Girls In Tech

Girls in Tech LA is proud to be a sponsor of Women 2.0′s Founder Thursday networking event this week. Meet female entrepreneurs and founders, and enjoy food, drinks and networking with a gorgeous ocean view on the deck of Siemer & Associates in Santa Monica.

The event starts at 6pm, and the ticket price includes appetizers, drinks and the opportunity to meet Women 2.0 members and high-level entrepreneurs in the LA area.

Our hosts for the evening will be Giang Biscan (AsAble Founder and Mixergy Producer), Katrina Razavi (Marriage.com Founder and CEO), and Cassie Rice (SocialBlaze Co-Founder). Between the incredible women producing this event, and the great mix of women slated to attend it, this is one networking opportunity you don’t want to miss.

Use the discount code GITLA to get 20% off tickets, and be sure to RSVP by Wednesday, October 13, as space is limited for this exclusive event.

What: Women 2.0 Founder Thursday

When: October 14, 2010 (6pm)

Where: Siemer & Associates Ocean Deck — 1333 2nd St. #600, Santa Monica, CA 90401

RSVP Here

Tags: entrepreneurs, event, networking, venture capital
Posted in Los Angeles | No Comments »

Recently, Forbes unveiled its list of Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. From politicians and business women to entertainers, the list included Christine Legarde, Finance Minister of France, Angela Merkel, our own Hilary Clinton and Sondra Sotomayer, just to name a few. We’d like to highlight one of the awe-inspiring business leaders among them, number 30 on the list: Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Temasek, Ho Ching.  (This is down from last year’s #10, but she places 10th in the Business category for 2010.)

With a Master’s from Stanford University, Ching is also the wife of Premier Lee Hsien Loong.  After a controversy left the would-be CEO Charles “Chip” Goodyear out of the running, Ho Ching had taken the post of Singapore’s most powerful investment fund in 2004.   The fund was then hit by losses following ill-fated investments in Merrill Lynch and Barclays, and then witnessed the departure of Goodyear, who had been brought in to succeed Ho.  This summer Temasek hired and promoted several high-level executives to support Ho, including Gregory Curl, a one-time candidate for the CEO job at Bank of America.  Thus, we see that she has kept her top spot (despite speculation that she might leave) and has been bringing in top talent to support her agenda.

Ho graduated from the National University of Singapore in 1976 with a Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical, First Class Honours) after completing her pre-university education at National Junior College where she emerged as a Student of the Year and was a President’s Scholar. She graduated from Crescent Girls’ School. She also holds a Master of Science (Electrical) from Stanford University, USA.  In 1995, Ho was conferred the Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award. She is also an Honorary Fellow of the Institution of Engineers, Singapore.

So we see that with a degree in engineering, for aspiring girls in tech, the sky’s the limit.  Whether in business or government, a foundation in her education has proven to take Ho Ching to the upper echelons of the financial world.  (Full list at forbes.com.)

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I attended the Brand Camp University conference this past Friday at Lawrence Tech University in Southfield, Mich. The knowledge shared was invaluable to anyone trying to understand how to go about making an impact in the world and stand out from the crowd. I thought my fellow Girls in Tech members could benefit from what I learned.

The speakers’ topics and presentations all varied, but these three pieces of advice remained consistent throughout many presentations:

1. Rather than spending time mapping out how to build your personal brand, take action and make great things happen. Your actions = your personal brand.

2. Unless you are a business owner/entrepreneur, then your personal brand should never grow bigger than your commitment to your employer.

3. When done right and at the appropriate times, there’s nothing wrong with self-promotion to build your brand/reputation. But, if you really want people to listen to you and care about what you’re saying, be someone who focuses more on highlighting others than yourself.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ari Weinzweig, Brand, Brand Camp University, branding, Cd Vann, Christopher Barger, Dbusiness, Hajj Flemings, Karen Evans, Lawrence Tech University, Lynne d Johnson, Mark Winter, Olivier Blanchard, personal branding, Peter Shankman, RJ King, Sarah Evans, self-promotion, social media, Stephen Clark, The Brand Builder, Wayne Sutton, Zingerman's Deli
Posted in Detroit | 1 Comment »

WarmGun is offering Girls in Tech 10% off! If you’re in and around San Francisco, you may want to jump on a GIT discount! Click HERE for more details.

