Saturday, November 14, 2009

Congrats Tech Girl Anitza!

Huge congrats to Anitza Geneve, one of our tech girls, who was a finalist this week in the Office for Women's (Qld) Our Women, Our State Awards in the postgraduate category. She was up against some tough competition, and she came away as highly commended. Details can be found here about the categories, finalists and award winners.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Update on Tech girls event - Central Coast NSW

A great article about the Tech girls event in September posted on the youth connections website. Reposted here. See original site for pics.

Thomson thinks pink in IT
Updated: 09-10-2009
“Girls should not be missing out,” said Federal member for Dobell Craig Thomson when opening this year’s Tech Girls. Centrally positioned between Sydney and Newcastle, Thomson believes Central Coast youth and especially girls need to identify the versatility of a job in the Information Technology industry as an alternative to commuting, “you can work from home or work remotely, it’s a really great attraction.”

Held at Mingara Recreation Club, Tech Girls is a Youthconnections.com.au event which speaks out against the male-labelled industry, inspiring high school girls to consider Information Technology and science-based subjects at school and a future career in IT.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, males make up 85% of all people currently employed in the IT industry. Youthconnections.com.au chair person and IT business owner, Dave Abrahams says more women need to dare to challenge the geek stereotype, “It is a cool sector but most people see it as a geek sector.”

Tech Girls has run annually for the past four years and since its inception Youthconnections.com.au statistics show a rise of 13% in female students selecting VET IT subjects compared to a 26% decrease for boys during the same time period.

This year 150 girls from 12 Central Coast schools attended, joined by eight key women speakers who ranged from a Software Engineer for Google to an Organisational Change Manager at Commonwealth Bank. These women and several IT businesses represented diversity and change in Information Technology, which was part of the event’s focus. Griffith University researcher and co-author of Tech Girls are chic (not just geek), Jenine Beekhuyzen gave a presentation about investigating the technologies people use to download music and said she loves working in IT, “I get to travel lots, I get paid well and I work in my pyjamas most of the time.”

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Tech girl Bronwen talks about her experiences working in the IT industry....

Have a listen, and learn about the new Bachelor of Information Systems at Griffith starting in 2010. A great combination of technology and business skills.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Tech Girls 2009 - Central Coast of NSW

On the 22nd of September I was invited to be the keynote speaker for the 4th annual Tech Girls event on the Central Coast of NSW. The event is run by YouthConnections, who did a fabulous job!

It was a really great event, and Tech Girl Lauren presented too. Look forward to next year!



Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Robogals!

Robogals is a not-for-profit organization which aims to increase the number of girls undertaking science, engineering and technology courses at university. It has already been super successful in Melbourne and the UK. UQ has the opportunity to start up a chapter too! Robogals is run by university students like us who promote robotics to school girls. So, we'll have to opportunity to go round to schools, play with LEGO and just have some fun!

To start us off, there is a Robogals Bootcamp which will take place in the upcoming holidays (29 Sep - 1 Oct, 2009). We'll get an all-expenses paid trip to Melbourne, and get to hang out with other geek girls from all over Australia.

Please put in application so we can get the UQ chapter of Robogals up and running! Make sure to put in an application asap. If you know anyone else who might be interested, please pass this on (this is open to anyone studying at any level - undergrad or postgrad, and any discipline).

Here's the link to the application form.
www.robogals.org.au/application_form.html

For more information check out their website
www.robogals.org.au/index.html

More info on the Bootcamp?
www.robogals.org.au/bootcamp.html

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Our Women, Our State Awards 2009

http://www.women.qld.gov.au/awards/

The deadline for submissions to this year's awards has been extended until this Friday, get your entries in!

Saturday, August 15, 2009

2009 report on why girls still dont choose ICT

http://insight.eun.org/ww/en/pub/insight/misc/specialreports/eun_white_paper_women_it.htm

really interesting report on the current skills shortage in Europe, and the attitudes of school girls in the 'pre' university years. It seems that the same reasons for not choosing ICT careers and study still apply (as we have known for some time) - lack of positive female role models, and lack of understanding of the types of ICT jobs and careers available.

