Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane

Free tickets to YOW! 2011 Brisbane

2011-11-14T15:30:00.001-08:00

The folks over at YOW! 2011 are putting up a couple of free tickets to the Brisbane conference and offering a discount to the Girl Geek Dinner ladies to attend. For those that aren’t familiar, YOW! is part of the GOTO global conferences which includes QCON. If you have never been to a YOW! event be ready for some great talks and training.

YOW! is known for breadth and depth. Checkout these links for your interest:

Agile

JavaScript and Web Devs

Ruby, JavaScript and Web

Java and JVM

Cloud Computing, NoSQL and BigData

Microsoft Brisbane

Free Ticket 1 – Anyone attending the SOLD OUT DDD Brisbane conference on 26th November will get a chance to win a free ticket to the Brisbane event on 5/6 December.

Free Ticket 2 – Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane members – a free ticket to the Brisbane event 5/6 December will be randomly selected from those who publicly tweet or post on the Girl Geek Dinners Facebook page before 3pm (Brisbane time) 25th November – Which of the YOW! 2011 Conference Speakers they’d invite to a Girl Geek Dinner. The tweet or facebook post must contain #YOW_OZ and #GGDBNE and a link to http://www.yowconference.com.au

Plus YOW could like to offer members of Girl Geek Dinners a 10% discount to attend the Brisbane or Melbourne Conferences. Please email bronwen@soulsolutions.com.au to take advantage of the 10% discount.

Technorati Tags: YOW,DDDBrisbane,Girl Geek Dinners

Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane–Dinner 15–Kinect Game Night

2011-02-08T19:09:00.001-08:00

Due to popular demand from our Girl Geek Dinner attendees, this month, Microsoft have kindly lent us their office so we're having another night of games!

This event we'll be showing of the Kinect for Xbox.

From the official Kinect site (http://www.xbox.com/en-au/kinect):

You are the controller. No gadgets, no gizmos, just you!

Kinect brings games and entertainment to life in extraordinary new ways without using a controller. Imagine controlling movies and music with the wave of a hand or the sound of your voice*. With Kinect, technology evaporates, letting the natural magic in all of us shine.

If anyone is interested in giving a 5-7min presentation or would like to bring along their Xbox, Kinect and games please get in touch!

Who is invited?

If you are a geek and a girl or know of one who is willing to escort you then you are welcome and encouraged to come along. There is a technical focus with the intention of having fun and connecting with other women in IT.

Who pays for dinner?

We will be providing a few nibblies so suggest grabbing something beforehand

Where + When

Date: Thursday 30th April, 2009

Time: 5:30 pm

Where: Microsoft Office, Level 9, 1 Waterfront Place, Brisbane

Further details on building access will be provided closer to the event.

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,Kinect,Microsoft,WIT

Girl Geek Dinner 14–LCA 2011

2010-12-31T18:39:00.001-08:00

linux.conf.au is on in Brisbane this year, from 24-29 January: http://lca2011.linux.org.au/

It has become traditional to hold a Girl Geek Dinner during the week of LCA to allow the visiting girl geeks to meet up with the local crowd, even when the locals might not be attending the conference. This fosters a greater sense of community amongst women in tech across the country and the world, and further supports the central tenet of Girl Geek Dinners.

The dinner is fully sponsored by Red Hat, and will be held at the Red Hat offices at North Quay. Come along to meet some new faces!

Date: Monday, 24 January, 2011. From 6-8pm. Nibbles to be provided at the venue, and a restaurant/bar (to be announced) to be designated for people who wish to carry on later into the night .

People: We must cap the attendees at a maximum of 50. The usual GGD rules apply, so boy geeks are more than welcome to come, but must have a girl geek escort.

Food: Platters of nibbles and soft drink/juice will be provided by Red Hat at the venue. Alcohol and more substantive meals can be purchased at the bar afterwards.

Where: Red Hat Brisbane, Level 1, 193 North Quay, Brisbane. We will have someone at the door to let you in. Parking is very limited in the city, so catch any public transport to Roma St station, it's only a 5 minute walk from there.

