During this high-level event, top Publishers, Agency Executives and Brand Marketers will come together to discuss how Social Media is everywhere and is changing everything.

–>DIGIDAY gives media and marketing leaders a chance to converge and reveal high-level success strategies as well as offer insights on how the future of Social Media Marketing will play out for all.

–>Leading Women Include: Cynthia Neiman, Vice President of Mattel Digital Network, Mattel, Marty Collins, Group Marketing Manager, Windows Digital Marketing, Microsoft, Tameka Kee, editorial director, DIGIDAY, Sarah Hofstetter, Senior Vice President, Emerging Media & Client Strategy, 360i, and many more!

–> We’re partnering with digiday: Social on this event, so Girls in Tech LA Members Save $100 off the registration price. Use this code for your discount: GITDS. Register at https://registration.dm2events.com/event/socialla/.

JB

J. Briganti

Thanks to advanced technology, you know longer need to be a professional photographer to capture a unique moment in time.  Although it is true that photography is an art, even those of us just snapping away as a hobby can achieve exceptional photographs with the right camera in hand.

The Olympus SP-59OUZ will provide you with photographic pleasure.  It is an affordable camera appropriate for someone taking up photography as a hobby and can also be easily enjoyed by all members of the family.  It comes complete with lots of valuable shooting features such as optical zoom, shadow ADJ for brightening the subject against backlight, exposure compensation for adjusting the brightness and macro shooting for taking great close ups.   And let’s not forget the self timer so that all of your family or friends can be in the picture.

Taking a good photo is not really as difficult as you may think.  You don’t need years of experience or the most expensive camera.  What you do need is inspiration.  Where to find it?  It’s all around.  Take time out to notice your natural surroundings including your own garden, local parks or distant landscapes.  Family pets or small animals like birds, squirrels and rabbits make wonderful photos too.   Zoom in on your own family members when they’re not looking for photos with a natural complexion.

Here are some simple steps that you can follow and you’ll be on your way to photographic bliss.

• Get up close and personal to your subject, when possible.
• When shooting animals get down low on their level.
• Hold your camera in a vertical position for a change.
• Look for a simple, uncluttered background.
• Shoot with the sun behind you.
• If your outdoor subject is in the shade, turn on the flash.
• Use a tripod for extra steadiness.
• Make use of macro shooting for great close ups.

In addition to these simple tips, take the time to read your camera’s manual; by doing so you will learn how to operate the different camera modes available.

Have fun and enjoy your photographic journey!

If you haven’t had the chance to be present for one of Bronwyn Saglimbeni’s workshops, you must. Bronwyn is a seasoned communications professional and works with clients to improve their public speaking and media relations skills, challenging them to bring out more of themselves in their communications.

At the First Annual Girls in Tech Retreat for GIT Managing Directors, Bronwyn and Kristine Shaefer, lead a workshop on public speaking and it was such a success and so helpful that I invited her back down to Santa Cruz for a workshop on ‘perfecting your presentations’ – lucky for me she obliged and I thought I would share some of her key points and takeaways with those of you who weren’t in attendance:

Now, who hasn’t spent countless hours putting together an important presentation only to have your audiences eyes glaze over? Are you as guilty as I am for being one of those to get sleepy in the middle of a PowerPoint? I thought so.

So let’s change the game.

1. Honor the way adults learn
   1. Show, don’t tell
   2. Novelty
   3. Relevance
   4. Emotion
2. Master the art of storytelling
   1. Turn off your computer.
   2. Decide what kind of story works best given the subject and your goals.
   3. What do I want them to… Feel? Think? Do?
   4. What do they need to remember?
3. Practice restraint
4. Be yourself

Now, next time you go to put together a slide deck, think about these simple, but key, points. If you still can’t get it right then maybe you should reach out to Bronwyn for some additional direction

Living in the Bay Area, I am constantly reminded of what rich resources we have at our disposal, both on a social and intellectual level. One such resource is the amazing Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. In there own words, it “provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation.”  Their mission:   Through their work every day, the Anita Borg Institute (ABI) seeks to:

• increase the impact of women on all aspects of technology, and
• increase the positive impact of technology on the world’s women.

Founded in 1997 by Anita Borg, PhD, it was originally known as the Institute for Women in Technology.  In 1997, Dr. Borg along with Telle Whitney, PhD began the inaugural Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.  This conference, held annually, is coming up this year September 28th – Oct. 2nd in Atlanta.  It is designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing, worldwide, to the forefront.

