Girls In Tech

It’s All About The One ¾ You!

Join Girls in Tech at SingleLifeCamp, an offline social networking experience for single ones. It’s a BarCamp or unconference experience where you’ll create the event as the day progresses identifying topics of personal interest. As more people are choosing to live single, we need information about stuff besides finding a date, getting a mate or hooking up.

During a Champagne Sunday Brunch, small group sessions, and afternoon reception we’ll pool resources on how to get stuff done like:

*Using Social Media to make friends
*Running a company solo
*Balancing being a single parent with dating
*Buying a house on your own
*Enjoying cooking or dining out for one

What to expect:

*Whoever comes is who’s supposed to be there.
*Whatever happens is the only thing that could happen.
*Whenever things start, they start.
*When it’s over, it’s over.

“Do I have to be single to attend SingleLifeCamp?” Absolutely not! Unlike a typical singles/dating event - non-singles are welcome!

We’ve all been single at one point or at some time in our life, which means we have something to bring to the discussion. A lot of what will be discussed (finances, buying a home, etc) will be useful to people in relationships as well.

Girls in Tech cordially invites you to attend
How Microfinance is Changing the Way We Live
featuring Kiva, Wokai, TMC Working Solutions and PayPal

Microfinance is changing the way we look at sustainable living, economic development and welfare throughout the globe, even in the US.

During this Girls in Tech panel discussion we will highlight some of the most influential and powerful women in the microfinance world, as they share the trials and tribulations of running a microfinance or a microlending organization, share inspirational stories on helping women run businesses succeed in developing countries, provide insights on how technology is advancing global economies and more.

What is Microfinance?
Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed. The term also refers to the practice of sustainably delivering those services. Microcredit (or loans to poor microenterprises) should not be confused with microfinance, which addresses a full range of banking needs for poor people.

More broadly, it refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial services, including not just credit but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.” Those who promote microfinance generally believe that such access will help poor people out of poverty.

RSVP at: http://gitmicrofinance.eventbrite.com/

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to attend SDForum’s 12th Annual Visionary Awards in Atherton and I have never been in a crowd of such distinguished people. Between past years award recipients, top tier press and this years winners, it was a group of people who have molded and shaped our world as we know it.

For the first time ever, this years Visionary recipients included two Girls in Tech, Judith L. Estrin, CEO, JLabs LLC, and Kay Koplovitz, Founder of USA Network, as well as James H. Clark, Co-Founder, Silicon Graphics and Netscape and Vinod Khosla, Co-Founder of Sun Microsystems.

It was such a privilege to sit and listen to the speeches and stories these four phenomenal individuals shared with the audience. Kay’s story was about the first live satellite television broadcast, the “Rumble in the Jungle,” George Foreman versus former world champion and challenger Muhammad Ali. Vinod reflected on being called a ‘visionary’ and saying he believed what is recognized as “vision” is “bumbling around long enough” to finally get something right. Jim gave us all a good chuckle when he said his first ‘vision’ was getting out of Plainview, Texas, which lead him into the Navy and then his “next visionary step was getting out the Navy.” Judy did a wonderful job of bringing us all back to college by recalling how she was “not completely sober” when she first discussed Ethernet with Bob Metcalfe.

Included is an excerpt of Judy Estrin’s acceptance speech captured by Tom Foremski:

Judy Estrin at SDForum's Visionaries

Continued »

Photos by: Adriana Gascoigne, Dave McClure, Christine Lu, Michael Su and Tina Tran

Now that the jetlag has worn off, I’m left in awe of how spectacularly successful and rewarding the Geeks on a Plane tour was. Not only did we gain in depth knowledge of the tech environment in China and Japan, we connected with leading experts from the top startups across the hottest industries (i.e. games, social media, and search). We met some amazing women entrepreneurs and will be launching a Girls in Tech China chapter with Jenny Bai, CEO of The Red Connect, at the helm.

The sheer number and caliber of local contacts we made was almost overwhelming. Had we traveled as individuals to Shanghai, Beijing and Tokyo, it would have taken at least six months to a year to form the bonds and connections that we did in ten days.

As if meeting the most talented locals wasn’t enough, the tour itself was packed with an impressive group of passionate, whip-smart entrepreneurial geeks who also happened to be loads of fun. Or as one of the speakers put it, “You guys don’t look like a bunch of geeks to me!” He may have been referring to the resident male Blue Steel models in our group, Dan Martell and Marcus Nelson. Or perhaps he caught an eyeful of the two most fashionable geeks on the tour, Dan “hiked the Great Wall in pointy leather boots” Gould and Josh “Travolta” Williams.

I can’t emphasize enough what an amazing job the Geeks on a Plane organizers did in selecting participants for the tour, and in thinking of every detail while planning a trip that allowed us to meet the leading startups in China and Japan through a mix of events that were insightful, inspiring, and super fun. Dave McClure of the Founders Fund, Georg Godula of Web2Asia, and Christine Lu of Cilantro Media are superstar organizers and people connectors!