When: Monday 24 January, 2010, starting at 6pm. At Red Hat offices until 8pm, and a venue to be decided afterwards.

If you wish to bring children with you to the official part of the dinner (at the Red Hat offices), then you are more than welcome. There will not be any alcohol served at the event. If they are over 6, please make sure you arrange a ticket for them (so we can cater). However, the event is likely to be fairly crowded and could be noisy, so use your discretion as to whether or not you feel it is suitable for your child.

Also, if you haven't already ordered your bootleg Haecksen shirts, you can do so here: http://www.redbubble.com/people/kattekrab/t-shirts/6479224-2-haecksen-miniconf-lca2011-bootleg-shirt Just make sure you order in enough time for it to ship before the event!

Many thanks to Lana (Girl Geek Dinners Canberra) and Alison who are organising this event on our behalf!

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,LCA2011

Women in IT Community Contributor of the Year

2010-08-17T22:16:00.001-07:00

Last year over 80 attendees rolled up their sleeves at Tech Ed and got hard to work playing with Lego at the Lego Serious Play Women Build Event. We challenged each attendee to suggest ideas on ways to contribute to their local community to help encourage and support women working in IT.

Catherine has been hard at work organising this year’s event and since then has heard many a great story of the contributions both male and female attendees have made back in their local communities as a result of last year’s event. Microsoft want to recognise the people who have achieved great things in their local community in the last year and thank each of them for their efforts!

So, how did you do?

Tell us your story or the story of someone you know. Share the challenges and successes experienced. Go in the running to receive recognition from peers, win some cool prizes from our sponsors and possibly be awarded the inaugural 2010 Women in IT Community Contributor of the Year Award!

Nominate yourself or someone you know here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WIT2010

Tech Ed Australia 2010 WIT event

At this year’s event, similarly to last year, you will once again have the opportunity get to meet and greet other people who believe in growing and supporting diversity in the ICT field as well as discussing new ways that you could help foster your local communities in the year ahead.

Where: Tech Ed Australia on the Gold Coast, Foyer E

When: 12:45pm – 1:45pm in Foyer E on Wednesday the 25th of August 2010

What: The event is will give you the chance to hear from our keynote speaker Mary Henderson, CEO & Founder of Geek IT Group, Victorian President of AMIA (Australian Multimedia Industry Association) and Victorian AIIA (Australian Information Industry Association) board member. Mary is renowned for her communication skills, infectious energy and vast knowledge of global online trends and will be sure to provide entertaining insight on the changes we need to be aware of…

How: Register by adding this session in your schedule builder.

Technorati Tags: WIT,TechEd

Dinner 11 – A call for help

2010-07-21T01:54:00.001-07:00

The Brisbane Girl Geek Dinners started in August 2008. In that time we've had some fun dinners and some great guest speakers.

Over the last few dinners we’ve noticed there a lot of people registering for the dinners but a dropout rate of over 70% at the dinner itself. While the events are “free” we feel quite embarrassed asking for a large area at a restaurant only to have many empty tables on the night that could have gone to other paying patrons. This also sends warning bells that we’re doing something wrong.

It’s time to re-evaluate whether these events are wanted or needed by the community. We need your input on how to make the dinners worthwhile and successful.

This dinner is a call out for those that see value in these dinners. If you want them to continue we need your help us make them better. If nobody is interested in helping us plan and improve the dinners we feel it would be better to shut them down as they take up time that we could devote to other things.

So we’re going back to where it all started at the Caravanserai Restaurant.

The Plan

A brainstorming session where you bring along your ideas and suggestions for venues, speakers, formats, activities, sponsorship and how you can help us make these dinners more worthwhile for you.

What if I can't make it but want to help?

If you can't make it but still want to help, please get in contact by email: bronwen@soulsolutions.com.au

Who pays for dinner?

This dinner is not sponsored so you pay for your own food and drink.

