London Girl Geek Dinners

Since most of the current organisation committee are now based outside of London or have high workloads we’re looking for some new members and a leader for our organising committee.

What we are looking for are passionate, driven women who love the IT industry and want to help encourage more people into the industry and make the industry a friendly and welcoming place for those currently in the industry. We are looking for people who have great ideas, connections with geeky companies and people who have spare time available on a regular basis to spend time creating events, update the website, market the events and keep an eye on the e-mail inbox. All organisers must be really good at communication as communication really has been something that is key to our success!

If you are interested in joining the organisation committee please send us an e-mail detailing what areas you see yourself being most useful in, and why you are passionate about helping out with this community. Please note that the events are non-profit and the organisers are unpaid volunteers.

On a personal note I will be stepping down in August as the key organiser for London Girl Geek Dinners due to an increased workload and my Girl Geek Dinner focus being placed more on supporting and structuring the Global Girl Geek Dinners and on getting Girl Geek Dinners it’s charitable status within the UK but with a focus on taking the charity global. I’m also looking for a friendly lawyer and accountant to work with us on the Girl Geek Dinners worldwide charitable work on a pro bono basis. If you know of anyone suitable or are interested then please e-mail me and I’d be happy to discuss this further with you.

Far from being the cruellest month, April is our most benevolent and busiest so far this year, with the SCI-FI LONDON event taking place on 30th April (for which there are still places, sign up now!), and also an opportunity for us to hold the below joint event with those sassy Silicon Stilettos, and Blurb, who are kindly sponsoring the event to be held at the Soho Hotel, Soho.

The event will commence from 6.45pm in Screening Room 2 at the Soho Hotel. Unfortunately, Blurb’s CEO, Eileen Gittens, has had to cancel her trip to London, so the event will now commence with a talk from Aruna Khanzada, a photographer and member of Blurbnation, a community of editors, writers, designers, artists, and photographers who have all built or added to their own businesses making books for clients on the Blurb platform. Aruna will be accompanied by Teresa Pereira from Blurb, who will be available for the Q&A session answer any questions you may have on Blurb or Blurbnation, after which, the event will flow on to the drinks reception.

We are delighted we’re able to share the opportunity to learn more about the Blurbnation community with Aruna :

• Aruna Khanzada :: Formerly a barrister, Aruna took up photography as her profession after the birth of her two children. Despite a successful 15 years at the Bar, Aruna has now started her own extremely successful business, Open and Shut, combining photography and book publishing. Aruna will talk about how the Internet has enabled her to build a business creating and selling products on her own terms.
• Teresa Pereira :: Aruna will be accompanied by Teresa Pereira from Blurb, who will be available for the Q&A session answer any questions people may have on Blurb or Blurbnation.

  Do join us for the talk, post-talk drinks and for entrepreneurially-inclined conversations/networking!
  

Many thanks to Eileen, Kate & Suz for helping make things happen!

Full Details:

• Date & Time: Thursday, 23rd April 2009, from 6.45pm
  
• End Time: The event will continue until around 10.00pm
  
• Venue: Screening Room 2, Soho Hotel, 4 Richmond Mews, W1D 3DH. The Soho Hotel is situated in a quiet street between Dean and Wardour Street in Soho, the heart of London’s ‘entertainment’ neighbourhood.
  
• Hosted by: Girl Geek Dinners, Silicon Stilettos and Blurb
  
• Food & Drink: Refreshments provided courtesy of Blurb
  
• Subject for the evening: How the Internet Gives Entrepreneurs the Edge
  
• Format: Talk, post-talk refreshments, and conversations.
  
• Capacity: 50 people (with 20 spaces through Silicon Stilettos)
  
• Attendees: As ever, boy geeks are welcome to attend if invited by a girl geek although on this occasion we do stress that there are few and limited spaces so more boy geeks = less girl geeks.

If you’d like to attend on 23rd April, please sign up via this link, and we’ll see you at the event!

14th April 2009 :: cosmic news, sci-fi fans, space for another 30 people has materialised due to a rip in the space-time continuum, or something, so we’ve just added these tickets — set your diaries to stun come!

We’re in orbit over the April 2009 London Girl Geek event which we’re holding jointly with the groovy individuals at SCI-FI-LONDON who are also kindly sponsoring the event to be held at the Apollo West End Theatre on Regent Street.

The event will commence at 6.00pm for a 6.30pm start with talks on sci-fi film and fiction from the below speakers. The event will flow on to the cinema bar afterwards, and films will be showing from 7.45pm if any attendees wish to book separately. On which, Girl Geeks attending this event are eligible for a 10% discount on SCI-FI-LONDON cinema tickets that evening, just quote London Girl Geeks!

