Women Rockstars

I have submitted a proposal to use my 5 minutes at Ignite DC on May 14, 2009 to highlight DC Women in tech, enterprise, and social media. Please comment on the proposal if you would like to see this make it as one of the final 16 presenters. The organizers of Ignite DC clearly said they wanted to see more women submit proposals, so you can do that too. I figured I can use my time to promote more women.

Additionally, if you want to be one of the women featured in my 5 minutes presentation, please connect with me here in a comment on my blog or via twitter @immunity.

Thank you for your time.

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Last night I attended an event to help plan the East Coast version for the b-annual (un)conference event known as “She’s Geeky” The concept of She’s Geeky (cue the Beastie Boys), comes from a woman whom I had the pleasure of meeting when I was attending the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco back in April. Kaylia Hamlin, otherwise known as “Identity Woman” is a very smart gal, but doesn’t consider herself a technologist.

And neither did some of the women in the room that came out to the event. It was a small gathering and its main purpose was to talk about the planning and ideas for the conference in New York to be held later this year. One of the immediate ideas was to move the conference from October to December 2008, for several reasons. The women in the room agreed that the elections are a big factor not only in technology and the DC area, but going forward as a country have many ramifications.

It seemed I was the only semi-associated Federal Government (albeit contractor) in attendance. But my cause was heard, maybe its because I am not afraid to speak up and actually would be happy to speak at any event should I be asked (this was a side [tangent] conversation of course that happened and we will continue to address).

I will probably help develop a track at the conference around Enterprise 2.0 in Government or quite possibly just speak about my experiences as a woman climbing the corporate ladder to become the Director of Technology for Navstar, Inc.

I have also agreed to help with the marketing and promotions of the event, as those of you who know me, know of my former life in the music industry. As such, this was something I was very good at and still continue to use these skills in my evangelism of social media in Government. So who knows, I might even take up the committee lead on that. We are coordinating the planning of the event through a wiki and I do believe I know my way around a garden

Most of the other women, were from non-profit organization such as DC Web Women, Women in Policy and Technology (WIPT – yes they are aware of how the acronym sounds), Care2 (OXFAM), United Way, and Women Thrive WorldWide, just to name a few. I think I made some great new friends and contacts and I am more inspired now for the cause to raise awareness for women in tech and all geekdom.

I want all my female readers to reach out to me in some shape or form if you consider yourself a geek in any way (not necessarily in tech, but maybe a scifi or D&D geeks). This blog is your sanctuary and I will help you find ways to find other women like you.

If you would like to find out more about this event, please feel free to contact me or search for yourself, by googling “She’s Geeky”. Hope to see you out in December in New York.

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