Go Girl Go For IT! Melbourne Oct 08

Another great week! I spent 2 days at Go Girl in Melbourne which was held at Deakin University. I presented 4 times over the 2 days, with 1700 girls attending over both days. The other presenters were brilliant with some awesome topics covered. The presentations and audio of the speakers will be posted on the web soon so I will link to them. Meanwhile, you can see some pics here. A number of people asked me about my pink fluffly laptop cover, my mum makes them for me and you can buy one here. You can buy one of the pink sparkly mouses here.

One of the book authors, Alana, bought along her digital divas from a local highschool, and we were asked for our autographs :) One of my fave pics from the event...

Enjoy the weekend! :)

Jenine

Girl Geek Dinner # 2

A great event! :) Google were kind enough to sponsor dinner #2 by covering the food costs and sending a female engineer up to talk to us. Susannah Raub was on the selection committee for the Anita Borg Scholarship so I got to meet her while in Sydney at Google in September. She is such a great role model for young girls and for women working in the industry, and was kind enough to share some of her personal and work experiences with us. It was awesome to see such a great turn-0ut on the night. Thanks ladies! :)

Kitty's blog post and pics which sums things up nicely...

Keep posted for Girl Geek Dinner #3 in December 08.

Jenine

What a week!

I had a fabulous week last week promoting the book. All girls I presented to received a free copy.

On Monday, I was invited by Zonta to present at Tambourine Mountain High School. Was a bit of a drive but it is such a beautiful spot! And it was a student free day so I was most impressed by the 25 girls who came in on the day for the presentations! Thanks girls, and thanks for entertaining me over lunch! And thanks Melanie for inviting me. The feedback was "We were all very inspired by your energetic presentation and we certainly have a greater appreciation of IT and the careers available. The feedback from the girls was extremely positive". 

On Thursday I presented as part of a panel of fab IT women at All Hallows' School. It was heaps of fun. Thanks to Chad (the IT teacher) for inviting me and to the other speakers. We sure need more IT teachers like you! :)

The feedback was "Thanks again Jenine, for your time today! Your presentation was truly interesting and inspiring".

Then we had our 2nd Brisbane Geek Girl Dinner on Thursday night. Just waiting for some pictures, post to come! :)

Jenine :)

Geek Girl Dinner in Brisbane 28 August wrap-up!

Brisbane's first geek girl dinner was hosted by Bronwen and myself on Thursday the 28th of August at Caravanserai Restaurant at Highgate Hill. A great time was had by all which leads us to conclude that our first dinner was a huge success! About 25 people attended, a couple of guys came along but they did come with a geek girl (that is the rule!).

Very impressive was Tim, who wore a skirt for the occasion! Amanda (who works with Tim at Spy Journal) wrote a great blog post about the event. And their great photos are here. 

Bronwen's post is here. If you would like to be kept up to date with geek girl dinners in Brisbane, either join our facebook (Geek Girl Dinners Brisbane) or contact us here.

We are now planning our next dinner for the 23rd October, once we decide on a location, we will let you know! Look forward to seeing you all again.

Jenine :)

Vids - meet the authors!

Just uploaded the videos of our authors that were taken back in March at our book launch. You can see our authors talking about their passions. And be sure to tell us what you think of the vids! Enjoy :)

Jenine

Tracey in the Australian talking about the skills shortage

A great article was published on Saturday about the skills shortage and attempts in Qld particularly to address it. Our author Tracey was a key person in delivering the 2008 Diversiti Hiring Influence Report. Well done Tracey and thanks for mentioning the book! :)

More on Google

One week to go, I now have details of all of the other finalists from across Australia and NZ, and also the agenda for the days in Google, it looks like such a great program. I can't wait to meet everybody!

There is a great YouTube vid about the retreat in Europe which gives insight into what the whole experience is about, and you can read the press release for last year's retreat here. So very excited! 

Jenine

I am going to Google!

My great news. I am a finalist in the 2008 Google Australia and New Zealand Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship! I havent won (yet!? :) but I feel like I have! I am so excited that I get to spend 2 whole days at the Google offices in Sydney in September. And I get $1000 towards my studies next year. And I get to meet and hang out with the other 11 finalists, so cool!

An excerpt from my finalist notification:

Dr. Anita Borg (1949-2003) devoted her life to revolutionizing the way we think about technology and dismantling barriers that keep women and minorities from entering computing and technology fields. 

As part of Google's ongoing commitment to furthering Anita's vision, we are pleased to recognize you as future leaders in technology as a Scholarship Finalist for the 2008 Scholarship.

So very excited!