It’s no longer enough to have a pretty UI. Face it – you need to make your site convert…wake up and smell the analytics!

Warm Gun: Designing Happiness is a 1-day conference for designers and non-designers about “designing for conversion”. From successful startups like Mint to iconic brands like Apple, design has become increasingly crucial for attracting, retaining, and converting visitors into users, and users into happy customers. The Warm Gun conference will uncover the science behind the art of web design, and demystify the process of designing for both conversion and happiness.

Tickets are almost SOLD OUT — for more info, visit www.warmgun.com or Watch it Live!

Tags: San Francisco, Terra Khachooni
Posted in Girls In Tech, San Francisco | No Comments »

Just a couple decades ago, women were not really noticed in technology related fields. Today, we can say that more and more women are entering the world of technology. According to the analytical website Gartner.com, corporate IT increasingly needed the skill set typically associated with women. Gartner says, “women are better at listening with both the left brain and the right brain; this has implications for roles such as business analyst and team leader.” In 2009, for the first time ever, three women won a Nobel prize. Before that only twelve women had won in the more than century-long history of the Nobel prize.

However, presently high school girls represent only 17 percent of computer science Advanced Placement test takers. College-educated women earned only 18 percent of computer and information sciences bachelor’s degrees. The Obama Administration recognized this issue and created The White House Council on Women and Girls. The large part of their focus is how to draw more girls and young women into science, technology, engineering and math educational programs. Many organizations have been encouraging and supporting women to earn IT education. Girls Inc – Operation Smart: SMART has reached over 500,000 girls across the country, boosting their interest in studying science and math, as well opening their eyes to the existence and importance of these subjects in all aspects of their lives. Cyber Sisters – An educational tele-mentoring program in science, math and technology for middle school girls. Design Your Future – A Web site is designed to encourage girls to explore careers related to science, math, and technology containing e-mentoring, information about working women, and more.

Progressive companies are recognizing women as creative minds of technology. On January 12, 2010, in New York, Jody Zhang and Elise Sugarman from Mountain View, California won the grand final of the fourth annual DemandTec Retail Challenge. They were awarded $10,000 in college scholarship funds.  DemandTec, Inc, a leading provider of on-demand optimization solutions for retailers and consumer products manufacturers. It is well known for organizing nationwide community outreach scholarship competition for high school seniors designed to promote the practical applications of math in a business environment.

Over the past few years, the DemandTec Retail Challenge, a math and science scholarship competition, has noticed a trend of more female students enrolling in the math-based competition as well as more winning the overall contest at 50 percent.

Next competition will be on January 10, 2011, when the top 10 finalist teams complete for a scholarship prize of $10,000 and a chance to ring the NASDAQ closing bell on January 10, 2011 in New York City.

You can learn more by visiting http://www.demandtecretailchallenge.com

Posted in All Chapters, San Francisco | 1 Comment »

Calling all up and coming women entrepreneurs!:  It’s time for women with great ideas to ignite their company’s visibility and growth.

Vator.tv, a leading social network for entrepreneurs and innovators, and of news and information through VatorNews, has partnered with Girls in Tech, a social network enterprise focused on the engagement, education and empowerment of like-minded, professional, intelligent and influential women in technology.

Together, we are hosting our first-ever Amplify Business Pitch Competition – Awarding women-led start-ups, which will be held on November 18th in San Francisco.  With keynote speaker Esther Dyson, an active angel investor in our community, it will be an educational as well as inspirational event and a setting for like-minded budding business owners to learn from this maverick in the field.  (Read more about Esther and her rise to start-up expertise, here.)

We hope you will join us in making this the must-attend women’s start-up event of the season.  Bring your fresh ideas and entrepreneurial spirit to converge with the best of the best!

WHAT: Amplify Business Pitch Competition

WHEN: November 18, 2010 9AM to 5PM

WHERE: Microsoft Labs, San Francisco, CA

TO REGISTER: http://gitamplify.eventbrite.com/ — We look forward to seeing you there!

