Girls In Tech

It’s that time of year again when love is in the air and gift shopping is in full swing. Don’t know what to get your game-loving sweetheart? Well here are some great ideas that are sure to Zap your loved one out of their seat and make you their winner!

Nintendo Wii – Couples who game together stay together! With beloved games that are fun for everyone, why not get your loved one a game console that you both can enjoy.  From the classics you enjoyed as a kid, to games to help get fit and more, it’s an easy way to play your way to your game fanatic’s heart!

Turn heads when you turn on your computer. Laptop skins add a unique touch to who you are, and are an easy way to personalize your sweethearts gaming rig. Available for almost all makes and models, you can even make a custom skin that’ll show them exactly how you feel about them this Valentines Day!

Trying to find that right mix of romance and technology? Then look no further than the infamous iPod Touch. Just preload it with tunes and game apps that you both love and share and you’ll be dancing your way to their heart! Already have an iPod touch or iPhone? Some apps and games even allow you to play against (or with) each other remotely, bringing you closer together on those business trips, daily lunch breaks, and more.

The techie you love will heart (<3) this 4GB USB thumb-drive. It’s the perfect on the go accessory to wear around your neck or use as a keychain. Available in various colors, it’s a great gift you can wear and share! Want to give it even more of a personal touch? Leave a letter, photos, a video greeting, or more for them on it to find and enjoy the first time they use it!

The Canon PowerShot A480 is a great and affordable way to start making new memories with your loved one.  This is both a romantic gift as well as a functional one. It has a 2.5inch LCD screen and 3.3x optical zoom, and comes in stunning silver as well as this gorgeous red.

If you’re looking for something sweet and simple to give this Valentines Day, give the gift of memory with this heart shaped digital photo frame. Just load this 2.4inch frame with pictures of the two of you and you’ve found the perfect way to stay in their thoughts and on their desk this Valentine’s.

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:

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Rounding up a “Top 5″ list of the top gadgets for women this holiday season was a bit daunting — there are much more than 5 to choose.  So, I decided to list the top 8. Some of these are carryovers from last year, I’m sure. Some of them are expected; and others are unique. So, here is the rundown.

(Not necessarily in order of popularity.)
1.  The Kindle 2: Electronic book-reader extraordinaire

2.   The Canon Powershot Sx

3.  Digital photo frames (to go with the above)

4.  The TomTom GO530

5.  Sea to Summit Pocket Shower or the Green Mobile Phone charger (for the outdoorsy/environmentalists of us)

6.  The Motorola Droid, iPhone 3G, or MP4 player

7.  Fitbit: Calculates the amount of calories you burn while walking around the office + access your Fitbit page to manage you meals and overall health

8.  Bendi: The silicone mat light-up keyboard.

A little bit for everyone — computer, outdoors, or home-related, alike.  Perhaps you’ll see something on the list that you might want to add to yours.

Enjoy your Holidays!

I’m actually glad that a lot has evolved in the world from the 50’s to current time. Trying to visualize how women were treated in the workplace and in the home, submissively providing for the men around them, getting married at a very early age for security, based on social influence and generally a lack of emphasis on education – just bothers me. Of course, we can blame that on the lack of resources available to women to help them catapult their careers to an executive level or opportunities for women to venture into the entrepreneurial world. We could also blame that on role models and how families raised their daughters, pressuring women to get married, raise families asap.

That said, the thing that I really LIKE about the 50’s was how chivalrous men were to women – taking them out on proper dates, opening doors, having official meet and greets with family members, dressing up and upholding manners.

I feel that this type of chivalry is getting lost in translation. Quite possibly for two reasons:

1. Men are confused (and getting more and more confused as the years go by)
2. Technology

Men are confused

Some women refuse to let guys open the door for them, stand on the right side of the street while walking, pay for their dinners because they want to show independence, self-sufficiency and financial stability. I understand this, but ladies, you can have the best of both worlds – men really respect women that are self-sufficient, smart and can fend for themselves; we also have the option of allowing them to treat us like the beautiful creatures that we are, keeping traditional values alive, while focusing on the multitude of opportunities that are now available to us – you can have it all.

Technology

It’s getting easier and easier for men to use very impersonal (a.k.a. lazy) methods of connecting with women, asking women out on dates, sending gifts, the list goes on. Here are my tips for not letting technology get in the way of a truly successful date, potentially a long-term relationship:

• Always expect to talk to your suitor over the phone, especially if it’s a first date (even if he leaves a voicemail, that’s ok – as long as you know that he made the effort to call you)
• Do not accept an official first date from a Facebook ping, poke or a one sentence message. This would be considered more of a “hang out” or “networking”, but definitely not a date
• Do not accept a two-word text asking you out the day of (Not kidding. This happens)
• Do not let men substitute the real thing with a virtual teddy bear, virtual roses or virtual candy. It’s not being materialistic, mainly because women care more about what’s in the card anyway. It shows that they made the effort to make you happy – it’s part of the wooing process.

