Girl Geeks in Technol gy

#SoftwareWeek #ggdcpt

hello I’m Suhaifa...

@Suhaifa

What do I do?no borin

g stuff, I promise!

Girl Geek DinnersHuh? What’s th

at???

“To be geeky is to be intelligent, have passion for a subject and to know that subject in depth. It’s not about being better than others, or about gender, race or religion. Those things just detract from the real fun stuff, the technology, the innovation and the spread of new ideas.”

How it all began...

It started with one girl geek in 2005 who was frustrated about being one of the only females attending tech events and being asked to justify why she was there by her male counterparts. She wanted this to change and to be treated the same as any other geek out there, gender and age aside.

Founder, Sarah Blow

So then what?

So what did this geeky girl do to change the world of geeks and girl geeks everywhere… well she got in touch with a few well known bloggers, posted online about her idea of getting geeks to educate one another over dinner and then arranged the first girl geek dinner event with a little help from her friends.

The first event had 35 people from London and the surrounding areas, shortly after people started to hear about the events and companies started sponsoring them to cover the food and drinks cost.

Impressive!

Growth and ExpansionCan’t come to London for our dinner?

Why not start your own.

Our long term vision• Introduce Girl Geek Dinner events into schools, colleges and universities around the world to

encourage people to embrace their passion for something like technology.

• Be active in countries and areas where access to technology is scarce but valuable. Imagine groups of children around a laptop learning about technology, getting all excited by it no matter what country they are in.

http://www.experientia.com/http://www.fredhoogervorst.com/

• Break down myths and stereotypes about geeks and technology through education bringing about social change. We need to shift the paradigm!

• Supporting those currently in the industry and working together to figure out the issues and the solutions.

• Create a safe environment for those in the industry to network and meet likeminded individuals.

• To include men, women and children in this journey and not exclude men from the Girl Geek Dinners events.

We’re better

than that...

Why do we need more women in tech? Because

we’re

awesome! Duh!

• The impact a technical background can have on a woman’s career and the economic potential that accompanies it is astounding!

• More women in senior tech positions will have a positive response encouraging and mentoring younger girls and students who are interested in tech.

• Lack of innovation in certain industries that affects women all over the world but more particularly in rural areas e.g breast pumps, pregnancy tests, ovulation tools etc.

• Women introduce a different dynamic in the workplace, we think, act and approach problems differently.

Did you know?

60% of Zynga social gaming players are female.

The average social gamer is a 43 year-old woman.

Who are some of these women?

Jess Lee, cofounder Polyvore

• Polyvore.com allows women to create a fashion layout that displays your personal style.

• Jess started taking computer science courses at Stanford and loved to program. Her first job was at Google where she was hired by Marissa Mayer.

• She is a firm believer that women have a better understanding of what women want, women control most of the household purchases and should be involved with products from beginning to end.

Women have a

better understan

ding

of what other

women want.

Hilary Mason, chief scientist Bitly

Teaching someone

to program is like

giving them a

superpower.

• Bitly is an automatic URL shortener used by everyone on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

• Hilary loves being a geek because its really fun and challenging to build things that have never been built before.

• Forget about flying or being invisible, she says that teaching someone to program is like giving them a superpower!

Kati London, executive producer Zynga New York• “It’s about creating something new…and blowing

someone’s mind.”

• Kati, a Game Developer, has built games that connect people including CityVille on Facebook and Words With Friends.

Did you know?Kati invented Botanicalls, a networked

sensor that enables houseplants to make phone calls or tweet to request water,

then thank their owners.

Rashmi Sinha, Founder SlideShare

• Rashmi has a PhD in Cognitive Neuropsychology from Brown University and conducted research on search engines and recommender systems at UC Berkeley.

• She was recently named amongst the World’s Top 10 Women Influencers in Web 2.0.

• Rashmi is a fan of quick meetings and rapid software development, and would rather make mistakes than overthink

Rapelang Rabana, Founder Yeigo

http://liveoutloud.co.za/

By making

information and learning

available on the mobile

phone, many lives would

be improved through

education

• She started her own business at 23, and was named as one of “200 Young South Africans You Must Take To Lunch” by the Mail & Guardian.

• Yeigo was an early pioneer in mobile application development for telecommunications enabling VoIP, IM and SMS from mobile.

• She has been coined by CNN as one of Africa’s Marissa Mayers.

Your name, Your company!Add it here!

I am inspired! How do I find out more?

It’s easy! Let me show

you how.

Coursera• www.coursera.org

• Coursera has partnered with over 33 universities to offer free world class education via online courses to anyone, anywhere in the world!

• Multiple topics including Computer Science, Programming, Social Network Analysis, Game Theory etc

Education is eve

rywhere!

Find a mentor• Identify why you want in a mentor and what you hope to gain from your mentor.

• List the type of skills you expect your mentor to posses. Use LinkedIn to search for the right person.

• Listen to the advice your mentor gives!

• www.citi.org.za MyMentor Project has been running since 2005 and in total 56 companies have graduated from this program.

Why are you

crying? That’s no reason to

cry. One cries because one is sad. For example,

I cry because others are stupid, and it makes me sad.

Because I’m stupid!

Silicon Cape Initiative• www.siliconcape.com

• The Silicon Cape Initiative is a non profit, community owned & driven movement for entrepreneurs, geeks, venture capitalists, angel investors, marketers and other professionals in the IT industry.

Thank YouStalk M

e

@Suhaifa | @ggdcpt | @realmdigital | @snapplify

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