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Background
Girl Geek Dinners were founded on the 16th of August 2005 in London as a result of one girl geek by the name of Sarah Blow who got annoyed and frustrated about being one of the only females attending technical events. She was tired of being assumed to be marketing, tired of constantly having to prove herself and decided that she just wanted a change and to be treated just the same as any other geek out there, gender and age aside.
After all to be geeky is to be intelligent, have passion for a subject, and to know that subject in depth. It’s not at all about being better than others, or about gender, race, religion or anything else. Those things just detract from the real fun stuff, the technology, the innovation, and the spread of new ideas.
So what did this geeky girl do to change the world of geeks and girl geeks everywhere? She got in touch with a few well-known bloggers, posted online about her idea of getting geeks to educate one another over dinner and then arranged the first girl geek dinner event with a little help from her friends. The first event had 35 people at it all from London and the surrounding area, shortly after people started to hear about the events and companies started sponsoring them to cover the food and drinks cost. Then they started popping up in other UK cities as Sarah trained others up in how to run the events, spreading the formula for them.
Past Events
Where have the past events been, what is the format, and why? If we start with London, the birth home for the girl geek dinners, they started their life at the Texas Embassy over in Trafalgar Square, and soon decided to move about a bit and have since been found in bars such as Balls Brothers and offices such as Google, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Skype. The format of the events is to be informal, buffet dinner style with finger foods and wine as well as soft drinks for those who are driving. We have a speaker or three on a subject of choice either based on a technical subject area or business area, or even on women and tech issues (such as mentoring). The events are varied and the reach vast.
Who are the people behind Girl Geek Dinners?
Sarah Blow is the Founder of Girl Geek Dinners and heads up London Girl Geek Dinners
Angie Chang manages the Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners in the Silicon Valley. She also co-founded Women 2.0 to support young women interested in entrepreneurship, business, and technology in the Silicon Valley. You can email her at angiechang@gmail.com