A huge skills shortage is upon us, so the lack of females is negative in two main ways, they are an untapped resource that the industry needs, and women are also missing out on great career opportunities. This report shows the importance of informational resources such as Tech girls are chic :)

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Tech girls book available on ThinkGeek.com!

The tech girls book is now available on ThinkGeek.com! Very exciting, the guys there are uber supportive of us Aussie gals, and gals in tech all over the world! So if you have any contacts in the US, feel free to promote it to them! xxx

Monday, July 13, 2009

An ode to a coder girl

Thought you might find enjoy this vid..well done to the creators!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Tech girls profile on Spy Journal

I was recently profiled by local Brisbane company SpyJournal so I thought you might like a read...Thanks Tim and Amanda!

Jenine's geek girl blogger profile

While you are there, you should check out the other geek girl blogs, very interesting reading!

Geek Girl Dinner # 6 an insight into the legal side of IT

Thursday evening the 2nd of July was our 6th Brisbane Geek Girl Dinner. Kay Lam-Beattie, our resident legal IT expert who runs her own business IdeaLaw answered the many legal questions from our Geek Girls. UQ Law Professor Kim Weatherall also helped out with all the many questions....the discussion went well into the night which was a sign of the interest in the many legal challenges that we all face every day as technology professionals, and as everyday users in the online world.

It was a great night of catching up and stimulating conversation, and it was nice to see lots of new faces! Thanks also to the Hutch Bistro for the great food and service! And thanks Tim from SpyJournal for the great pics! Here are just a couple of the pics you can see the rest on Flickr.







National ICT Careers Week 2009

Its that time of year again with the National ICT Career Week nearly upon us. It is held during the week of the 27th July to the 1st of August. Check out the website for information on events all over Australia.

Monday, May 18, 2009

Awards and scholarships - apply now!

Just a quick note about 2 scholarship and award programs which are now available.

The WIT award is Qld based and covers a range of ages and categories:
http://www.wit.org.au/default.asp?PageID=103

and the Grace Hopper scholarship is to get you to the US for the annual Grace Hopper Conference (I have never been but I hear it is incredible!
http://www.gracehopper.org/2009/participate/student-scholarships/

apply and reflect on your great achievements!
Jenine xxx

Monday, May 4, 2009

Geek Girl Dinner # 5 a huge success - go girl gamers!





On the 30th of April we hosted our 5th Brisbane GGD at the Microsoft offices in the city. Was so much fun to play games against other tech girls, and about 50 people attended. Huge thanks to Bronwen for doing most of the organising this time around (so little time at the moment with writing up my PhD) and to everyone who helped to make the night a success. Bronwen has a great blog post here which thanks everyone that needs to be, and gives a great recap of the night.

A few pics of me and Anitza, us tech girls from the book playing our hearts out! :)

Monday, April 27, 2009

Not tech, but music related, my other love....

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/story/0,28383,25387052-10388,00.html

a great story, go Ruby - talks about how she was bullied in school, and how she now has the best revenge through her success. I was bullied in school also, not to the physical extent of Ruby, but I still remember it to this day (wish I could forget!) But like Ruby, I believe success is the way to show them all! Go girls, be a fab success in whatever you do, be happy, and dont let bullies rule your life!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Nikki - the geek girl blogger

Check out our tech girl Nikki's great profile on Spy Journal. Tim, keep up your great work of supporting women in IT, we need more guys like you! :)



http://www.spyjournal.biz/geek_girls/NikkiCurtiss

Monday, March 23, 2009

Happy Ada Lovelace Day

I am so very honoured to be part of today celebrating the incredible achievements of Ada Lovelace, who is widely regarded as the first woman programmer (see http://www.agnesscott.edu/lriddle/WOMEN/love.htm). Ada is a fantastic 'tech girl' role model who paved the way for where we are today.

So that means today is also about celebrating women who now study or work in technology careers, women who are innovative, intelligent and chic!

Working in IT (or any similar names) is a great career for women, and one that I feel very lucky to be part of. So I would like to say Happy Ada Day to all of the fabulous women out there who challenge technology and the stereotypes every day to pave the way for the next generation of women!