Tags: AMPLIFY, Christine Oneto, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, Esther Dyson, Vator.tv
Posted in All Chapters, Events, San Francisco | No Comments »

Born in Lithuania’s capital city of Vilnius to a family of well-known and highly respected musicians, Loreta, now a resident of Los Angeles, California is using social media to push her career in the United States.

I sat down with Loreta and conducted the interview below, where she talks about her favorite sites and things to do online.

1.  Tell us a little bit about yourself and your music.
I was born in Lithuania, to a family of very well known and respected artists/musicians. I started performing professionally at the age of four. I always knew I wanted to be a singer and write my own songs. I write songs only when I am inspired and I write about real life events that have happened to me in the past or are happening today.

2.  What made you want to utilize social media marketing to promote your music?
It’s a great way to market music globally and also a great way to build a close relationship with the fans. You get to know them and they get to know you on a very personal level.

3.  How has social media marketing helped you?
Since most of my success has been in the international markets, using social media has really helped me present my music to the states.  So far the response has been amazing, especially with my Michael Jackson tribute song which has received over 30,000 MP3 downloads and over 30,000 ringtone downloads.  None of this would have been possible without the power of social media marketing.

4.  How are you currently using social media?  How do you plan on using it in the future?
Right now I primarily use Facebook to connect with new and existing fans.  I love that I can share status updates, photos…anything that’s going on with my career and personal life.  In the future, I hope to use social media to build deeper connections with my fans and use it to promote my first single called “No Mercy.”  I also want to use social media to talk about things I am passionate about such as animal rights, gay rights, and human trafficking to name a few.

5.  Which social networking site has helped you promote your music the most?  Which website has been the most beneficial?
Aside from Facebook, ReverbNation.com has been extremely beneficial in promoting my music.  Not only is their community filled with passionate fans of music and music industry professionals, but they are also very generous because they featured me on their home page which led to a feature on Windows Media Guide.  I was literally exposed to hundreds and millions of people because of ReverbNation.com.  They provide the best tools for musicians to promote themselves online.

6.  What other ways do you communicate with your fans online?  What is your preferred method of communicating with fans online?
Again, I think Facebook wins!  When I can’t be in front of the computer, I can easily use my mobile phone to inform my fans on what I am doing.  Because of that, it makes it so easy to interact with my community and give them a little bit of a behind-the-scenes glimpse on the life of an artist.

7.  Is there any technology that you are looking forward to?  Will this technology also help you with your career?
I’m always looking for new gadgets and technology to help me with my personal life and career. If anybody has any suggestions, please find me on http://www.facebook.com/xoxoloreta and let me know!

8.  What are some of your other interests?  Do you use the web to share these interests?  If so, how?
I love reading and I love to post links of my favorite books and discuss about them with my fans, I am also getting involved in animal rescue and it’s a great way reach a lot of people and bring awareness.

9.  Tell us where people can find you online.  Also, feel free to add any additional comments.
They can join my websites:
www.facebook.com/xoxoloreta
www.reverbnation.com/xoxoloreta
www.twitter.com/xoxoloreta
www.loreta.me
www.loretaofficial.ru

Posted in All Chapters, Los Angeles | No Comments »

A response to Hannah Rosin’s article, “The End of Men”

Everyday I sit in my office with “the boys,” a group of incredibly talented, hardworking male engineers who have managed to build beautiful, easy to use accounting software basically from scratch. So of course I was shocked when one of them turned to me and said, “apparently I am outdated, inefficient and soon to be obsolete.”

I laughed and thought he was joking, until my inbox was suddenly flooded with article after article with titles like “The End of Men”, “Men are Not Cost Effective” and “Is There Anything Good About Men? “ As a woman, it’s hard to imagine ever reading an article titled “Why women no longer belong in the workforce” or “Is there anything good about women?”. Yet here I was, faced with an extensive reading list about why women are better/smarter than men. Such a blatant example of sexism directed at women would result in a firestorm of controversy (most likely from men and women alike) who would storm the streets in outrage… but no such furor rises at similar titles about men.