Where + When

Date: Tuesday 10th August

Time: 7:00pm

Where: Caravanserai Turkish Restaurant, West End

Dinner 10 with Tammy Halter

2010-03-24T21:00:00.001-07:00

This month we're fortunate enough to have Tammy Halter as our guest speaker. Tammy Halter is the founder and sole Director of two technology companies, Absolute Data Group, and Broadcaster Media. Tammy has over 15 years experience in the information technology field, including SGML/XML publishing and document management experience with various software integration companies. Tammy has been a technical trainer, support engineer and project manager for several SG/XML software Distributors over the years, including the Frame Product Engineer, Asia Pacific & Latin America for Adobe Systems in 1997.

The path to being a Geek, does not have to start with a Degree in Technology.

It's never too late to get into the tech industry, more than 1/2 of my staff (including myself), started out in another industry and "changed over" to a career in the dark side (I.T.)!

We need to encourage and educate young women and have them understand that there are many aspects to the Technology Industry's, and you don't necessarily have to be a Programmer or a Scientist to have a love for the industry and to be a geek at heart.

Sponsorship

This month WiT (www.wit.org.au) are kindly donating a 12 month membership (value $143). All attendees are entitled to a 2 month trial membership if they wish on the night which will allow them to attend the free member’s only Infotech breakfast on 28th April.

Who is invited?

Who pays for dinner?

This month is not sponsored so you will have to pay for your own dinner

Where + When

Date: Thursday 22nd April, 2010

Time: 6:30 pm

Where: Coco Bella Shop 2-75 Welsby Street New Farm.

Menu: http://fs.eatoutadmin.com/Listings/1188/Menus/coco-bella-new-farm-brisbane-entree-mains.pdf

Girl Geek Dinner 9 – First dinner for 2010

2010-02-15T02:23:00.001-08:00

For our first Girl Geek Dinner of 2010 we're going to have a casual networking night.

We'll be heading to Vapiano restaurant in Albert Lane just off the Queen Street Mall. You can have a look at the food on offer at there website : http://www.vapiano.com.au/our-food.html

Details for the night:

when: 7pm 23 February, 2010

where: Vapiano - Albert Lane, just of the Queen Street Mall

Who can attend: Any female in the IT industry or who has an interest in the industry, or any male invited by an attending member

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane

Girl Geek Dinner 8 – Open Mic Night

2009-10-18T16:56:00.001-07:00

Who is invited?

This month we're having an open mic night. Please let us know if you'd like a 5 min speaking slot to talk about a topic of your choosing.

Who pays for dinner?

This month is not sponsored so you will have to pay for your own dinner

Where + When

Date: Tuesday 24th November, 2009

Time: 7:00 pm

Where: Greystone Bar & Cellar - 7/116 Grey Street South Brisbane QLD 4101

Menu: http://www.greystonebar.com.au/sites/default/files/Enitre%20Menu.pdf

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,WIT

Girl Geek Dinner 7 – Broadbeach Gold Coast

2009-08-03T19:57:00.001-07:00

This event we're going to try something a little different. This year, Microsoft TechEd event is being held on the Gold Coast and we'd love to see as many of you as possible at the event - registration details can be found here: http://www.msteched.com/australia/Public/registration-info.aspx. We’re taking advantage of having so many ladies at one location and holding our next dinner at Broadbeach.

Of specific interest to all the girl geeks is this year's Women In Technology Event at the conference is the Women Build LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY (LSP). Microsoft have partnered with LEGO® SERIOUS PLAY (LSP) through Robert Rasmussen & Associates with their local agency Management Consultancy International to create a unique interactive workshop, using LEGO® Bricks to model solutions for growing strong female leaders in the software industry.

The session will give you an opportunity to meet other females in the IT industry – local and international, learn from role models that have been successful in their career and give you access to resources that can help you build your career and your own network. The session will help you make the most of the Microsoft Women in Technology community.

Who is invited?

Who pays for dinner?

