going to present.  I hadn’t thought about it, but I wasn’t really sure what I would talk about.  I kept thinking about it until we arrived in Mountain View.  After we went around the circle introducing ourselves again that Saturday morning at She’s Geeky, and Kaliya made the announcement to rush to the middle to write a discussion topic, I did it.  I wrote something, then announced it, then put it on the board, then freaked out the entire day.  First one woman came, then there were two, and at the end there were five of us.  Small, but cool, because I don’t know if I could have handled a larger crowd, although more experts would have been cool to bounce ideas off each other.

TechBunny Writes:

Not only was this event filled with a collection of fantastic women with a variety of tech interests that I can’t even begin to list, it was a great opportunity to learn new tips and tricks for soft skills that aren’t always high on the “geekdom” list! Practicing the “elevator pitch”, improving your speaking skills and discussing how to manage transition as tech roles evolve were some of the sessions on agenda wall today.

Sunshine did a podcast from She’s Geeky with organizer Kaliya Hamlin.

and posted on her blog.

She’s Geeky is part of a larger “unconference” movement, in which folks are thinking about how to tap into human ways of relating that yield new and energizing results.

…

What struck me about this was how similar this “offline” event was to the way that my online life now functions. I went to a meeting or panel, and then if I met someone with whom I clicked in some way, we took our conversation over to a table, sat down and chatted further. Then we stood up and joined the larger stream. It worked beautifully, and it made me wonder if our culture’s obsession with structure, leadership, and climbing the ladder may be crumbling in the face of these more natural and creative ways of connecting with others.

Cootie Catcher by banane:

The more I thought of it, the more things started to make sense. Games are great introductions into programming, as they’re fun and interesting, interactive, and a great career option. Anything that shows the “genie behind the curtain” is useful, but games where the overall architecture and construct is simple and well-known helps. The girls told me the rules quickly and easily, almost as if I was stupid.

View from the Cubicle Farm:

I usually avoid all-women events, for reasons I haven’t clearly understood myself.  However, this event exceeded my expectations.    The conference was completely user-generated and fairly unscheduled, yet we covered a broad variety of intriguing topics.  Everyone came to the table with a different piece of information and different perspective to add to the conversation, yet we all had technology geekiness in common.  We created a worthwhile event based on our own experiences and research.  In that sense, it was almost as if the whole unconference was the embodiment of a wiki.

More posts will be coming with feedback from She’s Geeky and notes updates

Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference (in our last post) Tuesday January 26th

SDForum presents “Organizational Savvy for Women: Shattering the Glass Ceiling”
Thursday, January 28th, 2010, 6pm, Symantec, Mountain View, CA
Based upon his Wall Street Journal bestselling book “Survival of the Savvy”, Dr. Rick Brandon will deliver “Organizational Savvy for Women: Shattering the Glass Ceiling to empower SD Forum Tech Women to break through barriers to their influence, impact, and advancement due to gender norms”. You’ll learn about the cutting edge leadership competency of political astuteness with integrity, which has now been sensitively applied to special influence challenges faced by women.

Women’s Speed Networking Event
Thursday, January 28th, 2010, 6pm, Spinnaker @ Seaport, Redwood City, CA
Are you looking for project collaborators? Interested in a new job or volunteer opportunity? Meet other women in the Bay Area who are passionate about their businesses and community!

Following She’s Geeky

Women 2.0 is hosting “Will it Launch” the weekend following She’s Geeky.

The event is for: Future startup founders with ideas, or existing startup founders with ideas already in alpha or beta stage across web, mobile, cleantech or biotech.

Girl Geek Dinner number 5 is happening Thursday February 4th.

The focus is on how to Succeed in Mobile and features some amazing speakers. Unfortunately it is sold out already.

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.