MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., January 31, 2008 - On Thursday night, over 600 girl geeks and their guests gathered at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, CA for the 1st Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner in the United States. Girl Geek Dinners have been held in London, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brussels, Malaysia, and more.
Katherine Barr, a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, moderated a diverse panel of women in tech discussing building credibility and reputation in technology and business: Irene Au, Google’s Director of User Experience; Rashmi Sinha, CEO of SlideShare; Leah Culver, Co-Founder and Lead Developer of Pownce; and Sumaya Kazi, Sun Microsystem’s Social Media Manager.
The panelists shared their experiences as women in technology, the struggle to gain respect in the tech industry, and the funny things they experienced in work and life. While the panel focused mostly on the panelists’ individual experiences, the audience asked for advice on how to survive as a woman in a male-dominated technical culture. Women asked such questions as, how do you dress for occasions, how do you deal with lack of respect in the office, and how do you have it all? — both children and an executive career, as in the case of Irene.
To host the event, Google closed Charlie’s Cafe, the largest dining area on the Google campus, to hungry Googlers, and turned it into a large seating area facing the Girl Geek Dinner panelists on stage. Outside, a massive white tent was heated and food amply provided — from sushi to an open bar, the girl geeks were wined and dined, and even got to take home some Google and Girl Geek schwag. Everyone walked away feeling satisfied, brilliant, and appreciated!
The event was organized by Angie Chang, who also co-founded Women 2.0, a networking group for young women interested in entrepreneurship, business, and technology. If you would like to sponsor a future event, suggest a speaker or topic for discussion, or help out in any way, please contact angiechang@gmail.com.
The following pictures were taken at the Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner #1: Hosted by Google.
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