Girls In Tech

Last week was a bitter sweet moment for me and my time with Girls in Tech, San Francisco. It was my last event with the chapter before I relocate next month, but it was by far my personal favorite!  I sat down in front of an oh-so-fashionable audience and had a conversation with the amazing San Francisco fashion blogger Jennine Jacob of The Coveted.

My first blog post for Girls in Tech was about Jennine and her blog that I just fell in love with and visited daily to get the scoop on outfit ideas, new designers, local shops and more. I thought, what better way to end my years volunteering for Girls in Tech with one-on-one talk with Jennine to learn about her successful blog, her amazing Independent Fashion Bloggers Network and other ventures she’s starting.

Jennine modestly walked us through her blogging career that we all see as an amazing success. She is well-known in the San Francisco blogger community, was just featured in San Francisco’s 7×7 Magazine and IFB has a huge membership and is actively involved in New York Fashion Week.

She explained that The Coveted was not an overnight success, but something she worked at for a long time and built her following organically. She gave inspirational tips for new bloggers on how to gain readership, how to get involved in their online communities and how to best monetize their blogs without ads splashed all over.

It was a great event that I was looking forward to after months of execution and planning. I thank Jennine for taking the time to share her journey with our Girls in Tech San Francisco members and other local aspiring bloggers.

Thanks also to the Sandbox Suites for the fantastic venue and to Laura Jane Iriarte for photographing the event! Take a look!

2010 is right around the corner, and the San Francisco chapter is starting to build our events calendar for the year!

I’m reaching out to our members to get an insight from you all on our events thus far and any/all ideas you may have for upcoming events in 2010.

Do you think we need more workshops? More Mixers? Do you have a hot topic that you feel isn’t getting enough attention and would make a great event? Feel free to email me your ideas and I’ll be sure each suggestion is considered for an event we produce next year!

Thanks!!

Please send all emails to:

allison@girlsintech.net

Hey all!!

We have an exciting weekend coming up for Girls in Tech and GIT University!! Our first appearance at a college level event and it’s at UC Berkeley’s Caltopia - Go Bears!

This Sunday, August 23th and Monday, August 24, Girls in Tech will be at the ‘largest college lifestyle event in the nation’ to promote our organization to up and coming girls who want to be in tech! Our booth, stationed in the tech zone, will be stacked with giveaways, pamphlet information about Girls in Tech and GIT-U and will have yours truly along with the SF Chapter wandering about to spread the word about this fabulous organization!

We hope you can make it out if you’re in the bay this weekend looking for something fun and exciting to do! Feel free to stop by and say hello before you head into Berkeley and get lost in the tye dye and incense! If you have Sunday or Monday open and would like to volunteer with us and be stationed at the booth, we can use a few more people to help! The event is from 10:00AM – 4:00PM both days. Please email me (allison@girlsintech.net) for details and location specifics.

Thanks everyone!!!

Allison

Hey there!!!

Hope to see everyone at next week’s Journalism 2.0 Roundtable at MySpace’s office in SF! I’m thrilled this small idea in my head turned out to be such a fantastic event with such esteemed and respected voices in San Francisco’s tech journalism community!

I have a few updates I’d like to let everyone know of:

• Gina Huges of TechieDiva will be joining the panel to add her thoughts and experiences as a woman in tech journalism and I’m thrilled to have her on board!
• Brian Solis, Principal of Future Works PR, will be making a special appearance to discuss his latest book, ‘Putting the Public back in Public Relations’, alongside Wall Street Journal’s Kara Swisher directly before the event at 6:45 PM and then we’ll steer right into the panel!

If this is the first you are hearing of this event, here are some details:

The Journalism 2.0 roundtable is a first-of-its-kind event for Girls in Tech, allowing our members and other attendees to learn about the ever-evolving world of journalism. Esteemed female voices in San Francisco’s tech journalism community will be lead in a discussion by The Wall Street Journal’s Kara Swisher on topics like how blogging has changed the face of journalism; how “citizen journalism” is impacting traditional journalism; the positive and negative impact of being a woman in the male-dominated world of tech and more.

Panelists include former SF Chronicle Tech Editor Deborah Gage, ZdNet’s Jennifer Leggio, Ubergizmo Editor Eliane Fiolet and VentureBeat’s Camille Ricketts.

Sponsored by Future Works PR, beverages and hors d’overs will be served during network and arrival time from 6:30 – 7:00 PM. The panel discussion will begin promptly at 7:00PM

Tickets available HERE: http://girlsintechjournalism2roundtable.eventbrite.com/

Thanks SO much! If you’re having any issues getting tickets via eventbrite, tickets will also be available at the door for $10.

See you Wednesday, August 12th!

After March’s Women in Business Development event, I was chatting with some other attendees about the brilliant women who just spoke on the panel, when I was approached by a very friendly woman wearing exquisite jewelry. Since I have always been a sucker for turquoise, I was immediately drawn to her lacquered turquoise and shining silver necklace and earrings. She went on to tell me that she’s the co-founder of WooMeOver.com, a social networking site for jewelry designers and enthusiasts. I was shocked that I hadn’t heard about the site as it enables designers to monetize their craft online not through just a personal website, but through yet another social network, where you build sort of a fan base for your products along with a portfolio, get feedback straight from the source as well as requests to custom make items for new and old clients.

