Girls In Tech

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:

Read the rest of this entry »

Girls in Tech Portland presents

A Social Recruitment Event: The changing landscape on job market in Pacific Northwest Market & beyond.

Come and join us for an amazing 2 hours event! We have invited some of Portland’s recruiters to speak on the current work environment and provide a valuable networking opportunity! During the first hour we will open the floor to a session of speed networking. Bring a handful of your business cards and be prepared to meet many new people. The second hour we will clear the floor and introduce you to our special guests. Combined, these recruiters are experts in the technology, finance, accounting and other fields. We offer you to take this opportunity to meet with a crew who has their finger on the pulse of Portland’s workforce

This is open to public, you must RSVP by June 23rd through eventbrite. http://gitpdxsocialrecruitment.eventbrite.com/

DATE: Thursday, June 25th
TIME: 5:30 - 8:00pm
PLACE: Souk 322 nw 6th avenue, suite 200
portland, oregon 97209
p: 503.517.6900

hors d’oeuvres and wine are provided

COST: $5/person (to offset cost of food/wine); At the door: $10/person

Free Door prizes sponsored by 24Notion

Guest recruiters/panelist
Robert Half International has been named to the America’s Most Admired Companies list by Fortune magazine, ranking number one in the temporary help industry.

Abraham Klatt- Branch Manager of Professional Staffing Services
Jessy A. Culp-Division Director - OfficeTeam, a division of Robert Half International
Chad Meek-Technology Account Executive
Jeff Markham- Technology Division

Join our FB Portland Group and view our FB invite

While most of Manhattan was holed up at home Monday evening (April 20th), hiding from the rain, 50 or so brave, entrepreneurially-minded souls risked the elements (and their shoes!) and made the trek to the Roger Smith Hotel.

There, they joined Girls in Tech NYC and NextWeb for a joint panels and cocktails event to help kick off NYC Entrepreneur Week (aka NYCENT). After allowing for some networking time, Oz Sultan (NextWeb) got the panel discussions started, moderating a panel on general Entrepreneurship topics. The panel consisted of Calvin Chu (Columbia University), Rachel Sklar (Charitini.com), Lindsey Pollak (author and speaker) and Ameeda Chowdhury (Snazl.com).

Highlights of the panel–which spanned everything from personal motivations, to user trends, to presenting oneself to potential investors–included:

• There is no single way to take the leap. Some jump in with both feet, others gradually edge away from their ‘day jobs.’
• Not having a plan B can be crazy and scary, but also a powerful motivator to succeed.
• If you sincerely want to follow your passion, do it now.
• Sites and tools are no longer the hubs; users are.
• Nobody wants to read long business plans, and they won’t believe your numbers any more than you do.
• Network, network, network…and make sure the giving flows both ways.

After a brief networking break, the Intellectual Property panel began. Moderated by Andrea Calvaruso (Donovan Calvaruso & Yee LLP), the panel included Jonathan Vanasco (FindMeOn.com and ArtWeLove.com), Jonathan Lutzky (MasurLaw), Brenda Pomerance (Law Office of Brenda Pomerance, Esq.), and Peter Fields (Roberts Ritholz Levy Sanders Chidekel & Fields LLP).

Discussion included IP fundamentals, personal experiences, case examples, and critical best practices. The panel also offered insight into the differing perspectives of entrepreneurs and attorneys when confronting IP issues and associated costs. Among the highlights:

• Patents are very expensive to enforce. If you aren’t making $50 million a year, you probably aren’t worth suing. When you cross that threshold, however, the game changes.
• How will your idea be used in 10 years? What are the possible applications of it? Think about this before you file.
• Balance cost with safety…there is some legwork you can do on your own, but get proper legal counsel before making final IP decisions or attempting to file applications and registrations yourself.
• Know your rights and obligations from the start.
• Never sign a contract under your own name. Form an entity.
• If you can’t afford an attorney to formalize a new partnership, at least write and sign a letter of intent.
• You always want a non-disclosure agreement, and will rarely get one. Know who you are talking to and how they are known to handle the ideas and knowledge brought to them.
• Be good to your attorneys. They will be good to you.

Audience questions and discussion were enthusiastic, and ran right up to the end!

Girls in Tech NYC thanks everyone who ventured out to join us, Oz and Brett Petersel of NextWeb, Gary Whitehall and Richie Hecker of NYCENT, the Roger Smith Hotel, and most of all, our panelists who made this an engaging and thought-provoking event!

In addition to the excitement we have about this Thursday’s GIT - SC special guest, Sarah Lacy, we are also proud to help promote ‘An Evening with Tina Seelig‘ on April 29th at NextSpace in Santa Cruz.

NextSpace, Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Geeks and Girls in Tech are proud to bring Prof. Tina Seelig, Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program and acclaimed author to NextSpace for a reading and signing of her latest book: WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS TWENTY: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World.

