Girls In Tech

This week, Girls in Tech had a phenomenal turnout at our first annual all-female Catalyst Conference.  When people asked me which panel I enjoyed the most, my answer was truthfully, “All of them.”   That said, as a business development gal, I found Katherine Barr’s workshop on “The Art of Negotiation” the most interesting.

A partner at MDV, Katherine started the workshop by asking the audience to pair up, and assume the arm wrestling position.  (Visualize a full room of 400+ women poised to arm wrestle.)  Next were the instructions: Without speaking to each other, know that each time you move your partner’s arm all the way down, you earn a million dollars.  At this point, it was clear as day to me that we would both see-saw each other’s arms down as quickly as possible to earn the most money.  But my partner didn’t see it that way.  She held her arm firm.  After struggling for a bit, I signaled to her with a smile, and a couple of nods, then loosened my hand, and we were on our way to earning millions.  Surprisingly, others in the audience around us sat at a standstill.

For the next exercise, we received handouts that included a Negotiation Preparation Template and a fictional negotiation scenario that audience pairs role-played.  The preparation template included the below framework to kick-start creative problem solving and brain-storming before entering a negotiation.

1.)    Interests — Identify Yours, Theirs, and Relevant third parties’ interests
– Do your research and know what is important to your counterpart

2.)    Options – What different options meet the various interests of all parties?
– Being CREATIVE is the key to successful negotiations
– Options allow people to move away from cold hard cash, and stubborn positions
– Creative brainstorming opens people up to the possibilities.

3.)    Legitimacy – What objective standards can be used during negotiations to assess fairness?

4.)    Alternatives – Identify the alternatives available if you don’t close this deal
– Knowing your alternatives gives you the power to walk away from the table
– Without alternatives, you may feel trapped and be persuaded into a bad deal

Additional tips to keep in mind during negotiations:

1.) Commitment – Be clear on what you are committing to
2.) Relationship – Be mindful that everything you do before and after the negotiation affects the relationship
3.) Communication – Clearly communicate and test assumptions to understand each other’s interest

What resonated the most about the workshop was Katherine’s emphasis on focusing negotiations on interests rather than positions.  With positions, negotiations tend to be more territorial and ego-based, i.e. if you win, I lose.  When focusing on interests, everyone can walk away feeling like a winner.

The Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference is coming up on January 26, at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.  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 brand. So, if you are still on the fence about whether or not you will attend, here are some good reasons why you should!:

• To network with over 250 eager and influential women in the tech industry
• Understand industry trends, what models are working and what models aren’t working
• To promote your ideas and your company to a group of very targeted women in tech
• To learn how to catapult your career in technology through workshops and presentations from top, successful women in tech
• To learn how you can create change by using the web tools and platforms available for developing nations

Visit this link to register:  REGISTER HERE.

You owe it to yourself & your career to be there!  We look forward to seeing you there.

Beth Kuenstler; Director of Partnership Development, CARE

Beth Kuenstler is Director of Partnership Development for CARE, one of the world’s largest international humanitarian organizations, with headquarters in Atlanta, GA and operations in over 65 countries. In her position, Beth leads CARE’s new approach for partnering with Fortune 100 companies to increase brand awareness by engaging consumers and employees in CARE’s poverty-fighting work. Since joining CARE in 2005, Beth has developed marketing partnership strategies that have produced over ten million dollars in media value and increased financial support. Prior to joining CARE, Beth spent over 10 years in consumer and high-tech marketing with Procter & Gamble, Kodak and Adobe. Her nonprofit experience includes the Executive Director role of San Francisco-based Hands On Bay Area, a local affiliate of the national organization Points of Light Foundation/Hands On Network. In her role as Executive Director, Beth oversaw the engagement of nearly five thousand corporate and community volunteers that annually contributed the equivalent of over one million dollars of time to local nonprofits.

Beth holds a MBA from Purdue University, where she also garnered national recognition for founding the Management Volunteer Program. The program is in its fifteenth year of engaging graduate students in their local neighborhoods to spark a life-long commitment to community service and philanthropy.

Aaron Lee; Co-Founder, RedBeacon

Aaron works on product design and engineering at Redbeacon. Prior to Redbeacon, Aaron was one of the founding engineers on Google Video. He later became the Tech Lead on YouTube monetization, building products that spanned AdSense, AdWords and YouTube. He was also a Launch Engineer, helping launch many other Google products and mentoring and promoting engineers. Aaron was one of the angel investors in startup Blade3D and also provided technical advice to startup Cooliris. Aaron received his Ph.D. from Princeton and M.A. & B.A. from University of Cambridge.