This month is not sponsored so you will have to pay for your own dinner / drinks

Where + When

Date: Wednesday 9 September, 2009

Time: 7:30 pm

Where: Alto Cucina & Bar - Shop 47, The Oasis Shopping Centre, Broadbeach, QLD 4218

http://www.altocucina.com.au/

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,WIT,Lego Serious Play

Girl Geek Dinner 6 – IT and law

2009-07-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

Our 6th Girl Geek Dinner was held on the 2nd July. We were fortunate to have Kay Lam-Beattie as our guest speaker, who runs her own legal IT business and answered many legal questions from our geek girls.

Kim Weatherall, a UQ Law Professor, also helped out with many of the questions and conversation. The discussions ranged from politics with a hot topic being the proposed Internet filter, file copying and sharing, how copyright can be changed etc. The discussions went well into the night and it was great to see a bunch of new faces!

The guys at the Hutch Bistro were great. We even had our own personal menus made up which was a really nice touch. The food and service were great too!.

Thanks to Tim for taking photos on the night an look forward to seeing more ladies at the next dinner.

More photos on Tim’s Flickr stream here.

Technorati Tags: WIT,Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,Kay Lam-Beattie,Hutch Bistro

Girl Geek Dinner 6 with Kay Lam-Beattie

2009-06-16T03:25:00.001-07:00

For our July Girl Geek Dinner we're heading to The Hutch Bistro at New Farm and we're fortunate to have Kay Lam-Beattie as our guest speaker. So gather all of your legal/IT questions to ask Kay on the night!

About Kay:

Kay graduated from QUT in 1992 with a Bachelor of Business (Accountancy) and an honours degree in Law. To obtain more specialised skills, Kay also completed a Masters in Law concentrating on the areas of intellectual property (IP) and IT-related legal issues, as well as a Graduate Certificate in IT.

Kay has been the principal of IDEALAW (and its predecessor Legal Capital Lawyers) since 2005.

Kay’s broadly based academic qualifications places her in an ideal position not only to understand the intricacies of her specialist areas of IT and IP related law, but also technical IT and business issues. Kay also speaks conversational Japanese, having lived and worked in Japan for a number of years.

Who is invited?

Who pays for dinner?
This month is not sponsored so you will have to pay for your own dinner

Where + When
Date: Thursday 2nd July, 2009
Time: 7:00 pm
Where: The Hutch Bistro

75 Welsby Street, New Farm

http://www.thehutchbistro.com.au/food-wine.html

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,Kay Lam-Beattie,WIT

Girl Geek Dinner 5 – A Success

2009-05-03T20:35:00.001-07:00

Thursday 30 April we held our 5th Girl Geek Dinner in Brisbane. This event was a bit different to the previous ones as we all converged upon the Microsoft office in Brisbane to have a night of Game playing.

Tracy Whitelaw was our guest speaker for the night and I’m sure all will agree she did a great job. She shared a bit about herself and talked about women in gaming. 40% of gamers are women!

Catherine Eibner was up from Sydney and brought some great prizes with her. The Marcus Fenix figurine and signed Gears of War poster would be a prized possession for many games.

We had a range of consoles/games set up for the ladies to play:

XBox 360 with Rockband

XBox 360 with tennis

PS2 with the original Guitar Hero

Wii with Dancemat and Wii Play

The night wouldn’t have happened without the help from some key people. Many thanks to Jorke and Catherine for the use of the office, helping on the night and supplying the prizes, Tracy for her great talk, Carolyn for cooking and helping me prepare the food, Jenine for the use of her PS2 and Wii, John for helping with the GGD support vehicle, food and manning Rockband all night, and Tim for taking some photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/alborath/sets/72157617437592785/.

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,WIT,Microsoft,Catherine Eibner,Jorke Odolphi,Tracy Whitelaw.