As per details from the SCI-FI-LONDON website (do visit to learn more about what’s happening during their annual festival taking place from 29th April to 4th May), speakers will include:

• Dr Rachel Armstrong :: Dr Armstrong trained as a doctor at both Cambridge and Oxford and is a qualified General Practitioner, however, her career as a doctor has been far from conventional. Her concern for patients disfigured by the scars of leprosy led her on a journey that questioned assumptions about what ‘normal’ human anatomy is, or indeed, whether there is anything ‘natural’ about us at all. Dr Armstrong will present a resume of her adventures in practical Science Fiction over the last ten years, revealing a shocking portrait of human identity through the work of radical performance artists and leading to her current work that challenges notions of ‘life’ itself. [Warning: Not for the squeamish or easily morally outraged.]
• Additional Speaker :: TBA
  

Many thanks to Sara & Louis from SCI-FI-LONDON for arranging the space and making things happen!

Full Details:

• Date & Time: Thursday, 30th April 2009, 6:00 for 6.30pm
  
• End Time: The event will finish at 8.00pm, with those interested flowing on to the cinema bar for more conversations
  
• Venue: Apollo West End Theatre, 19 Regent Street, see Directions for more details!
• Hosted by: Girl Geek Dinners and SCI-FI-LONDON
  
• Food & Drink: Light dips and drinks provided courtesy of SCI-FI-LONDON
  
• Subject for the evening: Girl Geeks in Practical Science Fiction
  
• Format: Reception, two short talks, conversation.
  
• Capacity: 90 people
  
• Attendees: As ever, boy geeks are welcome to attend if invited by a girl geek although on this occasion we do stress that there are few and limited spaces so more boy geeks = less girl geeks.

If you’d like to attend on 30th April, please sign up at http://scifilondonlggd.eventbrite.com, and we’ll see you at the event!

The Belgian & French Girl Geeks have organised a day out in London on Saturday, March 14th and they’d love to meet up with some London Girl Geeks for an afternoon of tea, mobile computing and networking in Knightsbridge.
Our European compadres have organised for the event to take place at the Berkeley Hotel kindly sponsored by Eurostar, commencing at 3.30pm for a 6pm finish. An informal presentation will be arranged to demo a mobile social application they’re developing for the day. This is a fantastic opportunity to make new friends, see a great mobile application demonstrated, and enjoy a rather scrumptious Saturday afternoon tea in London.

Only 40 spots are available and tickets tend to go quickly, so please do only request a ticket if you *will* be attending as otherwise others will miss out – if you find you can’t make it for any reason, do let us know as we might be able to allocate your ticket to another Girl Geek – thank you!

Afternoon Tea with the Belgian and French Girl Geeks
Sponsor: Eurostar
Time: 3.30 to 6pm
Date: Saturday, 14th March 2009
Location: The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge

Eventbrite Ticketsflo rida right round
lady gaga just dance
kanye west heartless

About a week ago I got a call from an interesting guy called Drew, and we were talking about the campaign below… As a result we thought we’d share here on the London Girl Geek Dinners site a few rather alarming statistics and a way to help bring about change!

The crux of the Map of Gaps campaign is this: Over 3 million women suffer violence in the UK each year, but not even ¼ of local authorities provide any specialised services to help them relocate, seek justice through the legal system or recover mentally and physically. London, for example, has only one rape crisis centre.

We want to bring pressure to bear to address this problem. You can help us by visiting the Map of Gaps website (http://www.mapofgaps.org/) to learn more, and blogging about your reaction to the campaign. If you use twitter you might want to hashtag #mapofgaps on your tweets.

We are looking for volunteers to take part in the ‘Careers Hotel’ – an area where young people can find out about the range of careers and jobs available from a science, technology, engineering or maths background.. Here’s the kind of thing we’d like volunteers to do:

- Mingle with the young people in the careers zone area, striking up conversations about STEM careers and their own jobs. It might be useful to bring an object which represents their job, or photos of colleagues in the work environment. The ‘minglers’ will also be asked to gently shepherd handfuls of young people towards the activities they can do in the careers zone: laptops with careers websites on; TV screen showing media clips; conversations with trained careers advisors; questionnaire about likes and dislikes; graffiti board for young people to give their own views.

- Speed networking. This facilitated session will invite young people, in pairs or by themselves, to have 3-minute conversations with a variety of role models about their jobs and their STEM backgrounds. We’re looking for as broad a range of role models as possible so technicians, HE/FE students and managers are all welcome as well.

Volunteers can choose whether they’d like to act as minglers or speednetworkers or both!

We’d like volunteers to join us for one or more half day sessions during:

- Wednesday 4th Mar afternoon
- Thursday 5th Mar morning
- Thursday 5th Mar afternoon
- Friday 6th Mar morning

If you are interested in helping us or you know anyone who may be interested, please pass this to them. We’re happy to answer any questions – you can contact me by email (k.mathieson@sciencecouncil.org) or by phone (07775 908 750).

Some of you may have already heard of Astia, well they have asked us to forward some info about them to our members, after all they are focused on funding companies being founded by women.  They are set up as a charity and they are looking to find some great future technology innovators… Anyway if you are considering starting up you own company then the details below may be of  interest to you…

Doing it Right isn’t about looking for funding. It’s about finding funding. If you want to know what to say to investors and how to say it, who better to ask than VCs and angel investors? They’ll be there. But that’s just the beginning. At Doing it Right, you’ll cultivate invaluable relationships with key players and get straight talk from leading experts on developing strategies that support high growth, building effective presentations and more.