Charlene Li; Founder, Altimeter Group

Charlene Li is the Founder of Altimeter Group and co-author of the business bestseller, “Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies“, published by Harvard Business Press in May 2008. She is currently working on her next book, “Open: How Leaders Win By Letting Go”, to be published in May 2010 by Jossey-Bass. She frequently consults and speaks on social and emerging technologies and publishes a blog, The Altimeter. Charlene is one of the most frequently-quoted industry analysts and has appeared on 60 Minutes, The McNeil NewsHour, ABC News, CNN, and CNBC. She is also frequently quoted by The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USAToday, Reuters, and The Associated Press. She is a much-sought after public speaker and has presented frequently at top technology conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo, SXSW, Search Engine Strategies and the American Society of Association Executives.

Jessica Livingston; Founding Partner, Y Combinator

Jessica Livingston is a founding partner at Y Combinator, a seed-stage venture firm based in Mountain View, CA. She is the author of Founders at Work, a collection of interviews with founders about the early days of their startups. Previously, she was vice president of marketing at investment bank Adams Harkness. In addition to her work with startups at Y Combinator, Livingston organizes Startup School (www.startupschool.org)

To register for the conference, please click on the following link:

REGISTER HERE

Donna Novitsky; CEO, BigTent

Donna is CEO of Big Tent Design, www.bigtent.com. Capitalizing on a rapidly growing social marketing trend, BigTent delivers creative “engagement marketing” campaigns connecting brands with consumers, in particular household decision makers and trend setters. BigTent can do this because of its nearly million member-strong base of women in groups such as parenting clubs, schools, non-profits and professional associations. As the next generation “Yahoo! Groups,” BigTent is the trusted platform groups rely on for enterprise-class membership management tools combined with the best of social networking for discussions, calendaring, photos, profiles and classifieds. BigTent’s members are very committed to their groups, and BigTent is the platform that allows members to connect to each other 24×7 online, by email and, coming soon, on Facebook. Donna joined Big Tent from Mohr, Davidow Ventures (MDV) where she was a Partner for nine years, serving as VP Marketing in sixteen MDV-funded start-ups. Prior to MDV, Donna was VP Marketing at Clarify Inc., a CRM pioneer that she helped establish, grow, take public and grow some more. Her career began at Sun Microsystems in product management. Donna holds a B.S. in Industrial Engineering with Distinction from Stanford University and a Harvard MBA, and also teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing in the Stanford School of Engineering. In her free time she enjoys playing with her husband and two kids and volunteering in her kids’ school.

Lisa Padilla; CEO, Communicate.io

Lisa Padilla is the CEO of Communicate.io, a digital marketing agency based in Silicon Valley and host of Lisacast a podcast with a following of over 20,000 listeners. Lisacast has been following influencers in Silicon Valley (and other technology capitals of the world) for over a decade. In her role as CEO of Communicate.io, Lisa has been helping businesses reach customers and partners with effective marketing campaigns and visibility programs. Lisa’s strategic and hands-on experience offers specialization in advertising, search marketing, social media, micro-media and channel marketing. In addition, Lisa is a pioneer user of many social networks and new media, and an avid photographer with over 6,000 or her photos posted on Flickr, one of the many tools she considers a must have for niche marketers.

Cindy Padnos; Managing Partner, Illuminate Ventures

Ms. Padnos is the founding Managing Partner of Illuminate Ventures, an early-stage, high-tech venture capital firm and continues to serve as a Director of Outlook Ventures. Cindy’s experience and focus encompasses Internet/Web 2.0, SaaS, digital media, technology-enabled services, mobile communications and other software sectors.

Before entering the venture capital community Ms. Padnos was a successful serial entrepreneur including as founder and CEO of Vivant Corporation (EVLV); as President and CEO of Acumen, as vice president of marketing at Scopus Technology (SCOP); and at privately held companies IDE and Ingres. Her hands-on operational skills were initially developed in the telecommunications sector at AT&T. Early in her career Cindy also served as a management consultant in the information technology sector with Arthur D. Little and Booz Allen & Hamilton.

Ms. Padnos earned her undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, at the University of Michigan and received her MBA/MSIA with honors from Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. She serves on the Board of Advisors for the Tepper School and for Astia and on the Board of Directors of privately held companies BrightEdge, CalmSea, LPI&M, Wild Pockets, and Xactly Corporation.

TO REGISTER, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://gitcc.eventbrite.com/

Mari Baker; CEO, PlayFirst, Inc.