Tracy Whitelaw speaking at Girl Geek Dinner 5

2009-04-07T19:44:00.001-07:00

For Girl Geek Dinner 5 in Brisbane we’re fortunate to have Tracy Whitelaw as our guest speaker who will talk about women in gaming which is very appropriate for our Girl Geek Guitar Hero night! If you haven’t signed up for the event you can register here: http://girlgeekdinnersbrisbane05.eventbrite.com/

Tracy Whitelaw is a self-confessed geek and gadget girl who creates robot brains in her position as the Chief Knowledge Engineer at artificial intelligence company 'MyCyberTwin'. Based on the Gold Coast, Tracy works in an environment that delivers fully customised personalities and characters to a number of companies and businesses including NASA, AMP, NAB, PBL Media and others.

Holding a BSc(Hons) degree in Behavioural Science, Tracy has long had an interest in the social construction of identity in popular media forms. She specializes in studying trends in society, how individuals act within a social milieu, and in helping MyCyberTwin technology be rich in response to these patterns. She has been involved in online technology for a number of years.

Her particular areas of specialisation are online worlds, gaming, character creation and formation of identity in popular culture. With a passion for emerging technology and how it is used, Tracy enjoys the challenges of creating engaging characters who keep users entertained and informed. She combines this with her interest in video-games and gaming culture, working voluntarily as the PA for a number of female based gaming websites. She writes freelance for a number of online and print sources, primarily about her passions for gaming, culture and geekiness.

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,Tracy Whitelaw

Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane – Dinner 5 announced

2009-04-02T02:08:00.001-07:00

It’s only 4 weeks till out next Girl Geek Dinner!

Girl Geek Guitar Hero Gaming Night

This month, Microsoft have kindly lent us their office so we're going to something a little different: a night of games! There will be a few games and consoles to choose from.

Why not:

Sharpen up your guitar, drum and singing skills and have a go at Rock Band and or Guitar Hero on Xbox 360
Play some tennis or do some yoga on the Nintendo Wii
Or bring along your favourite game to share with others.

Who is invited?

Who pays for dinner?

This month is not sponsored so you will have to pay for your own dinner

Where + When

Date: Thursday 30th April, 2009

Time: 5:30 pm

Where: Microsoft Office, Level 9, 1 Waterfront Place, Brisbane

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,WIT,Microsoft,Guitar Hero,Wii

Brisbane Girl Geek Dinner 4 a success!

2009-02-25T01:10:00.001-08:00

Last night a bunch of new and returning faces turned up to the Lock ‘n’ Load Bistro at West End to watch Jessica Coates present at our 4th Brisbane Girl Geek Dinner. Jessica suggested the venue for this month’s event and it certainly was a great pick! The venue had a private room with our own TV and sound system to hook up Jessica’s laptop to and watch a few Creative Commons videos. This allowed us to have a presenter when we wanted and not disturb any of the other customers in the restaurant. The staff were absolutely fantastic so would highly recommend them for any future events.

Jessica did two mini talks, one on her view of Women in IT just before dinner and then some information on Creative Commons. It’s great to see familiar faces from previous dinners as well as new faces at each event.

I’ll be posting details soon for our April event. We’re going to try something a bit different to continue the variety in the Dinners and hopefully add a new crowd to our group.

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,Jessica Coates

Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane – Dinner 4

2009-02-05T03:35:00.001-08:00

Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane Dinner 4 is set! This month we’re fortunate to have Jessica Coates as our guest speaker.

Being a Copyright Geek
Jessica will talk about being a geek who doesn't know anything about programming, and the importance of support industries, like copyright, to the geek world.

Jessica Coates is the Project Manager of Creative Commons Australia and the Creative Commons Clinic, a program of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Innovation at Queensland University of Technology. The Clinic aims to further the implementation of the international open content licensing movement, Creative Commons, through the promotion of Creative Commons research and usage in Australia.

Where + When

Date: Tuesday 24th February, 2009

Time: 7:00 pm

Where: Lock 'n' Load Bistro, 142 Boundary Street, West End

Menu: http://www.locknloadbistro.com.au/menus.php

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,WIT,Jessica Coates

Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane – Dinner 3

2008-11-25T00:59:00.001-08:00

This month we're going to mix it up a bit and have a "Coffee and Chic Flick" night. We'll meet at the Cafe next to the Southbank Cinemas for a coffee and chat and follow it up with a movie.