I am, after all, quite a jewelry enthusiast myself, but have yet to grow a collection of my own that’s not from the dollar store or Forever 21. I’ve always agreed with the original Diva herself, Holly Golightly, that diamonds are tacky for anyone under 50, but scanning through the delicious designs from amazingly talented designers on WooMeOver and their ‘Bling Blog’, I may want to start my real rock collection a bit before I’m half a century old!

If you’re a jewelry designer, or aspiring designer, this network would be an amazing place to build up your clientele, network with other designers and get daily inspiration from the bold colors, immense creativity and unbelievable designs.

WooMeOver.com is still in beta, but if you’re interested, check out the home page and you can register to be a part of the community and scan the artistic images, learn about the designers and even build your personal collection!

If you’ll be in or around the East Bay this coming weekend, March 28th and 29th, join Sarah Manley and a group of people who combine their passion of Open Source and the outdoors to take part in an Open Source Mapping Party.

The OpenStreetMap party is open to all, and will enable followers to learn from mapping experts themselves how to contribute and create more in depth and detailed shared maps. The project was started because most maps you think as free, actually have legal or technical restrictions on their use. With this party, however, everyone who comes will learn how to use a map as more of a creative outlet with no restrictions.

This weekends event will be held on Saturday, March 28th and Sunday, March 29th  in Concord, CA from 11:00AM to 4:00PM both days. Meet at Panama Bay Cafe

For any questions, please contact Sarah Manley:

Sarah@cloudmade.com
Cell: 631-338-3815

The Bay Area exploded at the seams this past weekend relishing in the Mod Scene of Andy Warhol, starting with the Factory Party Friday night in the East Bay and then continuing to the De Young where Warhol Live turned the average museum trekker into a multi colored wonder, screen printed on canvas.

After leaving the exhibit, I decided two things. One: I’m growing my hair out like Nico and two: I want to go thrift store shopping, like NOW! With the lack of time and energy lately to devote to searching through Ebay or digging through racks and racks to find two amazing bargains, I decided to hunt online for sites devoted to vintage wear and accessories. After all, everything else is ‘2.0’, why not vintage?

Immediately in my search, I came across HookedonVintage.com and was drawn in by the great selections, like these oh so fun sunglasses and adorable prints straight from the 1920’s to the 1980’s. All items are handpicked by the owner, Lisa, and she did an amazing job finding rare, unusual and flash back pieces that would add that certain flair to a wardrobe all of us Girls in Tech would love to have.

Then I came across Tialet Vintage, complete with Twitter and Facebook, which is just amazing! It’s the perfect combo of meshing the past with the future, the aged clothes are displayed with a modern edge through modern technology. So fun to search through the new items they post on here, changing all the time, you never know what you’ll come across! Now I have to check my online bank acct… see what I can splurge on today!

Strolling along South Park in San Francisco one day on my lunch break, I ducked into a small coffee shop for a quick breather before heading into Jeremy’s on the corner to check out any new goodies they have in stock. I got my coffee, walked over to add some sugar, and then my hand hit a stack of those post cards that are left randomly all over the place. Normally, I’d just walk away, but this one was so pretty, antique floral looking, with pink roses and blue lace background. All it said was ‘Thecoveted.net’. I had no clue what it was, but I took one, stuffed it away in my ‘Mary Poppins bag’ (as all my friends call it) and left the shop.

A few weeks later, I was rummaging for an old receipt, and found the cute postcard, went to my computer and typed in ‘thecoveted.net’ and anxiously awaited what was to show up. There in front of me, was my new favorite, obsessive, ‘must read’ blog that I have not missed one day of since that lovely spring day of 2008.

I was new to the world of blogs, twitter, Facebook, everything Web 2.0 related. Fresh out of fashion journalism reading WomensWearDaily and W, I was now following ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch, so adding The Coveted to my daily blog reading made me smile so sweetly and look forward to the scoop posted by Jennine, Kezia or Sonja on vintage clothing, emerging designers, sustainable fashion, beauty tips and my favorite,  the weekly Links a la Mode.

I drool over Jennine’s impeccable flair for unique style and relish in her every day ensembles. Her smarts have grown from creating the Coveted, to then founding Independent Fashion Bloggers, an online community started in 2007, aimed to enlighten other fashion bloggers about monetization, advertising, networks and blog improvement.  She has taken her readers on a ride of world fashion while giving us a glimpse of her life, her move from San Francisco to Germany, her long hair, her short hair and her flirtation with bangs.   I sometimes forget that I am in Tech and show up to events inspired by what she wears and designers she features.  But, I am after all, a Girl in Tech, and if I show up at an event in my fabulous frocks, the techies shouldn’t be surprised and I know Jennine would be proud (if she knew who I was!)