In the list below, I’ve broken down my top ten favorite experiences from the Geeks on a Plane tour into two Top 5 lists — one for the sessions and one for the local outings.

Top 5 Sessions

5. BarCamp Shanghai — James Gwertzman gave a great overview of PopCap’s strategic entry into China
4. Tokyo Startonomics — Two words: Eric Ries. Plus Joyce Kim and Dan Gould.
3. Brunch interview with Mixi CEO, Kenji Kasahara
2. TEDxShanghai - Inspiration through music and ideas worth sharing
1. Beijing Startonomics – From Dr. Kai Fu Lee, Google China’s president, to Kaiser Kuo, Frank Yu, and Steve Mushero, this session was chockfull of valuable insights about doing business in China and what it takes to succeed in this rapidly growing market for startups.

Top 5 Fun Outings

5. Geeks in a Bus — All over Shanghai & Beijing
4. Geeks on an Observation Deck — Shanghai World Financial Center
3. Geeks in a Photo Booth — Fitting 8 geeks into one photo booth atop Tokyo
2. Geeks on the Dance Floor — Dance off at M1NT on the last night of the GoaP tour
1. Geeks on a Wall — Hiking the Great Wall of China

Finally, this roundup wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t mention the one geek on the tour who made the biggest splash of all: Michael Su of Break Media. Michael (pictured above on the bottom right) joined the tour on the China portion of our trip, flying directly from LAX to Beijing. Unfortunately, he had the misfortune of sitting two rows in front of a person who had the Swine Flu on the plane. The good news is that we got to spend two days with him before the Chinese authorities found him and took him away. Good luck and bad luck I suppose, the two days he was with us, in my opinion, were the best days on the tour — both earning #1 spots above. Coincidence? I think not. Check out his HILARIOUS blogpost on”Life in the Big House” here. For the record, he did not have the Swine Flu!

A few weeks ago at Shanghai Barcamp, we presented the Girls in Tech “Save Me” iPhone application during a “Create an app in 15-minutes workshop” sponsored by ReignDesign. The premise of the application is basically an easy scapegoat for women while facing an uncomfortable situation, such as getting hit on at a bar, talking to the “babbler” during a conference or needing to get to an appointment without creating a very bluntly rude exit situation. The user has three timing options - 5 seconds, 15 seconds or 30 seconds; after selecting a time for the “interruption call back” the user should press “Save Me” and that will automatically trigger the timer and then the user will receive a call back from “Office” which will allow that person to easily create a scapegoat for exiting the situation.

Based on popular demand, the Girls in Tech “Save Me” application won; and a day later the Save Me application was developed by ReignDesign and submitted to Apple for approval. The application is now available to the public, free of charge. We’re really excited that this application has launched and that girls and women around the world will be able to eliminate those awkward moments in life that might need a little interruption.

While having lunch with Andrea Corry, a very influential, yet humble non-profit marketer, she mentioned that she didn’t know that Girls in Tech was an international community and expressed an interest in finding out more information about chapters in the US, around the globe as well as how to connect with these chapters and regional members. It soon dawned on me that we, at Girls in Tech, haven’t done a great job of promoting the chapters that we’ve launched around the world.

That is why I’m writing this blog entry today to highlight ALL of the current chapters that Girls in Tech has a presence. Some of these chapters haven’t officially launched yet, however, they all have a managing director in place and will begin the process to create buzz and noise within their femme-tech communities as soon as their advisory teams are built. If you would like to get in touch with a managing director representing a certain chapter, please email info@girlsintech.net. We are also very interested in expanding Girls in Tech to other cities around the globe, so if you or someone you know is interested in starting a chapter, please email info@girlsintech.net.

US
*Atlanta
*Austin
*Boise
*Boston
*Chicago
*Dallas
*DC
*Denver
*Des Moines
*Grand Rapids
*Greenville
*Houston
*Indianapolis
*Las Vegas
*Los Angeles
*Milwaukee
*New York City
*Omaha
*Portland
*San Francisco
*Santa Cruz
*Seattle
*Stamford
*Tampa

International
*Amsterdam
*Athens
*Berlin
*China (Beijing and Shanghai)
*London
*Kuwait
*Milan
*New Delhi
*Paris
*Sydney
*Tokyo
*Toronto

A sold out Social Gaming Summit 2009, stirred a surprising amount of excitement and noise during a supposedly “hurting economy”. All of the major social gaming developers, designers, publishers, payment platforms, social networks, mobile players were in attendance which made for some solid networking, however, more significant to me, was the major power player women featured on key panels — and what a performance.

