Women 2.0 Partner Event: i/o ventures Prize

Calling all female founders of early-stage tech startups! Looking for investment, mentorship, and fame for your startup? i/o ventures and Women 2.0 encourage you to apply to win $25k investment (for 8% common stock in your company) along with 4 months of office space at the i/o venture office in San Francisco. Women 2.0 will offer the winner mentorship from four of the biggest female names in tech: Chris Shipley (Co-Founder, Guidewire Group), Kim Polese (Founder & CEO, SpikeSource), Sukhinder Singh Cassidy (CEO, Polyvore), Theresia Gouw Ranzetta (Partner, Accel). The winner also receives mentorship from i/o ventures and Silicon Valley executives.

Apply here for the i/o ventures prize — Specify “WIE Prize” next to your company name in the form. Deadline to apply is September 10, 2010.
The winning team will be announced at the Women: Inspiration & Enterprise (WIE) Symposium on September 20 in NYC.

Hmm… isn’t that an awful lot like what we’re doing??

Women 2.0 Labs is a 5-week pre-incubator program for talented developers, designers, business and marketing individuals to team up and work on fresh startup ideas.

Deadline for applications is Sept 4th at midnight. You’ll need to pitch, so check out their website for details- https://angelsoft.net/business-plan-competition/women-2-0/apply.

We are delighted to have two promo videos put together by Schedule B Productions now available through our website… check out the “Next Dinner?” and “Workshops” pages for links! We’ve had some fanstastic speakers and dinners over the past year, and these videos will give you a glimpse of what you can experience over the next few months. If you needed a better idea of what Girl Geeks are all about- these will help!

A free workshop for videogames developers who wish to set up their own independent studios, is taking place in the Scottish Enterprise Dundee offices at 12pm on Tuesday August 31^st.

In association with Interactive Tayside, Digital PR company Revolver has assembled some of the country’s leading experts across every area to advise and encourage a new generation of videogames developers in Scotland.

Aimed at developers who were recently made redundant, as well as existing start-ups, the workshop offers advice on creating a studio, funding for games, marketing and pr, protecting your IP and taking a game to market.

Speakers will provide information on their own area of expertise, before taking questions from the audience and then holding breakout sessions for those interested in more in-depth information.

Confirmed participants in the workshop include:

• Scottish Enterprise – How to start up your own interactive business.
• Abertay University – Funding for games, the IP fund
• Murray Buchanan Associates – Protecting Your Intellectual Property
• Ludometrics – Digital distribution options
• Revolver PR – Telling the world, make sure your game SELLS
• Dundee College – Making sure you have the skills you need
• Blitz 1Up – Support & advice for indie start-ups

News and updates can be found on the indie games workshop Facebook page and Scottishgames.net.

The workshop is free of charge and open to anyone interested in starting up their own videogame developer, though numbers are limited. To confirm your place e-mail: beatrice@revolver-pr.co.uk

Thursday 30th September 2010

5.30pm – 8.00pm

Committee Room 3, Scottish Parliament, Holyrood, Edinburgh, EH99 1SP

* Complimentary event – light supper and drinks provided

WINNET8 Europe has great pleasure in inviting you to a reception at the Scottish Parliament hosted by Wendy Alexander, MSP.

This event will launch the work of WINNET8 in Scotland and will explore how we can:

• Promote women’s participation in the Labour Market
• Address the issue of occupational segregation
• Encourage and promote the economic argument for gender equality in the labour market
• Promote entrepreneurship for women in Scotland and address the inequality
• Inform policy development at national and EU levels

We will also be highlighting the impact of some examples of good practice across Scotland and the UK, including Fife Women’s Technology Centre, Scottish Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, and Peterborough Women’s Enterprise Centre.

Contributors and keynote speakers include:

• Jim Mather MSP (Minister for Enterprise, Energy & Tourism)
• Margaret Mitchell MSP (Convener of Parliamentary Committee for Equalities)
• Eileen Lennon (Business Manager, Enterprising Women UK)
• Lesley Riddoch (Journalist, Broadcaster & Writer)
• Britt-Marie Soderberg Torstensson (Co-ordinator of Swedish National Resource Centre for Women)

To book a place please contact Hazel Smith on hazel.smith@edinburghchamber.co.uk.

We are excited to announce that the next Edinburgh Girl Geeks Dinner will take place on Tuesday 14th Sept 2010, starting at 6pm-6.30pm, at the Microsoft offices on 1 Waverley Gate (on Princes St, opposite Waverley Station).

We have arranged two wonderful speakers for the evening:

* Aimee Maree Forsstrom, consultant for One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in Australia
* Josie Goodale, Product Manager, Cisco Systems

As always, there will be good food and ample time for networking.

Ticket will be released towards the end of next week. Make sure you keep the 14th Sept free!

Bios

Aimee Maree Forsstrom

I have been consulting with OLPC Australia as a web solutions designer since May, and have designed there new cloud based solution for laptop.org.au and also there soon to be released educational portal.

I have been volunteering on the OLPC project since 2008 and performed usability testing for the xo versions 1 and 1.5.

My background is in the area of HCI research (currently undertaking with Southern Cross. University). And have worked as both a network engineer and web developer with companies like Australian learning teaching council and UBS Warburg.

I support and have been a committee member for Australian Computer Society young IT, as well as Southern Cross universities women in IT project specifically giving talks to young girls about prospects in IT career.

The talk I wish to give is on the OLPC Xo laptop technology stack both the software and hardware side. What the goals and mission of the project is and how it has been positively changing educational prospects for kids. I will specifically talk on Australian kids and the project we are currently running.

Josie Goodale

Josie has over twenty years industry experience, most of it spent in telecoms and networking companies in the US and UK.

Since May 2000, Josie has worked for Cisco Systems. For the majority of this time Josie was in Product Management where she became director of a software product line that supported some of the world’s leading Telecoms providers. More recently, Josie has moved to the European arm of Cisco’s Professional Services business and into a Strategic Planning and Operations role.

Prior to Cisco, Josie held Business Development and Product Line management positions in companies including Atlantech Technologies (acquired by Cisco); Spider Systems and Bellcore.

Josie has a B.Sc. in Applied Physics from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, and an M.S.E in Systems Engineering from University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, where she was a Thouron Scholar.

She is a member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the School of Computing, Dundee University. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two teenage daughters; trying to improve her golf handicap, as well as biking and hiking the beautiful, remote wildernesses of Scotland, and most recently, Canada.

Representatives of our various branches across the country are finally getting to meet altogether! August 19th will see the Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Dundee folk meeting at Dundee Contemporary Arts for some serious catch-up. If there’s anything you feel Girl Geeks should be discussing, please let me know: catherine@girlgeekscotland.co.uk.

Tuesday, 24^th and Wednesday, 25^th August 2010

ISLI, Heriot-Watt University Research Park, Research Avenue North, Edinburgh, EH14 4AP

This 2-day awareness seminar is facilitated by EDTC Technology Gateway and costs £200 + VAT per person, which includes a FREE Development Tool for Microchip PIC Microcontrollers (valued at £125), which delegates can take away with them after the seminar.  The fee also includes all refreshments and handouts.  Each delegate will participate in hands-on examples and exercises on their own Development Tool.  No previous experience is necessary.

Registration is online on https://store.napier.ac.uk/catalogue/. For more info please contact info@edtc.org.uk.