Girls In Tech

On February 4, 2010, ChicMeetsGeek hits San Francisco with a mission.  This time, the event will be benefitting BUILD – a nonprofit venture that emphasizes entrepreneurship to underprivileged high schoolers.
The event will be held at the Automattic Lounge at Pier 38 – home of WordPress – and will backdrop the same air of elegance and entrepreneurship as the first ChicMeetsGeek last November.  This time around, celebrity panelists from the San Francisco arts scene as well as the tech sphere will highlight their own hidden chic and geek talents.

Speakers include:

Kai Huang – Founder of Guitar Hero
Sumaya Kazi – Founder of The CulturalConnect
Dave McClure – Venture Capitalist/Investor at the Founder’s Fund
Jessica Mah – Founder of Indinero
Annette Jordan – Miss California Pageant Candidate 2010
Tim Galida – Keyboard & Singer of the Pop Rocks
Steve Wharton – Actor on NBC’s Trauma TV Show

The goal of ChicMeetsGeek is to build bridges that further strengthen San Francisco’s position as a hub for innovation and sophistication.   The event will include live jazz music and an open bar, as well as decadent 5-star catering, a unique Geek vs. Chic makeover show, and tech demos from local companies.  To top it off, the evening is complete with a silent auction where guests can bid on one-on-one time or services with reputable individuals from around the SF social scene.  Most importantly, all proceeds from the auction will benefit BUILD.
The evening promises to be a dazzling affair fit for our SF culture.  If you don’t believe me, come see for yourself!  Here are a few special discount codes for our Girls in Tech members (there are only a few of each, so get them while they’re hot):

GITGirlsAreLeaders — 20% off ticket price
GITChicGeekGirlsRule — 15% off ticket price
GITLoveToBeAChic –10% off ticket price
GITSmartGirlsRock — 5% off ticket price

For more information, visit the ChicMeetsGeek website.  To purchase tickets for the event (and use the nifty coupon codes above), visit the EventBrite page.

The UC Berkeley Center for Entrepreneurship & Technology hosts the Innovator Lecture Series, a weekly, hour-long lecture where Silicon Valley leaders share their experience and pearls of wisdom to engineering and business students.  Tomorrow evening’s lecture will feature Marissa Mayer, who will be discussing her decade’s experience at Google as well as the future of search. Mayer did her undergraduate work in Symbolic Systems and graduate work in Computer Science, both at Stanford University, specializing in artificial intelligence. Today she leads Google’s product management efforts in everything related to search: web search, images, news, books, products, maps, Google Earth, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Google Health, GoogleLabs and even more. Not a single Google product is released to the public without her seal of approval.

Browsing through the semester-long list of speakers for the Lecture Series, I noticed one glaring oversight: out of the eleven individuals chosen for this distinguished speaking position, only one is a woman. Does that mean that women constitute only 9% of the powerful tech innovators? My my, that glass ceiling is looking mighty shiny today.

One of our missions at Girls in Tech University is to change these numbers. Young women in college shouldn’t feel discouraged by the ubiquity of men in the industry they wish to call their own. This isn’t a pity party!  We’re quickly starting to see more and more women gain momentum and really rise to leadership positions in which they excel.

The intelligent, motivated ladies passionate about new technologies are out there; with the right resources, a network of serious innovators, and a dash of empowerment, we can exceed our own expectations and change the face of the industry like Mayer has.

*****
Event Details:
A. Richard Newton Distinguished Innovator Lecture Series
Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 5:00pm
UC Berkeley Bechtel Engineering Center

The WebCast of Mayer’s talk will be available to stream online here after the event.

On the evening of Thursday, November 5th, the Chic Meets Geek event was held at the Automattic headquarters, home of Wordpress. Overlooking the sparkling bay, Chic Meets Geek brought together members of the San Francisco Opera BRAVO! Club and the Silicon Valley tech scene.
The evening was one big convergence of mainstream arts and emerging tech, resulting in the ultimate in SF culture. The special guests ranged from a former Dallas Cowboy to a stem cell biologist. The most exciting part of the evening – coming from a true chic geek – was was tapping my toes to the incredible live jazz band while checking out the cool tech demos from MixMatchMusic, OneRiot, and NetworkedBlogs, among others. Just as I thought the evening couldn’t get any lovelier, I was offered a gift bag on my way out filled with treats from the generous event sponsors.
Watching salsa dancers, sipping on a local rosé, schmoozing with Randi Zuckerberg et al., and mobile-tweeting by the water in heels too high to handle: ahhhh, just another Thursday night in San Francisco.

Melody Akhtari, Jill Primost, and Karin Xie light up the Girls in Tech booth at The >Play Conference.

On Saturday, October 17th, the pink Girls in Tech banner was waving proudly at >Play: The Berkeley Digital Media Conference. The conference is put together by the Haas School of Business MBA students, and brings together professionals and students in the digital media and entertainment space. Tweeters, developers, gamers, and entrepreneurs alike gathered to discuss the ever-important role that digital media today plays in three main milieus: Mobile & Cloud, Media & Entertainment, and Identity & Innovation.
Girls in Tech participated in the expo hall, drawing the attention of  young women in grad school who will soon take the workforce by storm. While women are slowing starting to represent more and more of the workforce, we still only make roughly $.80 for every dollar earned by the opposite sex. One of Girls in Tech’s goals is to educate and empower women so we can be one step closer to equality in the workplace. The gentlemen who stopped by our booth at >Play agree with our mission, and are quite receptive to the idea of having more female representation in the tech arena. Meanwhile, the ladies who were coming across Girls in Tech for the first time were hugely enthusiastic about joining our network.
From the showcase of startups, the informative panels, and the many connections made, the >Play Conference’s was quite a stimulating day. Keeps your eyes peeled for Girls in Tech next year!