Strong voices from the Monetization Infrastructure for Social Games included Erikka Arone from Zong and Renata Dionello from PayPal. The discussion led by Charles Hudson, co-founder of the Social Gaming Summit, focused on types of payment platforms that work the best for social games and why. Of course, each rep touted their own technologies and platforms, however, one thing was really clear - more is more. More payment options for users = more money in the bank. Erikka Arone is the VP of Business Development for Zong. She is responsible for partnerships with virtual goods and gaming companies to drive monetization and adoption. She has broad experience in numerous high-growth social web and mobile businesses. She was at Six Apart, where she was responsible for distribution and product partnerships for TypePad. Renata leads PayPal’s efforts in business development on the consumer side of the business. She is currently involved in developing PayPal’s strategy in the micropayments and social media space. Renata has over 10 years of experience in business development, strategy, product management and marketing.

Another super star female panelist was Anu Shukla, who spoke on the Customer Acquisition and Retention for Social Games panel. Anu Shukla founded Offerpal Media in June, 2007, with the vision of providing social application developers and other social publishers with a viable way to monetize their traffic. She has since grown Offerpal Media into the leading social advertising network on the Web, generating significant revenue for social publishers while driving high quality leads and high value customers to online advertisers. A serial entrepreneur, Anu is also the founder and CEO of Mybuys Inc., the leading provider of personalized product recommendations for online retailers.

Anu was the one person that really knocked my socks off during the conference. A strong, determined and witty lady, she drove the discussion as an expert in customer retention and acquisition delivering one key message - “It’s all about increasing RPGs.”

The Social Gaming Summit 2009 is a one day event focused on the intersection of games and the social web. This year’s event will focus on helping social games developers build, monetize, and grow their social games. We’re bringing together the leaders in free-to-play games, social networking, and payments infrastructure for a full day of panels and talks.

No — Just Say It
by Claire Shipman & Katty Kay,
Authors of Womenomics: Write Your Own Rules for Success

Once you’ve tamed your inner-guilt monster, you are ready to welcome that most wonderful of words into your vocabulary. We’re certain you barely use it. But it’s a potent combination of two letters that could routinely save our sanity. Go ahead. Say it. You know the word we mean.

NO.

Are we simply allergic to it, terrified of the consequences? What do we really think will happen if it becomes a regular part of our speech? Maybe the world would be rocked by an Armageddon of hurt feelings? Perhaps our pictures would be blasted through cyberspace as modern-day Leona Helmsleys? Or worst of all, people might be — disappointed?

Maybe. But here’s the fundamental problem. When we are so eager to please everyone and avoid people being cross with us, we end up saying yes to a lot of things we don’t really want. This of course means we end up spending more time working than we really want. And that’s why you are reading this book.

“In the past I tended to be a ‘yes’ person,” Stephanie Hampton, the Marriott spokesperson told us. “I’d say ‘yes’ to just about anything and everything, in the belief that I was building a reputation for myself as a can-do, go-to person. I looked around and noticed that a lot of successful people don’t say ‘yes’ to everything; they are more strategic. They say ‘yes’ for a variety of reasons. True, sometimes it’s based on who’s doing the asking. But most of the time successful people choose to say ‘yes’ to strategic or value-added work. So now I think about whether a project will put ‘heads on beds’ or otherwise enhance the brand reputation of Marriott. if the answer is no, it’s usually just busywork, and I try to find a way to say ‘no’ without saying ‘no.’”

Our New York lawyer, Linda Brooks, says she still backslides. “I think people don’t like to be told no, so I have to get a thicker skin and resist the urge to please everyone, because I sit there and think, ‘oh my God he hates me now,’ and ‘he’s never going to give me another deal’ and ‘I’m sure the partners are going to vote next week to kick me out of the partnership because I said “no” to that deal.’ My head goes there. So it does take a bit of thickening of the skin. But it does get easier.”

You may not believe it now, but tossing off no will become second nature. It’s a must-have tool for implementing Womenomics. You’ll see in the upcoming chapters how much use it gets. Once you’ve really set your goals, you will be much clearer about what you want to tackle and what you don’t want to take on. it gets refreshingly simple actually — that weekend assignment, no; those extra hours, no; that promotion with all the travel and increased responsibility, no. You will learn not just to say “no,” but also to think no, mean no, and act no.

And yes, employing it may mean you disappoint, anger, and annoy. But it will also mean you are happier, healthier, and more straightforward. It’s certainly a better situation for you and, also, therefore, for everyone in your life in the long run. Even the recipients of your nos!

Copyright © 2009 Claire Shipman & Katty Kay, authors of Womenomics:
Write Your Own Rules for Success

Author Bios
Claire Shipman is the senior national correspondent for ABC News’ Good Morning America and a regular on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Previously, Shipman was the White House correspondent for NBC news and a reporter for CNN in Moscow, where she earned multiple awards for her coverage of the demise of the Soviet Union. She currently lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.

Katty Kay is the Washington correspondent and anchor for BBC World News America. She is also a contributor on Meet the Press, The Charlie Rose Show, and The Chris Matthews Show, as well as a regular guest host for Diane Rehm on NPR. Kay grew up in the middle East and now lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and four children.

For more information please visit http://trueslant.com/womenomics/