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!!!

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....

• GGD #3 - in December - was a chick flick and movie, Bronwen and I are now planning Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane for 2009.

• 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.

• I was profiled related to the book just this month in the newsletter of AWISE - Australian Women in IT Science and Engineering.

• 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!

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