Mari Baker is currently CEO of PlayFirst, Inc. With over 20 years of experience in consumer technology, including roles as CEO of Navigenics, Inc., President of BabyCenter, LLC (a Johnson & Johnson Company), and as a Senior Vice President and General Manager at Intuit, Inc., Baker has demonstrated her ability to grow and develop successful organizations and products. Baker played a significant role in the success of BabyCenter.com and Quicken, including expanding these products internationally. Baker has been involved in several start-ups, including product marketing roles at Migent, Inc. and Now Software, Inc., and board roles with BigWake, RuleSpace, and currently, Cozi Group. Baker served on the board of trustees of Stanford University from 1996 – 2003, Peninsula Habitat for Humanity from 1999-2002, was named to the San Mateo County Women’s Hall of Fame in 2001, and as one of Silicon Valley’s Most Influential Women in 2009. A graduate of Stanford University, Baker lives in Portola Valley with her husband and three young daughters.

Sandy Jen; Co-Founder and CTO, Meebo

Sandy is a co-founder of meebo in Mountain View. She majored in Computer Science at Stanford and after graduation, worked as a software developer at Xilinx in San Jose. In 2005, Sandy started meebo with two friends from Stanford, Seth Sternberg and Elaine Wherry. In July of 2007, Nielsen/NetRatings named meebo the fastest-growing IM destination in the US – ahead of Google Talk and Skype Messenger. Investors include Sequoia Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. Sandy climbs, plays ultimate frisbee a couple times a week, and really enjoys a good nap.
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Elisa Camahort Page; COO, BlogHer

As BlogHer’s COO, Elisa Camahort Page leads events, marketing, public relations and research for BlogHer, while working to ensure that all company operations deliver on our vision. A longtime Silicon Valley marketing executive, Elisa was at the vanguard of professional and business blogging. Prior to co-founding BlogHer, Elisa was running a marketing consultancy, Worker Bees, and was among the first to integrate corporate marketing strategies into the social media environment. Worker Bees followed a successful career as in the cable broadband sector. Her most recent corporate position was Senior Director of Product Marketing at Terayon Communication Systems, where she managed multiple product lines and senior product management staff. In addition to her many personal blogs, Elisa is widely read as BlogHer’s conference leader and reality television editor. Elisa is a frequent public speaker, bringing research data about women and online communities to life in recent keynote sessions at MediaBistro Circus, Fem 2.0, New Comm Forum and WOMMA Marketing Summit. Elisa is a founding Fellow of the Society for New Communications Research and serves on the Board of Directors of the 42nd Street Moon Theatre in San Francisco, the programming advisory committee for SXSW Interactive and the Board of Advisors of the Anita Borg Institute.

Poornima Vijayashanker; Senior Software Engineer, Mint.com

Poornima Vijayashanker graduated from Duke University with a double degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science. After graduating she headed out to Silicon Valley, where she first worked for Synopsys as an R&D Engineer, and started working towards a Masters in CS at Stanford. She left her Masters to join Mint.com in 2006 as the third employee, and has remained the only female engineer there. As of January 2010 she will be leaving mint to become the CEO and Founder of her own stealth startup. Aside from being a coder, entrepreneur, speaker, and mentor to junior engineers, Poornima blogs on Femgineer.com, is an avid traveler, foodie, and a competitive Bikram yogini.

Girls in Tech is honored to announce its first, confirmed keynote speaker for the upcoming Catalyst Conference on January 26th at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco – Heather Harde, CEO of TechCrunch. Heather Harde is a role model and an inspiration for all women in the tech and business industries. With such an impressive background, including her work experience as well as education, we thought that she would be an amazing fit to present her stories, provide guidance and express words of empowerment to the 350 female leaders who will be attending the conference. As noted in her TechCrunch profile, Heather Harde is the CEO of TechCrunch. She spent the last ten years working within News Corporation. She held a variety of corporate development, strategy and operating roles both in Los Angeles and New York. Most recently, she was part of the founding team at Fox Interactive Media and their SVP Mergers & Acquisitions. Her team spent over $1.3 billion on eight acquisitions and two equity deals during her tenure. Their acquisitions spanned pre-launch start-ups all the way through public-company and pre-IPO buyouts.

Prior to Fox Interactive Media, she held a variety of posts at News America Marketing, TVGuide and ASkyB. Before News Corporation, she also worked for Viacom at Showtime Networks. The common theme in her media life has been working on assignments that focus on the impact of technology on media. This theme continues, of course, with TechCrunch. She started out doing investment banking for a small, private bank Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. She had the opportunity to work both in New York and Tokyo on corporate advisory and private-equity transactions. Heather is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Harvard Business School.

The Catalyst Conference 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.