Based in Palo Alto, CA,  ABI has created and hosts programs for high-tech women and create a community, providing tools to help them advance their careers.  Their partners include such companies as Microsoft, Google, HP, Cisco, Facebook, Amazon, and the National Science Foundation, among others.   For more information, visit their website at www.anitaborg.org.

(Since the Grace Hopper Celebration does not occur until the Fall, why not attend the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference to get a jumpstart! — See details, HERE.  –                                         Tuesday | January 26th | The Commonwealth Club, San Francisco.)

Are you wondering how to help Haiti? It’s noble and good to open your wallet and send money. But can you send $100,000? I can’t. That’s why I’m supporting Pencils of Promise, a group competing on Chase’s Facebook-based Community Giving Competition. POP is trying to win $1,000,000 to support their mission of building schools in poor areas. If they win, they pledge to donate at least $100K to Haiti.

It only takes about a minute to vote for them. You can vote here: http://bit.ly/4DYKIV. Please feel free to Tweet about it, too.

From the POP blog, here’s how young girls reacted to plans to build a women’s dormitory and library in Champhet, Laos, to replace the makeshift huts they stay in during the school week, before they walk home on weekends:

“At the start of each school week, hundreds of girls from faraway villages have to choose between their personal safety and their education. For them, though, the choice is obvious. The only way to personal empowerment, agency, and ability is through this education. The safety they will have to forgo. We ask many girls if they would like a place of their own to live—a dormitory for only females. Smiles explode onto their meek faces with eager yeses. They say they want a place where they are safe, where they aren’t scared at night.”

Inspiring stuff, huh?  If POP wins the competition, they pledge to build 50 schools throughout the world, including safe facilities for communities where women traditionally have less access to education.  POP is run entirely by volunteers and support they receive goes wholly to their projects. As of today, they are only a few votes away from being a finalist. Voting ends Friday. Your vote can have an impact!

To make it simple, here’s that math again:

60 seconds of effort =

50 schools +

100K to Haiti.

In Sum :  Impressive.

The Founder’s Institute and TheFunded.com are amazing resources for anyone starting their own business and looking for a network of colleagues and advice.  We’ve partnered with them on the upcoming Catalyst Conference, getting their help spreading the word about our exciting inaugural conference.  I wanted to take a moment to let you know about some equally exciting things they have going on.

This Thursday, they’re hosting the Founder’s Showcase. There, you can meet top investors, socialize with other entrepreneurs, hear great talks, and see inspiring pitches from cutting edge start-ups. The Founder Showcase is an open startup pitch and networking event that highlights seed stage businesses, helping founders gain traction among the Silicon Valley elite. On Thursday, January 14th, ten companies elected by over 13,000 registered Members of TheFunded.com will present to an audience of over 200 investors, founders, and members of the press. A panel of experts will critique the pitches, and an open ballot of those in attendance will determine the Founder Showcase Winner – who will win a number of prizes, including $2500 in cash, $1000 in free legal services from Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, and a free two-day rental of a Ferrari 360 Spider.

Showcase guests will be treated to food and drinks, as well as informative talks by two leading Silicon Valley CEOs – Philip Kaplan of Blippy, and Jay Jamison of Moonshoot. There is also a networking and Pitch Table area for startups, service providers, and investors to convene. Previous investors that have attended include JAFCO, Leapfrog, Polaris, Omidyar, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, First Round, Blue Run, and various angels. A finalist at the last event, RelayRides (www.relayrides.com), even received funding as a result of the event.

Only a few dozen tickets and inexpensive pitch tables remain – to register and learn more, visit http://foundershowcase-girlsintech.eventbrite.com/.

“Twit-tahh?” the manicurist gave me a puzzled expression, “What’s that?” she turned her attention back to my nails, carefully cutting away at the dead skin near the base of my nail and listening as I explained the viral phenomenon that is Twitter. I asked her if she had heard about the “Twitter manicure” I read about in a PopSugar article recently, negative. None of the manicurists in the Palo Alto-based salon had ever used Twitter or Facebook, let alone heard of either of them.

As shocking as the image of hot blue nails with miniature light blue birds and bright orange “fail whales” painted on them is, it’s only the newest concept in the evolving relationship between social media and fashion. Social networks such as Twitter and Facebook have been featured on t-shirts for a long time now. Popular shirt sites like cafepress.com and threadless.com sell shirts that feature slogans such as “140 is the new 420,” “Don’t Make Me Unfriend You” and “I’m Not A Blogger, I just Tweet A Lot.”