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

November is National Novel Writers Month, NaNoWriMo.

Have you ever thought you had a book in you? NaNoWriMo is a great opportunity to finally bang that project out, although it is no easy task. The object of NaNoWriMo is to sit down and write a 175-page(50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. Last year NaNoWriMo had over 100,000 participants and over 20,000 completed their novel. If you complete your novel within the time window you win the contest.

Recently FastPencil Co-Founder, Michael Ashley, posted his thoughts on “How to Win Big at NaNoWriMo” and I thought he had a few great points.

When writing a novel at anytime you shouldn’t be afraid to invite friends in to help you review and edit your material. Your friends and family are the people who want to see you succeed and can prove to be extremely helpful in making sure that you get some quality feedback. He also touches on how to avoid procrastination and think about your novel as a “sculpture” a bit hunk of material that over time will be whittled away into what you envision. The key is to just start writing.

What about writers block? I recently read a few great tips from CopyBlogger in “Why Writer’s Block is Your Secret Weapon.” As simple as it sounds they recommend you just take a blank sheet of paper and answer “what am I supposed to be writing now?” Sound simple enough? Then just start scribbling down thoughts, ideas, comments, etc. that relate to that project. That will get you going.

If you have ever thought about writing a book, now might be a great time to get started. I highly recommend taking a look at the two blog posts I mentioned here to give you a few other great ideas. FastPencil.com is a great place to write your book. They will help you by hosting the content (so it never gets lost), they will walk you through formatting and provide you with the tools you need to invite friends in to comment on or help you with your novel. FastPencil also has a marketplace where you can find professional editors, illustrators, graphic designers, etc. if you need them. They will also publish your book for a fraction of the cost of others as well as help you promote it. If you decide to write a novel for NaNoWriMo and complete the task, they will also offer you a copy of your printed book for free.

Happy writing.

January 26, 2010

“The Future Beckons” is the theme of the upcoming TED conference, which this year is making its maiden stop in India. Historically held in California, the big-ideas conference — Technology, Entertainment, and Design — is being held in Mysore, India – the brainchild of 49-year-old Lakshmi Pratury. She approached founder, Chris Anderson,  about it in 2008 and he was all in agreement.  The four-day conference being held on the campus of Infosys will include topics such as local innovations with global impact, environmentally-conscious economic advancement, and promising young thinkers.

There will be 40 speakers, each with 18 minutes to share an idea, and inspire all in attendance. Guests come from such varied backgrounds, including speakers such as Anand Mahindra who studied architecture and film, now being the managing director of manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra; or Harsha Bhogle, who, after studying chemical engineering earned an M.B.A at a leading business school, and pursuing his love of cricket, became a professional commentator.

Says Pratury, “TEDIndia is an opportunity for the developing nation to participate in a community that cuts across all disciplines, that celebrates not following the norm.”  The organization’s (TED) charter is to support and be devoted to ideas worth spreading. It looks like it is poised to do just that.

For more information, see the following link:
http://conferences.ted.com/TEDIndia/.

*photo courtesy of TED India website

Last month it was that time of year again: Panel Picker Voting for the Annual South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference in Austin, TX. Sound familiar? Check out fellow GIT blogger Kristine Gloria’s post about it here: http://girlsintech.net/2009/08/31/girls-in-tech-at-sxsw-2010/

Each year the public votes online for which proposed panels should make it through to being accepted for the conference. I submitted a panel proposal, titled “Impact of Women in Technology”. Whether the panel makes it through to the final round and becomes an official SXSWi panel or not, I do want to share some of my thoughts on the subject, as well as hear everyone else’s and get some great discussion going on this.

For all you girls out there, was there a female presence that got you excited about tech? Maybe it was a mother, sister, aunt, or friend. Perhaps someone well respected in technology today, like Social Media Strategist Erica O’Grady, or Ad-Village CEO Marissa Louie for example?

If you do have an example like this, what about them or their journey in the tech world inspired or empowered you to pursue your dreams? How important do you think their roles are as pillars of Women in Technology to the future of Women in Tech? For me, two of those people are Tekzilla Co-Host & Gadget Guru Veronica Belmont, & New media producer and star of “The Guild”, Felicia Day. These two women are strong willed, have shown great initiative in their respective spaces, and have become pioneers and tastemakers in the fields of Journalism & New Media.

How have women influenced and changed the face of technology as we know it? This includes anything even remotely tech related, whether it be Journalism, Gaming, PR, Marketing, Social media, & more. Are there any famous cases of companies or brands that have seen great success due to Women in Technology? What issues as a Girl in Tech have you had to face? What issues have other women who’ve made a major impact in technology had to face on their paths to success? What would you tell younger or newer women entering the tech space to help them overcome these hurdles and encourage growth of the amount of women in the tech field?

Why are women in tech important to you, or the Tech Space in general?
I hope this post serves as some great food for thought, & would love to hear everyone’s thoughts and discussion (preferably in the comments below) about this!

Thanks!