Catalyst Conference will bring over 350 passionate, creative women together to fuel new relationships and ideas. Come prepared to share concrete technology and business tools and tactics, meet energetic leaders and entrepreneurs, and develop your own business ventures. This conference is for women at the top of their industries as well as those leading their first ventures, and will guide them all in discussions of strategy and success.

Click on the following link to register for the conference: REGISTRATION

We’re really excited to share some of our confirmed speakers with you for the upcoming Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference. We’re anticipating an amazing roster of the top women leaders within the tech industry as well as a variety of influential and inspirational professionals attending the conference.

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.

Catalyst Conference Agenda

Catalyst Conference Speakers

Jennifer Fonstad; Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson

Jennifer Fonstad is a Managing Director of DFJ. Considered one of the most senior women in venture today, Ms. Fonstad invests broadly in early stage companies. Recent investment successes include Athenahealth (NASDAQ: ATHN), Lumenos (acquired by Wellpoint, NYSE: WLP), and NetZero (NASDAQ: UNTD). In addition, Jennifer sits on the investment committees for DFJ VinaCapital, DFJ’s partner fund in Vietnam, DFJ Tamir Fishman, DFJ’s partner fund in Israel, DFJ Frontier, and serves as adviser to the DFJ China team. She began her career with Bain and Company after spending a year teaching math to high school students in sub-Sahara Africa. She is a graduate of Georgetown University and the Harvard Business School . Jennifer is married with four children.

Jeanette Gibson; Director, New Media, Corporate Communications, Cisco Systems, Inc.

Jeanette Gibson leads Cisco’s New Media Communications group where she is responsible for extending Cisco’s leadership and innovation with new media and overseeing the vision and direction of Cisco’s award winning online newsroom, News@Cisco (http://newsroom.cisco.com). In her role as head of new media strategy, Gibson is responsible for developing and communicating the direction of Cisco’s corporate blogging (http://blogs.cisco.com), multimedia (video, podcasts, video podcasts) and social networking initiatives and driving its web strategy for communications websites, News@Cisco, Investor Relations and Analyst Relations Websites. Prior to working with the News@Cisco team, Gibson ran the Corporate Technology PR team at Cisco where she was responsible for promoting Cisco’s technology vision and strategy and securing top-tier business press for Cisco and its senior executive team. Gibson is a founding member of the Social Media Business Council (www.socialmedia.org) and member of the Society for New Communications Research. News@Cisco has received numerous awards for its excellence in online communications and was named #1 website for serving media by the Financial Times-Bowen Craggs 2009 global index of corporate websites. Gibson holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Maha Ibrahim; General Partner, Canaan Partners

Maha Ibrahim is a technology trend spotter with deep operational experience. She joined Canaan in March of 2000 and focuses on digital media, networking and wireless investments. Maha has won numerous industry awards and is frequently invited to speak at digital media conferences. Maha holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.A. in Organizational Behavior from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Economics from MIT. She currently sits on the boards of eBillme, MiNO Wireless, SenSage , Virsto and Watercooler. Maha is an active member of the MIT/Stanford Venture Lab.

Leila Chirayath Janah; Founder, Samasource

Leila Chirayath Janah is the founder of Samasource, a social business that connects women, youth, and refugees living in poverty to microwork — small, computer-based tasks that build skills and generate life-changing income. Samasource was a winner in the International Business in Development Challenge in 2007 and the Stanford Social Enterprise Challenge in 2008, and is a current grantee of the Rockefeller Foundation. In recognition of her work with Samasource, she received the Rainer Arnhold Fellowship and has been invited to serve as a Social Enterprise Institute Fellow. Prior to Samasource, Janah was a founding Director of Incentives for Global Health, an organization formed by Professors Thomas Pogge and Aidan Hollis and advised by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen to develop new financing mechanisms for pharmaceutical R&D on diseases of the poor. She has served as a Visiting Scholar with the Stanford Program on Global Justice and a Visiting Researcher at Australian National University’s Center for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics. Leila received her BA from Harvard University in 2005, where she led the Harvard International Development Group and published work on the Rwandan genocide.

1. Learn how to catapult your career in technology through workshops and presentations from top, successful women in tech
2. Network with over 250 eager and influential women in the tech industry
3. Understand industry trends, what models are working and what models aren’t working
4. Promote your ideas and your company to a group of very targeted women in tech
5. Learn how you can create change by using the web tools and platforms available for developing nations
6. Participate in the Girls in Tech + Vator.tv pitch contest

To register, please use the following link: REGISTER

For more information on the Catalyst Conference, please use the following link: INFORMATION

January 26, 2010