New Blog Location

Hi Everyone,

As you have probably noticed, we have been very quiet on here for some time and that is because we have a new blog space.

Please update your feeds to link to: http://girlgeeksydney.com/



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GGDSydney 1st Get-Together of 2010

Next Girl Geeks of Sydney event:

Come along for a drink and an informal networking catch up, at the Aurora bar (on the roof top) this Thursday 28 Jan, from 5:30pm.

Don't worry if you can't make it, you get another chance on Thursday 18 Feb. This is going to be a regular, monthly event held on the 3rd Thursday of each month.


Date: 28 Jan
Location: Aurora Hotel (Roof top), 324 Elizabeth St, Surry Hills, NSW (close to Central Station) http://j.mp/8BTP8d
Time: 5:30pm

Goodbye Sydney Geek Girls

Dear Sydney Geek Girls,

I'm leaving Sydney for the sweltering heat of Darwin and the company of my wonderful family.

You are in good hands with Catherine Eibner, Kate Carruthers, Jodie Miners and many others.

Please don't let the group fade away. There are so many fabulous geek girls in Sydney who have shown each other so much support for the last two years. Keep it up.

You can always email, txt or tweet me for a chat, support or anything else I can help you with.

Love, hugs and geeky kisses,
Mana

Be a 3 minute Mentor and Mentee - North Ryde Social Event with Girl Geeks and FITT

We have a fantastic local Female IT community with thanks to each & everyone of you who is involved.

Have you ever wanted to do more? Perhaps give something back to the Female IT community?

Well, this is going to be your chance!

Sydney Girl Geek Dinners are joining forces with Females In Technology and Telecommunications (FITT) for its first networking event that will provide a fun and interactive speed mentoring game, with the overall goal of sharing ways you can get involved in mentoring & give or receive support from your peers & our amazing role models we are lucky enough to have.

The aim is to provide an interactive networking to share and discuss work related experiences that could include anything like the following:

-If only I knew 5 years ago what I know now
-What works for me in this situation
-I know I have a strong skill set here, but could use help here
-What type of course could help me progress in this area
-I just want to make sure I’m heading in the right direction

So bring your questions as well as your answers as this is one opportunity to make great introductions, learn from your peers and have fun.

This event is kindly sponsored by Microsoft

Light lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Pencil in the date:

Thursday, October 29th
12 pm – 2pm
Microsoft
1 Epping Road, North Ryde

Register Now: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=29I3Y9PhkHCqPGziAqwlXg%3d%3d

Come have a drink @ The Metro

What: Casual gathering to catch up with geek girls
Where: The Metro
When: 7pm Thursday the 3rd of September

Booking is in the name Cathie. See you there.

Where shall we meet?

I'm back at work and ready to start organising "stuff" again.

I need a suggestion for a venue that would suit an informal gathering
of Sydney geek girls. It needs to have a variety of food and lots of
seating. Outside is fine if there are heaters. Preferably in the CBD
or surrounding suburbs.

It will be in a couple of weeks so stay tuned for details.

Respond to the Google group or comment on this blog if you have suggestions.

Yahoo!7 Girl Geek Dinner Pictures & Screencast

Above are some pictures from the Girl Geek Dinner night at Yahoo!7 If you have photos on flickr please add them to the pool too. Pool/Group ID 1173495@N22

The night was great fun. The Speakers did a wonderful job. Will provide links to their talks once I get a hold of them.

Thanks to all that attended. Hope you had a great evening!

YQL Presentation at Geek Girls Dinner Sydney

View more OpenOffice presentations from miss_preethi.

Yahoo!7 Girl Geek Dinner - June 17

Presents...

June 2009 Girl Geek Dinner!

Featuring:
Allan Shone and Pratibha Gannavarapu from Yahoo!7 introducing you to YQL and more.

Special Guest Appearances by;
Candace Wong: Automated User Interface Testing
Thomas Given-Wilson: Recovering From Linux
Georgi Knox: Gaming
&
Jenny Gordon: Configure Cisco router

To be held at:
Yahoo!7 Offices
Level 2, Pier 8 & 9
23 Hickson Road
Millers Point.



On:
June 17, 2009

Between:
6pm and 9:30pm

Will also showcase:
Triva, Foosball and Guitar Hero

Quota:
100 People


REGISTRATIONS HAVE CLOSED AS HAS THE WAIT LIST AS IT IS QUITE FULL! SORRY!