One crucial bit of career advice that Tina Seelig offers her students at Stanford University is this—never listen to career advice. This may seem odd, coming from the woman charged with teaching the best and the brightest to succeed in the business world. And yet this tip, together with the other insights she’s shared in her highly popular course at Stanford, has allowed Seelig’s students to become leading figures in the most innovative and successful business in the world, from Google to Intel to Adobe to Apple.

Now, in Seelig’s WHAT I WISH I KNEW WHEN I WAS TWENTY: A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World (HarperOne; April 2009; Hardcover; $23.99; ISBN 9780061735196), we can all get inside access to one of the most sought after business school professors in the country. With provocative lessons gleaned from Seelig’s tenure in both the corporate and academic worlds, and with some untraditional advice inspired by leading business figures like Apple creator Steve Jobs (his Mac design was based on a calligraphy course he took as a college dropout) and JetBlue founder David Neeleman (it took being fired by Southwest to come up with his new airline), the book provides tangible skills and invaluable guidance that will allow readers to achieve unprecedented success in any field.

We hope to see you there! Please RSVP!

To be honest, when I reached out to Adriana about starting a chapter of Girls in Tech in Santa Cruz I wasn’t sure what kind of a response I was going to get from the local community. I knew we had a huge pool of talent who commutes over the hill into Silicon Valley every day but wondered if people would be interested in taking more time out of their day to “talk shop”.

The response from the community has been overwhelming. In addition to having a hot line-up of speakers for our events, like Sarah Lacy (TechCrunch, BusinessWeek, and Author of ‘Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good‘), Tina Seelig (Executive Director, Stanford Technology Ventures Program and acclaimed Author), Veronica Belmont (Co-host of Revision3’s tech-centric show, Tekzilla, and Qore on the PlayStation Network) and Girls in Tech’s own lovely Adriana Gascoigne, small businesses and organizations around town have been rallying around us to assist the group with promotion or even venues for our events.

NextSpace, has offered to host our event with Sarah Lacy on April 9th as well as the event with Veronica Belmont on May 13th. NextSpace is an entrepreneurial catalyst located in Santa Cruz, CA. They have a mission to catalyze local talent, local ideas, and local capital to create products, services, and solutions for the global marketplace. They have been such a help in event planning and promoting the cause here in Santa Cruz! If you are working locally and are interested in finding a place to work rather then your second bedroom, check them out.

Bookshop Santa Cruz has also offered to help us organize book signings and has partnered with our local chapter to promote their events as well as ours. Bookshop is the group behind bringing Tina Seelig to Santa Cruz and we are really excited to be working with them on ‘An Evening with Tina Seelig‘ for April 29th as well as additional events in the future

The Santa Cruz Chapter of Girls in Tech has grown to almost 40 members in about a month and I look forward to seeing how high we can take this organization in our community and in the global community of women in tech.

Cheers, Girls!

For those Girls in Tech members that are flying in from all around the globe to attend SxSW’s vast array of lectures, panels, workshops, and parties, we’ve created a quick and dirty calendar for you to review in case you’d like to attend the events where the Girls in Tech Austin chapter and Corporate will have a presence.

Cowgirls, pack your party boots, festive hats and honky-tonk lassos because this is going to be a week to remember!

FRIDAY, 3/13

TWEET-UP: SXSW Opening Tweet-up @ Champs at 3:00 pm

PARTY: CoWorking Meet-up @ San Jose Hotel at 7:30 pm

PARTY: TechSet Party @ the Belmont at 8:00 pm (Badge only)

PARTY: Pastries & Pasties @ Emos at 9:00 pm (Badge only)

SATURDAY, 3/14

Panel: 
11:30 am - 12:30 pm — Nerd Network: Building an Online Community for Developers
GiT-Austin Boardmember, Deirdre Walsh, will be presenting

Panel:
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm — Future of Social Networks featuring Charlene Li

PARTY: The Bigg Digg Shindigg @ Stubbs at 6:30 pm

PARTY: FrogDesign party @Mexican Art Museum @ 8:30 pm

PARTY: Toobla after party @ The Belmont at 11:00 pm

SUNDAY, 3/15

Panel:
11:30 am - 12:30 pm — Blackboards or Backchannels: The Techno-Induced Classroom of Tomorrow GiT-Austin Boardmember, Archana Ramachandrana, will be presenting

Panel:
11:30 am - 12:30 pm — Making Whuffle: Raising Social Capital on Online Communities presented by Tara Hunt

Panel:
11:30 am - 12:30 pm — Moms Who Tech presented by Beth Blecherman

PARTY: WordPress/GiT BBQ @ Conjunctured — 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Volunteers needed; please arrive by 1:00 pm

PARTY: Vidoop/ MySpace/GiT House Party on South Congress — 3:30 pm
2105 Nickerson Street
Austin, Texas 78704
*Volunteers needed; please arrive at 3:00 pm

MONDAY, 3/16

Panel:
10:00 am - 11:00 am — Gaming as a Gateway Drug: How to get Girls Interested in Technology presented by GirlStart

Panel:
11:30 am - 12:30pm — Are Women Taken More Seriously on the Web presented by Blagica Bottigliero

We are excited to connect, empower and inspire all women in the technology industry here in the silicon forest. Portland is one of the coolest metropolitan areas who have done a great job attracting high tech start up and other computer technology company including Intel, IBM, Tektronix and everything in between. Did you know that Portland is also named the #1 green city by Yahoo Green? Well, speak no more… Girls In tech is creating a presence locally for all PDX’ers to network among the brightest men and women.