There is a growing trend popular both in the media and in academic circles that glorifies women, while in the process celebrating the end of male cultural dominance. Hannah Rosin’s article in The Atlantic, “The End of Men,” is based on the landmark demographic shift to a female majority in the workforce.   Roy F. Baumeister’s address “Is There Anything Good About Men?” is an overview of his work on how culture exploits men.

How culture exploits men? Baumeister’s address hinges on what he refers to as the “The WAW effect,” (WAW = Women Are Wonderful) which is based on statistical data that shows that  both men and women hold much more favorable views of women than of men.

His findings hinge on what he calls “trade-offs,” a  cultural adaptation which uses big rewards to motivate people to perform those dangerous or risky tasks which are necessary for cultural survival. These “high risk activities,” like going to war, are rewarded well, like with political or professional advancement.  According to Baumeister, while men  do in fact make up most of the  presidents, prime ministers, CEOs of major corporations, and so forth, men also make up most of the prisoners, homeless people and casualties of war as well.

US Department of Labor statistics report that 93% of the people killed on the job are men. Of the 3,000 deaths in Iraq reported in 2007, 2,938 were men, 62 were women.

According to Baumeister, most cultures shield their women from  risk, which means they also miss out on the big rewards that society uses to incentivize these risks. Men, on the other hand,  have a trade off, between the potential to reap big rewards and the results when they fall short; homelessness, sustaining crippling injuries and even death.

Posted in Girls In Tech | 1 Comment »

We are excited to announce that Metro Detroit women who work in any tech-related industry now have a local organization tailored specifically to them. GIT Detroit focuses on collaboration, promotion, growth and success of women in the technology sector in southeast Michigan.

One of Girls in Tech’s main goals that will translate to the local chapter is to offer a variety of resources and tools for women to supplement and further enhance their professional careers and aspirations in technology.

Plymouth, Mich. resident Audrey Walker is the managing director of GIT Detroit.
Pleasant Ridge, Mich. resident Nikki Stephan, Troy, Mich. resident Jenni Murray, White Lake, Mich. resident Sarah Worsham, and Novi, Mich. Trisha Verma join Audrey on the GIT Detroit board.

Some of our goals as we get this chapter up and running include creating a mentorship program and scholarship, hosting networking events, serving as a support group for women in tech fields and helping to strengthen our local community. We’ll also use the national group as a platform to help get the word out about Detroit and our strong tech and digital community.

The Detroit digital community is growing with leaps and bounds, bringing in events such as #140 Detroit, FutureMidwest, BrandCamp, Startup Weekend, Social Media Club, Tweetea, TEDx Detroit, and many more. We hope to help continue that growth with the new Detroit GIT chapter.

Those interested in joining or helping out with GIT Detroit can get more information on the website. GIT Detroit also has a Facebook group, LinkedIn group and Twitter page.

Tags: Detroit, GIT Detroit, introduction, New chapter
Posted in All Chapters, Detroit | No Comments »

It has been found that adolescent girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in developing countries. Girls are the most likely agents of change, as they have so much potential, but are too often invisible to the world & the media. That’s why the Nike Foundation, along with intellectual and financial contributions from the NoVo Foundation created The Girl Effect.
With partners like the United Nations Foundation and the International Center for Research on Women, they are working to bring these girls’ stories to light and raise money and awareness to help change their futures through education.

Why girls? Because when adolescent girls in the developing world have a chance, they can be a strong, powerful force of change for themselves, their families, communities, countries, and even the world.

Now here are some statistics that may surprise you:  For example, Did you know that an extra year of primary school raises a girl’s lifetime wages by 10-20%, and an extra year of secondary school, by 15-25%?
And that one-fourth of the population in Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa are girls?
You can help give these girls a chance by joining the Girl Effect movement:
Either on their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/girleffect#/girleffect?v=info
or their website:
http://www.girleffect.org

For more statistics, see their factsheet at: http://www.girleffect.org/downloads/TheGirlEffect_FactSheet.pdf

Tags: International Center for Research on Women, Nike, Nike Foundation, The Girl Effect
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