Jenine :)

Technology Takes You Anywhere 2008

Last Friday was the annual Technology Takes You Anywhere event here in Brisbane. We hosted nearly 700 school girls in grades 5-10. I was one of six people on the organising committee, I also presented on the day and signed hundreds of books. Was such a buzz. Julie, Tracey and Monica (also authors in TGAC) were also there to present and volunteer on the day (Julie was on the organising committee too), so they signed lots of books too. It seemed the girls liked getting their own personally signed copy, I even got high-fived by a bunch of primary school books, being told "you are like a rockstar, you are so cool, you have your own book!". 

It was such a great day. More details on the official website.

My photos here, but more to come soon from our photographer.

And you can also download our presenter booklet; you can read all about our presenters from the day.

I hope you enjoyed TTYA 2008! :)

Jenine

3rd International Careers Fair, Brisbane Australia

Monday 1st September

Suncorp Stadium

For more details: http://www.careersfair.org.au

Women in Hard Hats Campaign

Last Friday's presentation was part of the Office for Women's Campaign 'Women in Hard Hats' which is designed to encourage females into careers in non-traditional areas.

I have been profiled...

Follow up on Sunnybank High School - Make or Break Conference

I was lucky enough to be invited to present at Sunnybank State High School's 'Make or Break Womens Conference' last Friday. I was part of a session chaired by Alix Winter from the Office for Women, and presented to 6 different groups of year 8/9 girls alongside Radmila Desic who is an Industry Engagement Officer for Construction Skills Qld, and also has a trade in construction (she can build houses!), and alongside Carlie Wright, who works for Brisbane City Council and is the only female plumbing inspector in Australia,  - pretty impressive huh! All girls got a free copy of Tech girls are chic, not just geek.

The entire day was organised by an amazing girl named Jamie, who is the School Captain and visionary behind the day to inspire the younger girls at her school. Well done Jamie for doing such an amazing job. It was a fabulous day.

Jenine :)

National ICT Careers Week

As part of National ICT Careers Week, I was invited to present at a number of Brisbane schools about ICT Careers, and to give away Tech girls are chic books.

I presented at Cannon Hill Anglican College on Tuesday to year 12 girls, and St. Aidans Anglican Girls College today (pics here) to year 10 girls (and so great their teacher has been promoting our book and had the downloadable screensaver on many of the school computers in previous weeks, so many of the girls had actually heard about the book before they met me!) I will be going to Sunnybank State High School tomorrow to present with the Office for Women. What a busy week! :) Thanks to all the girls who attended, and their teachers for inviting me :)

Jenine :)

Sydney Writers Centre wants us!

Great news, we have been invited to do a podcast with the Sydney Writers Centre. They love our website and that each of our tech girls wrote a fiction story. They are interested in what inspired us to include fiction as part of our book. I (Jenine) am going to do the interview on the 15th September and the podcast will be made available. I will keep you posted!

Jenine :)

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Sydney Writers’ Centre has just commenced podcast interviews with a range of authors - resources page - http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/resources.htm and with iTunes.

Aint gonna hold us back now....must see video!

I see so many great links every day and usually post them here. But I had to blog about this one. A great video with voices from young girls chanting 'we are digital' and 'you aint gonna hold us back now' - very powerful, a must see!

have fun - Jenine  :)

Geek Girl Dinner in Brisbane 28 August

I recently met a fellow tech girl who also thought there was a need to have somewhere for us Brisbane tech girls to network, meet and catchup. So we are bringing Geek Girl Dinners to Brisbane! GGD has been a really successful way for tech women to get together around the world, so join us to make our first Brisbane Geek Girl Dinner a success too!

The idea is that you come along, pay for your own dinner and network and have fun!

To reserve your seat, please register:

http://girlgeekdinnersbrisbane01.eventbrite.com/

SA Innovation & Career Evening

We posted books down to Youth Jet in Adelaide for their Innovation and Career Evening. The event was held on the 14th March. We hear they went down well! :)

Pics here

Tech Girls event - Central Coast of NSW

Five of us from the book presented at the annual Tech Girls event on the 10th June on the Central Coast of NSW. Jenine, Bec, Lauren, Clare and Sarah met the girls, and we had a fantastic time! 

200 girls attended, learnt all about IT careers and got a personal book signing. A really well run event, and girls received some great prizes such as tablets and mobile phones. 

Some pics here

This was the second largest group to get the books, I (Jenine) and Monica presented at the Sunshine Coast SET day on the 5th June. Another great day!

Welcome!

Welcome to the blog for the new book 'Tech Girls are chic, not just geek' This blog is a space for you to leave your comments about our website, our upcoming book or any of our other projects, or for general discussion on the topic of women and girls in Information Technology.

Happy commenting!
Jenine & Bec