Introductions::

I am Ivo Lukas, the managing director for GIT Portland chapter. Most recently, we’ve announced our chapter launch in mid January of 2009. Ever since the launch, the Portland team have been busy on planning our event calendar for 2009. In the past few weeks, we have been working on securing venues, sponsorships, lectures, workshop, networking mixer etc… Be sure to join us on Facebook, GIT Portland chapter , regarding upcoming events and info. Also, if you would like to get involved, don’t hesitate to drop me an email ivo@girlsintech.net

Be sure to join us in Portland for our first event launch and social networking mixer get together:

RSVP through Facebook or send me an email ivo@girlsintech.net

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the event!!!

This conference is hosted by Stanford Women in Business (SWIB). SWIB seeks to provide the women of Stanford University an opportunity to build a foundation in business and join an encouraging community of aspiring and successful businesswomen. Stanford Women in Business intends to equip young women with the tools necessary to seize their talent and succeed in the world of business. Through events and programs such as business skill workshops, leadership conferences, career exposès, or mentorship pairings, SWIB is helping women find career direction, network with alumni and peers, and set and achieve ambitious career goals.

KEYNOTE

Speaker: Candace Nelson, Founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes
“Sprinkles Cupcakes: Building A Business From Scratch”

OPPORTUNITIES

The fair will include booths hosted by Stanford student business and women’s organizations as wells as women’s professional organizations from the Bay Area. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about membership, activities, and upcoming events related to their business interests. Representatives will be available to answer questions and share experiences.

Participants will include:
* 85 Broads
* AKPsi
* Stanford Consulting
* Stanford Finance
* Stanford Marketing
* Gumball Capital
* Stanford Venture Capital Club
* Cap & Gown
* Stanford Pre-Business Association
* Girls in Tech
* Stanford Women in Business
* Future Women Leaders
*Stanford Society for Entrepreneurs in Latin America
…and more!

WORKSHOPS AND PANELS

NETWORKING WORKSHOP

Does the term “networking” make you a little nervous – or even a lot? Join Dr. Susan Bernstein as she helps you discover helpful ways to make your networking easier. You’ll discover what to say and how to say it. And you’ll learn how to start up or break into a conversation. If you happen to be one of those “shy” types, find out how you can overcome your nerves and feel more at ease. If you’re wanting to make meaningful connections to help you land jobs and internships, this workshop will give you tips, perspectives, and even hands-on practice, so that networking becomes less nerve-wracking and more valuable.

CONSULTING PANEL

Learn about a wide variety of career opportunities within consulting from:

* Phyllis Moore, Principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, Human Capital Consulting
* Sonia Nagala, Associate, Parthenon Group, Strategy Consulting
* Minli Virdone, Associate, McKinsey & Co, Management Consulting

Have your own questions about functions within consulting answered by the panelists.

NON-TRADITIONAL BUSINESS CAREER PANEL

A panel featuring leading female business professionals including:

* Kathy Chou, VP World Wide Communication Sales, HP
* Jessica Gilmartin and Patama Roj, Founders, Fraiche Yogurt
* Michaela Prescott, Google
* Sophia Tu, Gumball Capital
* Juliet Rothenberg (Moderator), Mayfield Fellow, Stanford University, Class of 2009

Learn how to approach business fields outside of banking and consulting and hear the success stories of these businesswomen. Have your own questions answered by the panelists.

September 8 - September 10 TechCrunch50

San Francisco Design Center 635 Eight St. San Francisco, CA
http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/get-tickets/

TechCrunch 50’s goal is to find the best start-ups and launch them in front of our industry’s most influential VCs, corporations, fellow entrepreneurs and press.

September 16 - September 19 Web 2.0 Expo - New York City

Javits Convention Center 655 West 34th St. New York, New York
http://en.oreilly.com/webexny2008/public/content/home/

As large as the crowd was that gathered at the inaugural Web 2.0 Expo last April in San Francisco, the majority were from the Bay Area and the West. In order to serve the thriving web community on the East coast, interwoven with the financial, advertising, and consulting industries headquartered in New York, we’re building a vibrant event for the developers, designers, entrepreneurs, and other web professionals who’d like to learn and network with like minds in the Big Apple.

November 7-9 Web 2.0 Summit

The Palace Hotel 2 New Montgomery St. San Francisco, CA
http://en.oreilly.com/web2008/public/content/home

This summit is known for its interactive format, encouraging audience interaction and participation. Web 2.0 Summit brings the intelligence, innovation and leadership of the Internet industry together in one place at one time. Attendees will learn what business models are working, what’s next on the horizon, and how all of this will affect your own business.