Thanks to Lisa for suggesting Australia - AUSTRALIA is an epic and romantic action adventure, set in that country on the explosive brink of World War II. In it, an English aristocrat (NICOLE KIDMAN) travels to the faraway continent where she meets a rough-hewn local (HUGH JACKMAN) and reluctantly agrees to join forces with him to save the land she inherited.

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Brisbane,Dinner 3,WIT

Dinner #2 a success

2008-10-31T17:27:00.001-07:00

23rd of October marked our 2nd Brisbane Girl Geek Dinner. The dinner was a huge success with us once again selling out out spots in a couple of weeks.

We were fortunate to have Susannah Raub (on the right in the picture) from Google in Sydney join us and share her work journey with all of us. The group huddled down the back corner of the restaurant where the live bands usually play to listen to her story, told with the aide of a printouts of Google Maps.

Thanks to Tim for taking a few snaps of the night and Kitty for her great write up of the event.

We’re in the process of organising our next dinner. So anyone interested in speaking, sponsorship or location/event suggestions please let us know.

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,Susannah Raub,Google,Brisbane

Susannah Raub to speak at Dinner 2

2008-10-19T03:25:00.001-07:00

This month we’re fortunate to have Susannah Raub speaking at our 2nd Dinner. Google have been kind enough to send her up to Brisbane and has offered to put $20/head towards the dinner.

Susannah Raub joined Google in September 2004 as a software engineer in Mountain View, California. She worked on many features of Google Desktop until February 2006 when she moved to New York and joined the Google Maps - Search Quality team. Overcome by wanderlust, she moved to Sydney in September 2007 and began working on the Google Maps API.

At Google, she has been involved with the global engineering mentoring program, the development of APAC offices, and the AU/NZ Anita Borg Scholarship program. Susannah graduated from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island with an Sc.B. in Mathematics-Computer Science and a broad base in urban studies, European languages, and economics.

Technorati Tags: Dinner 2,Girl Geek Dinners,Google,Susannah Raub

Girl Geek Dinner 1

2008-09-09T01:04:00.001-07:00

28th of August we had our first Brisbane Girl Geek Dinner. We had 25 people attend our first dinner with about 10 people pulling out at the last minute due to illness. We had some great feedback and will start planning the next event very soon so watch this space.

Photos are courtesy of Tim: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alborath/sets/72157606993717214/

Technorati Tags: Girl Geek Dinners,WIT

2 Weeks till Dinner 1

2008-08-12T18:25:00.001-07:00

With Just 2 weeks until our first dinner, we’ve sent out a survey to those with tickets. We’re also making it available for anyone else who’d like to send us feedback. You can download it here.

Dinner 1 is SOLD OUT!

2008-07-17T02:48:00.000-07:00

We've SOLD OUT spots for dinner 1, which is awesome! Look forward to meeting you all there.

If there's anyone who missed out that wants to be on the mailing list for future events, send us a message!

Girl Geek Dinners Brisbane - Dinner 1

2008-07-09T02:01:00.000-07:00

Who is invited?
If you are a geek and a girl or know of one who is willing to escort you then you are welcome and encouraged to come along. There is a technical focus with the intention of having fun and connecting with other women in IT.

The plan
The first dinner will be an informal dinner where we can all meet and discuss what we want to see and get ideas for future dinners.

Who pays for dinner?
This is our first gathering and we don't have sponsorship yet so you'll pay this time.

Where + When
Date: Thursday 28th August
Time: 6:30pm
Where: Caravanserai Turkish Restaurant, West End

Registration: http://girlgeekdinnersbrisbane01.eventbrite.com/

Coming Soon

2008-07-04T02:40:00.001-07:00

We're in the process of organising our first dinner....stay tuned for more details or feel free to add some suggestions of what you want and where you want to go.