There are just so many women who inspire me everyday so I send a huge hug out to you all :)

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy! :) and most of all, be proud!
Jenine

For other bloggers who pledged to blog on this day, see http://ada.pint.org.uk/

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Geek Girl Coffee #1 at Griffith Uni

The first of the Geek Girl Coffees sponsored by Google was held on Friday 6th March at the Griffith Campus Club. It was small, but it was great to meet the girls. To find out about future events, go to: http://sites.google.com/site/girlgeekcoffees/Home

pics are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/24088643@N00/sets/72157615118377908/
and also posted here: http://sites.google.com/site/girlgeekcoffees/Home/inspirational-women

Announcing another baby tech girl!

Huge congrats to Sarah on her beautiful daughter born on the 14th Feb (how sweet, a Valentines Baby!)

Jaiden-Lee Afia May weighed 6.5 lb. I dont know where Sarah finds the time but she has created this awesome website to share pics with family and friends: www.jaiden-lee.com

Best wishes to Sarah and Kieran :)

Jaiden-Lee is the 3rd baby born to a tech girl in the past year. Bronwen and Lilah, and Vanessa and Zach are all doing well too, but growing up much too fast! :)

Friday, March 6, 2009

Happy Birthday to Tech Girls are Chic!

A huge happy birthday to the Tech girls are chic, not just geek book!

This sunday, International Womens Day (8th March) marks the 1st birthday of the Tech girls book, so happy birthday to all of the book's fabulous authors for helping to make it happen!

To celebrate (and very timely) a podcast about the background of the book has just been published by the Sydney Writers Centre. I did the interview back in September and have been hanging out to hear it, and perfect that it arrived in the inbox today!

You can listen to the podcast or read the transcript at: http://www.sydneywriterscentre.com.au/podcast/jeninebeekhuyzen.htm

Or visit the facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sydney-Writers-Centre/13402093390

I encourage you to blog about the book if you have the means to, or link your facebook page to it, I will be shouting it from the rooftops!

And the book has been picked up by thinkgeek.com who has asked if they can buy the books wholesale to resell them in the US on their very popular website. How could I say no! So it seems we have cracked the boy geek club, they said they loved the concept and would be 'honoured to show it off to as many people as possible!'.

So the book now seems to have a life of its own, and may there be many more birthday celebrations! Congrats to every single tech girl for helping to make it a reality. I cant thank you enough!

Enjoy :)
Jenine

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

the month of February

Lots happening as usual!

* We hosted our 4th Girl Geek Dinner last week which was a great success. See Bronwen's blog for a roundup of the night. Thanks Jess for your great presentation! Book in early for our next GGD5 which is going to allow the girls to battle, on the gaming console that is. Join us at the Microsoft office in the city to show your skills at Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Dance!
































* I visited Lourdes Hill College last Wednesday to present about the book. Thanks to the students for their participation and thanks to the student's great IT teacher Robin for organising the visit. It was fun!

* When I went to the Game On Wired Women presentation a few weeks ago, the Courier Mail snapped a pic of my friend Heather and me.


















* And lastly, dont forget to celebrate International Womens Day this Sunday the 8th of March. This date also marks the 1st anniversary for the book so please tell us what you think about it. And to celebrate its birthday, IBM just purchased 500 books to distribute to their staff for IWD. How exciting! :)

Happy Birthday Tech Girls!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

You heard it here first! Apply for the Google Australia and New Zealand Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship


I am very happy to announce that the Google Australia and New Zealand Anita Borg Memorial Scholarship is about to open!

As you may know I was lucky enough to be a finalist in last year's awards and I highly recommend applying. It was an awesome time at Google in Sydney. So I am pretty excited to be blogging about this so that I can encourage you to apply. Excited also because this news hasnt yet been released by Google, it will in the next day or so. But I was sent the flyer today by my great contact at Google, because I am on it - can you see me? So I had to take this opportunity to share it with you. (See I was really there :)

So apply, apply, apply! Open to all women studying in IT related fields. You wont regret it! :)
And please send the flyer to anyone you know who should know about this.
I will post the official Google link as soon as it is available.