Key Dates
22 April: Application Deadline
11 – 14 May: London Doing it Right programme
15 May: London Company Screening Day
18 June: London Investor Forum

About Astia
Astia is a community of experts committee to building women leaders and accelerating the funding and growth of high-potential, high-growth, women-led startups. Astia is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. For more information visit www.astia.org or contact evie@astia.org

We’re thrilled to announce our second 2009 London Girl Geek event which is sponsored by Symantec and will be held at I-Level Search right in the heart of the city.

The event will commence at 6.00pm with some simple networking so do remember to bring your business cards with you.  The networking will then follow with group discussions on how to lifehack your way successfully through the current economic downturn.  This is an event where you should all bring your best and brightest ways to shine with you…Be prepared to share ideas, tech tools, management techniques and so on…

This is expected to be a fun, practical way of sharing your ideas.

When you head off you’ll also receive a fun little goodie bag… I’m not going to tell you what’s in it… that’s a surprise… all part of the fun of goodie bags!

Many thanks to Kate from Symantec and her team for arranging the goodie bags and sponsorship, and also to Judith Lewis and the I-Level Search team for offering their fun informal office space!

Full Details:

• Date & Time: Friday, 20th February 2009, 6:30pm for a 7pm start
• End Time: The event will finish at 9.30pm, with those interested flowing on to a local pub afterwards
  
• Venue: I-Level Seach Office see Directions for more details!
• Hosted by: Girl Geek Dinners and Symantec – Venue space donated by I-Level Search
  
• Food & Drink: Snacks and refreshments provided courtesy of Symantec
  
• Subject for the evening: Life Hacking
  
• Format: Reception, Group Discussions, Conversation
  
• Capacity: 50 people
  
• Attendees: As ever, boy geeks are welcome to attend if invited by a girl geek although on this occasion we do stress that there are few and limited spaces so more boy geeks = less girl geeks.
  
• Directions: Here’s a really accurate map
  The closest tube station is Oxford Circus.  We are only a short 5 min walk away from Oxford Circus tube station, not far from the Getty Images Gallery.  The Number 7 bus has a stop for Gt Titchfield St going towards Russel Square  so you can even take the bus.  I am unsure of what the stop is called going in the opposite direction.From Oxford Circus station it can be very disorienting so look for Topshop or the Nike shop.  You want to be on this side of the street.  Now, walk along Oxford St from the Nike store, past Toipshop and Miss Selfridge. Cross and walk past Urbal Outfitters, Schuh, and lots of other shops until you come to a green booth in the middle of what was once probably a street but is now just an empty bit of pavement.  Turn here and walk towards Fratelli’s coffee shop or if you can see it more easily, Bagelmania.  This pagement gives way to a street which is Great Titchfield St.  Walk up Great Titchfield St – you’ll have to cross a street and then walk past the DMA and cross another street.  You’ll end up across the street from the DMA walking away from it.  A few buildings up, you’ll be faced with a metal bar gate, half open, half closed leading up a ramp.  You’ll see a door that says “we are fallon”.  Just before this door is another area with a security guard in it.  Go in to this area and let security know you are here for the Girl Geek Dinner at i-level search.  They will point you around the corner to the left (the windows you walked past when going up the ramp) and then you will have arrived!

  We will be in the back on the office in a large open space.

If you’d like to attend on 20th February, please sign up via the sign me up button below, and we’ll see you at the event!

Just a quick reminder that Amazon Web Services Technology Evangelist for Europe Simone Brunozzi and CohesiveFT co-founder Alexis Richardson will be hosting the next AWS Meetup in London on Cloud Computing and AWS, with details on S3, EC2, CloudFront and the other services!

Details of this free evening event are as follows:
• Wednesday 4th February
• 6.30pm start – as usual afterwards we will go to the Crown for drinks and further discussion
• Location: Skills Matter, 1 Sekforde St, Clerkewell, London EC1R 0BE
• Format: Simone and Alexis will each speak for 20-25 minutes and there will be time for some Q&A after that.
For more details about the event and speakers please visit http://skillsmatter.com/event/cloud-grid/amazon-web-services-meetup

Registration is open and places are filling fast so register now at http://skillsmatter.com/event/cloud-grid/amazon-web-services-meetup

This is set to be a fun and lively event so please book early.

Women & Tech… Central Foundation Girls School would like to invite the Girl Geeks to speak with their students at another of their e-learning days… Please contact Janet Chapman if you are interested in either of the options below:

• Any of your members might be interested in running a workshop..
• Whether any of the other groups or one of the Girl Geeks in London would be interested in holding another Girl Geek Dinner or similar event at our school in the evening…

If interested please contact Janet Chapman jchapman atcentral.towerhamlets dot sch dot uk