Microsoft Girl Geek Dinner - May 14th

A Geek Girl evening of building and Xbox-ing


It’s time to get socially dextrous and spend an evening getting serious with Lego and networking through gaming at the upcoming Geek Girl Dinner in Sydney.
Places are limited so make sure you’re quick to register below.
WHEN? Thursday 14th May 2009, from 5:45pm - 9pm
WHERE? Microsoft Building, 1 Epping Rd, North Ryde
RSVP? ASAP through the form below

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

A two-part event, this month’s Geek Girl dinner will take place at the Microsoft headquarters in North Ryde.

Firstly, we’ll be working on the Women Build program using Lego Bricks to start discussions around solutions to a problem facing women in the technology industry. Then we’ll be heading upstairs for the entertainment and networking component of the evening, and get hands on with the Xbox 360 games system. Finger food and drinks will be provided.

Some of the female stars of the IT industry will be coming along to the event, which will be MC’d by the lovely Ashley Jenkins, Fragdoll extraordinaire, site manager for Xbox.com and programmer of the Xbox LIVE interface.

Registration has closed.

Sydney Girl Geek Dinner @ New Google Offices

what
the first GGD for Sydney in 2009
with lightning talks and networking

where
Google Australia
Level 5, Workplace 6
48 Pirrama Road
Pyrmont

(Opposite Star City Casino)

when
6PM on Wednesday the 15th of April

Registration closed

Please provide feedback for GGD Sydney

Provide us with feedback so that we can make 2009 a great year for Girl Geek Dinners Sydney...

Update: Thanks for the feedback :)

The Christmas Party

The Girl Geek Dinner Sydney Christmas party was a lot of fun. Held at the fabulous offices of Geekdom with views of Circular Quay, it was a night to remember. With 70 geek girls and twice as many cupcakes, we partied away in to the beautiful summer night with lots of presents and champagne.

Pia Waugh spoke about Volunteering and why being part of a community group is so rewarding. On the night and during the days to follow, many geek girls told me that Pia and the group conversation following her talk inspired them to start blogging. I sure hope we see more of those blogs in 2009.

There were a lot of cameras, which resulted in a lot of photos of the night. Not too many incriminating ones. If you have some more to share then send me the link and I'll put them up here or put them up on the facebook group.

Of course, we could not have had the night without our very generous sponsors who have all been massive supporters of the geek girls of Sydney throughout 2008: Geekdom (the venue) and the woman behind the party - Cathie McGinn; Atlassian (the food) and a geek girl who has never missed the one event - Brydie McCoy; Google (the food) and the always present and cheery Alice Boxhall and Narelle Cozens; Microsoft (the drinks) and Catherine Eibner who always pushes us forward; ThoughtWorks (the Santa hats) and my fantastic colleagues Suzi Edwards and Liz Douglass who support me in every way possible; and Andre Pang (the cupcakes) who is a great geek guy who encourages Pia and I always.

There are other people during 2008 who have made GGD Sydney the thriving group it is. You are the ones that got it going and keep it alive: Giles Alexander; Jason Yip; Claudia Jayne Mikaelian; Sun-Hee; Will Blott; Danni McBride; Darci Dutcher; Lindsay Ratcliffe; Sarah Falamaki; Jules Parry; Cyndi Mitchell; and so many more that I have to leave off or I'll go on for a long long time.

Thanks for 2008. Let's make 2009 even more fantastic!

The Christmas Speaker

Breaking News!

The speaker for the Christmas party is the fabulous Pia Waugh talking about...


Volunteerism - your ICT skills can make a better world.

Pia will be discussing how she came to realise that she could work in ICT _and_ contribute to helping the world. She'll be covering her experiences in volunteerism, including he most recent projects involving One Laptop Per Child.

Girl Geek Dinners Sydney 2008 Christmas Party

Come one, come all to the Girl Geek Dinners Sydney Christmas Party.

We are having a very Aussie BBQ to celebrate the great community we have built in 2008. Places are limited so register below by the 16th of December.