You can download the flyer here.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Doing IT Around the World

If you havent yet seen this interesting international project - go to: http://passionit.info/

36 women from every continent in the world are profiled in albums plus their work lives captured via a day in their life diary. The role models represent a wide diversity of women in technology industries. Their ages span from early 20’s through to near retirement. Their areas of technology passions span traditional information technology (e.g. CTO, software, hardware, support, consulting, sales and marketing services) to communications, knowledge management, governance, data mining, open source advocacy, web design, graphic art, instrumentation design, configuration engineering, computational biology, microelectronics, molecular biology, research, geo spatial, educational, medical and legal technologists).

For the freebie pdf downloads go directly to: http://passionit.info/albums.php

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Game on girls!

Have you seen the Game On expo in Brisbane? I went to it in Melbourne early last year and it was fantastic! A blast from the past, my fave part was the old Galaga stand up console! Another fave part was finding out all of the roles that make up developing a computer game, from artists to techies. I am planning to go again to the expo in Brisbane, hope to see you there!

As part of Game On, I went to the Wired Women panel presentation on Wednesday night. Four fabulous role models discussed working in the Brisbane gaming industry. Was great to see so many high school girls there asking questions! As part of this, the State Library have a full day of panel presentations next Friday called More than Games - a great chance to get info about working in this industry. And girls, they are calling out for you to get the qualifications and apply for jobs! There are so many great side events to this expo so dont miss out!

And wanted to share some pics with you from an AWISE planning event I was part of late last year. All of the AWISE women have been fabulous supporters of the book, and my friend Madeleine is one of the book's best supporters! You're a star Madeleine :)































While talking about fabulous women, I wanted to mention that my good friend Sue Nielsen launched her sci fi adventure novel this week! www.suenielsen.com and her book is available on Amazon.com. It is 7 years of writing and it is sure to entertain! She is already working on the sequel....:) Congrats Sue, a huge impressive achievement!!!



Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Welcome to 2009!

Happy new year! I hope 2009 is full of adventure for you :)

I havent posted for a while, but that isnt because nothing has been happening, the opposite in fact, lots has! I will give an update in a moment, but first to tell you that I ended 2008 with a last minute trip to Paris to attend the top conference in my area of IT. I made it there with 3 days notice, I didnt think it was possible! It was a fabulous adventure and I was very inspired by meeting some of the most well respected people in Information Systems. Some pics from the trip  below :) The first one is obvious, the 2nd is the girls at the Abbey for one of our dinner (5 courses!), the 3rd is all of us at the doctoral consortium (student workshops where they  worked us very hard :) and last pic is a cocktail party at the Sorbonne - the oldest university in Paris (built in 1253), very privileged to be part of it!


















This all happened the day after I presented my research at a conference in New Zealand, so it was a very busy time! But it really was a great time. But now to finish writing my PhD.

Other things happening late in 2008....
  • Copies of the book went out to all attendees at the NT Roadshow that was held in June and August last year in the following locations. Our tech girl Lauren flew to NT to present to the girls and boys, thanks Lauren! :) and thanks to Rebecca Pan for organising such a fabulous set of events. - 5 June - Darwin High School, 1 Aug - Dripstone Middle School, 11 Aug - Nhulunbuy High, School, 14 Aug - Kormilda College








  • I was invited by Donna Alexander to present about the book at the Canberra Women in Computing Hot Breakfast series on the 11th of Nov. It was a really fun breakfast and I met many wonderful ladies. Tracey from the book was meant to go but couldnt so I was happy to! Thanks to the AIIA for supporting it.











  • We got a little more promo for the book on the back of my Anita Borg Google Scholarship, a nice article in the newspaper of my home town. And I realise I didnt follow up on telling how I went at the Anita Borg Google scholarship, but I didnt win. Thats ok because I had the best time. It was brilliant! Who wouldnt want to work for Google ... ?
I am sure there are other things I have forgotten and will post them when they come to mind. So many things always happening with the book it can be a struggle to keep up!