She's Geeky: Connecting Women in Tech

Twin Cities unConference

Friday & Saturday August 6 & 7, 2010

Registration opens at 8:00am

Event begins at 9am - 5:30pm 

Happy Hour at 6:00pm

We are excited that the Science Museum of Minnesota is hosting the She's Geeky unConference and thank them for their generous support! The exact location is at 44° 56' 34" North latitude, 93° 05' 54" West longitude. For more information about how latitude and longitude are determined, visit this NASA page. 

Are you a woman? Are you a Geek?  This event is for you! 

We invite women from a diverse array of technological fields and those doing technology within non-technical fields.  This includes:

• Engineers
• Scientists
• Internet Marketers
• SEO's
• Coders/Programmers
• Designers
• Open Source
• Entrepreneurs
• Product Managers
• Project Managers
• Users of Tech Tools
• Gadget Enthusiasts
• Hardcore Hackers
• Video Geeks
• Gamers
• Nonprofit Technology
• ....whatever you think is geeky

You can bring your daughters! We even created a special ticket price for them.  Girls as young as 9 years old have attended She's Geeky with their mothers / aunts / mentors.

Both Days will be run the same, beginning with group/interactive agenda setting in the morning. Choose which day(s) you'll come based on your schedule.  Choose how many days based on how much community exposure and opportunity you want and need.  Each day will have new things to offer!

Your ticket includes breakfast, lunch and snacks each day.

Sponsors:

Our events are made possible through the generous support of Community and Corporate level Sponsors.   We are actively seeking sponsors for this first Twin Cities event - click here to learn more about sponsorship levels.

About She's Geeky:

She’s Geeky convenes to inspire women technologists for the future and advance systemic change in tech culture, providing a space to create enduring communities that foster collaboration and innovation among women professionals working in Science Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

In early 2007 a group of women working in the high-tech sector in the San Francisco Bay Area recognized a need for a gathering space where women who self-identify as geeky could meet in person to support, educate, and share experiences with each other. Although many organizations already existed for women in different areas of technology and as well to encourage girls to pursue careers in such fields, there was no commons area that:

• brought all  interested individuals and organizations together;
• supported peer-to-peer learning exchange;     
• built connections and established relationships across diverse communities and disciplines to support women technologists; and
• specifically attended to retaining women in technology fields through community

Rather than creating another niche women-in-tech organization, we decided to work with and promote existing activists and organizations, inviting them all to meet at an interactive event called an unConference. 

What is an unConference?

Beginning at 9 AM each day, we start with a blank wall and, in less than an hour, with a facilitator guiding the process attendees create a full day, multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone there.  All are welcome to put forward presentations or propose conversations. As women register we will be posting proposed topics on our wiki.

If this is an unConference - why does it cost money?

We operate She's Geeky as a not for profit event and raise enough funds to cover the expenses of producing a quality event. Roughly half (1/2) the cost of putting on the event is covered by ticket sales and half (1/2) comes from Corporate and Community sponsors. Our no-show rate is only 10% vs. up to 60% for free camps. Your payment covers food and a portion of the related venue and event expenses and in exchange we provide a well organized, adequately staffed, engaging event at a reasonable price that is considerably less than regular conferences.  To understand more about this please see our post about money and unconferences.

We have a great Twin Cities based organizing Host Team:

Liz Tupper http://twitter.com/etupper ,

Jacque Urick http://twitter.com/moarinternets , 

Tami Esslinger http://twitter.com/too_much_boredm,

Whitney Shaw http://twitter.com/whitneytaylor,

Nicky Witters http://twitter.com/nickywitters   

Amelie Collins http://twitter.com/panelectric

Elizabeth Petterson http://twitter.com/betz_mn 

Karen Scott  and Jody Cabeen

along with the She's Geeky home base organizer - 

Heidi Nobantu Saul  http://twitter.com/nobantu

We hope you will join us for She's Geeky Twin Cities #1!

Contact and Follow us:

Our main website is www.shesgeeky.org

If you have any questions you can contact us at info@shesgeeky.org

You can subscribe to our BLOG here: www.shesgeeky.org/sg/blog

You can follow us on twitter @shesgeeky

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