So, does this mean that social media not only a hot trend, but a haute trend as well? Last year, I wrote briefly about Shopflick —a place where online shopping meets YouTube. The website doesn’t feature mass-market retailers, major fashion brands, or look to advertise through mass-media. Instead, it calls itself a “video-powered marketplace for indie-inspired goods.” And features designers like Amy Hall, for Amy Kathryn Handbags. By viewing the two minute video (each item has their own), we meet Amy and listen to her describe her product, her inspirations, and her reason as to why her product is better than the rest. At the end of those two minutes we have all the information we need to make a purchase. Another site similar to Shopflick is StyleHop. This one brings social gaming and fashion together through fun style-rating games and links to post directly to Myspace and Facebook. It uses a Yelp-like system and provides viewers with advice on the most popular fashion for that city.

Is video shopping better than window shopping? That is up for debate. Personally, I prefer strolling through the mall and trying things on over sitting at home in my pajamas clicking on images and videos.

Just before the Christmas holiday commenced, I attended a monthly event called Open Coffee. Open Coffee was started in England and now has several global chapters, but having a chapter in Athens is particularly noteworthy as there seems to be relatively few gatherings of tech entrepreneurs and potential investors.

In the packed Benaki Museum hall, attendees were able to listen to the processes and milestones of recent startups and garner advice from the most senior successful of businesses in Greece, such as Liberis Publications.  However, the most impressive in the area of technology was AthensBook.

AthensBook was started by two young entrepreneurs who have a vision of bringing Greeks online via mobile devices. Greece, as an emerging market economy, finds itself in an advantageous position in that much of the hardware infrastructure that often hinders technological changes is not engrained here. Therefore, getting the masses to depend on information dissemination and retrieval via wireless hand-held devices will not be hard to achieve. Therefore, AthensBook has positioned itself well for future success in the area of monetization via mobile advertising. So, when coming to Greece, download the AthensBook app to keep abreast of latest exchange rates, best gas station prices, local shop hours of operation and much more.

Another company to keep an eye on is Niobium Labs.  They are an R&D company that specializes in creating innovative solutions for mobile and geolocation technologies.

The format of Open Coffee was well organized, the presentations were professional and the speakers held the audience’s attention quite well. See the Open Coffee link to attend their next event or if you have a start up in the Athens’ area, get yourself out there and present your products!

Photo by Caroline Taillandier @caro972

Asli Bilgin, a great heart and community leader in New York City (via Microsoft) dined via candlelight in a charming French Restaurant in the heart of Gramercy, Park Avenue, NYC. Alissa Emerson trudged through the snow with a 5 inch by 5 inch Tiffany-blue plastic box neatly packed in her editfashion.com-approved hand bag, joined by Michael, her husband, to sit among friends at the restaurant’s inner balcony.

There, Alissa introduced an interesting gift idea that is simple and elegant – yet can be distilled into binary. Asli was treated to a projected slide show of pictures and a usb drive made of Philips metal embossed by Swarovski crystals so that as she jet-sets to Dubai to educate global leaders on new Microsoft technology – her friends go with her – a fun way to bring back old traditions like watching slides with one another. The best wishes for her in her travels.

Speaking of binary, and since Asli also loves math, on vacation, I happened across a superb explanation for binary, by Brian Hayes in his collection Group Theory in the Bedroom. On page 180, he writes:

The most important numerals are all constructed according to a place-value system. In decimal notation, the numeral 19 is shorthand for the expression:

( 1 x 10¹ ) + ( 9 x 10⁰ )

Or, as you might recite in a primary-school classroom, “one ten and nine ones.” Likewise, the binary numeral 10011 is understood to mean:

( 1 x 2⁴ ) + ( 0 x 2³ ) + ( 0 x 2² ) + ( 1 x 2¹ ) + ( 1 x 2⁰ )

which adds up to the same value. The ternary version of the same number is written 201, which expands as follows:

( 2 x 3² ) + ( 0 x 3¹ ) + ( 1 x 3⁰ )

In this case we have two 9s, no 3s, and one 1.

The general formula for a numeral in any place-value notation goes something like this:

d₃ r³ +d₂ r² +d₁ r¹ +d₀ r⁰ …

Here r is the base, or radix, and the coefficients d _i are the digits of the number.

Hint: Brian is a balanced ternary fan, which is very pretty and arguably more efficient than binary, and on which he continues to write on page 189:

the digits of a balanced-ternary numeral are coefficients of powers of 3, but instead of coming from the set {0 1 2}, the digits are -1, 0, and 1 (sic)

The decimal number 19 is written 1101 in balanced ternary, and this numeral is interpreted as follows:

( 1 x 3³ ) – ( 1 x 3² ) + ( 0 x 3¹ ) + ( 1 x 3⁰ )