When: Thursday the 18th of December at 7pm

Where: Level 9, 155 George Street, The Rocks

The Twist: 'Tis the season to be merry! So this year, along with a host of festive food, drinks and geeky merriment, geek girls will be involved in the jolly act of giving (and receiving) with a break from the tired old tradition of Secret Santa...

We bring you: Geek Girls Christmas Swap-Off

The theme: 'geeky' or 'girly'

What's it all about? Social networking with an added twist! All you have to do is bring along a 'gift' based on the theme above (value $10-15), the rest you'll find out on the night...

Hosted By: Geekdom - Queen(King)dom of Geeks

Sponsored By: Geekdom, Microsoft, Atlassian, Google, ThoughtWorks and the delightfully generous André Pang of Algorithm.com.au.

Registration Closed

A dinner with Dave Thomas

Come along for dinner, a drink and an opportunity to hear Dave Thomas speak.

When: Thursday the 4th of December at 7pm
Where: ThoughtWorks Sydney Office, Level 8, 51 Pitt Street, Sydney CBD
RSVP: Via the facebook group or email Damana

Other groups have had to share his time but he is enthusiastic to speak to GGD Sydney members.

Dave Thomas is best known as the founder and past CEO of Object Technology International, Inc., now IBM OTI Labs. OTI was responsible for initial development of the Eclipse open source IDE and the Visual Age Java development environment.

He is a popular, humorous, albeit opinionated keynote speaker with a unique breadth of business experience and technical depth. He is widely published in software engineering literature. Dave remains active in various roles within the technical community including ECOOP, AOSD, JAOO, Agile Development Conference, OOPSLA Onward, ENASE and Dynamic Language Symposium. He is an adjunct research professor at Carleton University and the University Of Queensland as well as a founding director of the Agile Alliance, an ACM Distinguished Engineer, President of AITO and an advisor for IEEE Software. He also writes an expert column in the Journal Of Object Technology.

Sydney Girl Geek November Dinner @ Bungalow 8

When: Tuesday 18th November @ 6pm
Where: Bungalow 8 on King St Wharf
Booking: Under the name Damana

Come along for an informal unsponsored dinner with all your can eat mussels at Bungalow 8 on King St Wharf.

Come early to hear Pia talk.

You don't have to eat mussels if you don't want to. There is a menu with non-seafoody food.

It's at the end of the wharf, right down the other end from the Cargo Bar.

RSVP on the Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=52257756880

If you are not on Facebook, email me to say you are coming. I've only booked for 10 based on previous responses but will extend the booking if more people are interested.

World Usability Day 2008

World Usability Day 2008 is quickly approaching on November 13.

The theme this year will focus on transportation.
We are focusing on how to improve the design of transport systems and infrastructure to:
• Better support the people that use them
• Move towards more sustainable forms of transport in the future

Here’s what’s on and how you can get involved:
• Guest speakers / transportation experts
• Interactive workshops & discussion questions
• Photo and design exhibition highlighting transportation challenges and solutions

Cost: Free!!! Just come along - no registration required
Who: Everyone is welcome (including students, usability professionals, people who work with or use transport)
When: Thursday 13 November 2008
Where: University of Technology Sydney
More information: http://www.upasydney.org/index.php?page=wud08
Questions: events@upasydney.org

Drinks at the Clock in Surry Hills

Come along for a drink at the Clock in Surry Hills.

I plan to be sitting upstairs so I'll grab an area when up there when I get there.

This is an informal unsponsored event.

Date:	Thursday, September 25, 2008
Time:	6:30pm - 8:30pm
Location:	The Clock Hotel
Street:	470 Crown Street, Surry Hills
City/Town:	Sydney, Australia

Coding Dojo tomorrow (18 Sept) at Atlassian

http://www.flickr.com/photos/feliponsio/362955177/

SyXPAC is running a Coding Dojo tomorrow, 18 Sept, at Atlassian. So if any girl geeks are interested in learning what pair programming and test driven development feels like (albeit with an abnormally high switching rate), please drop by and join in. We'll be doing Madlibs from Ruby Quiz, probably using Ruby unless the people vote differently on the night.

Coding Dojo is intended to be a non-competitive, collaborative, fun event where all skill levels are welcome and it's safe to try new ideas.

173-185 Sussex St, Sydney 2001, 18:00 to 20:30 ish.

Sorry for the short notice but I wasn't sure I was going to be in the city...