Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner Panel

On January 31, 2008, over 600 girl geeks and their male guests gathered at the Googleplex for the 1st Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner in the United States. Girl Geek Dinners have been held in London, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brussels, Malaysia, and more. This Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner is the first of its kind in the U.S.

Katherine Barr, a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, moderated the diverse panel of women in tech discussing building credibility and reputation in technology and business — women such as Irene Au, Google's Director of User Experience; Rashmi Sinha, CEO of SlideShare; Leah Culver, Co-Founder and Lead Developer of Pownce; and Sumaya Kazi, Sun Microsystem's Social Media Manager and serial entrepreneur by age 25.

The panelists shared their experiences as women in technology, the struggle to gain respect in the tech industry, and the funny things they experienced in work and life. While the panel focused mostly on the panelists' individual experiences, the audience asked for advice on how to survive as a woman in a male-dominated technical culture. Women asked such questions as, how do you dress for occasions, how do you deal with lack of respect in the office, and how do you have it all? — both children and an executive career, as in the case of Irene.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Google

[Ilikemustard]

I love Leah Culver

[whatbehappening]

I like ellen.. she seems like a nice person

[aJustinBieberSongs]

Geeks are like nerds ;)

[HunterMann]

Actually, real geeks and nerds do not call themselves that. What a crazy concept. You will not unite humanity by being separatists.

[socialoutlaws]

I am always looking for new ideas with social media and youtube. Your video has given me some great inspiration.

[unruheGER]

Go ask Eric Raymond, he knows, he'll tell you.

[tonza123456789]

this is the most boring vid ever lol where are he HOT geek girls please

[Sirentian]

Interesting, but the panel was surprisingly stilted and conformist. You need more actual engineers at the next round. I wanna hear the rapid-fire witty joking and banter that actually makes being a geek so much fun!! (e.g. when Irene Au said her team at Google was about 180 people, someone should've jumped in with a comment about how it had surpassed Dunbar's number?) Half of them were social media/cognitive design people, they have no excuse!

[moob744]

Yes-you speak the truth, white men invaded our lands-causing much death....MUST watch out for the Foreign Devils!!!

(now i hide from person with scary name)

[igorgue]

yes!