The Olympics may be on at the moment, but first past the post and reaching for Gold has to be the success of the Girl Geek Dinner in Leeds last night.
Over 70 of you turned up. More than anticipated, and this sparked a great atmosphere for the proceedings. In true geek style, the founder of the Girl Geek ‘movement’, Sarah Blow had a video post for our welcome address. And she has set us all a challenge.
The Girl Geek Challenge
How can we change the technology industry to encourage more Girl and Guy Geeks into the industry?
What are the real disputes, Is there a more positive take, and where are the differences?
Or are the differences too entrenched that it’s impossible to remove them?
This challenge is important. Only a couple of blog postings ago, Tim O’Reilly founder of O’Reilly media and general ‘web guru’, put a measure on Girl Geek attention that equated to a measure of ‘success’, or rather lack of success,
Now I love the intellect of Tim O’Reilly so i’m a bit disappointed that the above scenario is the case. Clearly there is recognition that there is an ‘issue’, at the same time this is based on a calculation of how ‘worthwhile’ this is by site traffic. Hmm this does not sit well with me.
So Girl Geeks, time to step up to the mark and put yourself forward. Our two speakers Lorna Mitchell and Lydia Machall from last night were up to the challenge. As were added contributions from Ruth Wilson of UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, and Hannah Dee, from BCS Women. Together the hot pot topics for the evening included, quite appropriately, Lydia’s personal take on what it means to be a ‘Geek’. This entails more than the wikipedia definition of ‘living at home with parents’, ‘bad personal hygeine’, and ‘biting the heads off feathered or scaley friends’. But you’ll have to take Lydia’s (or rather wikipedia’s) word for that last one.
Lorna’s address was an assertive call for more confident questioning by professional Girl Geeks of our peers and colleagues. To call on the resources that we can utilise everyday for support and training and knowledge. In short, keep questioning, keep making demands, and keep pushing yourself. No-one is going to stand in the way of your geek credentials if you don’t let them.
The rest of the evening was my favourite part of the GG experience. Free to network I met and spoke to some very bright and innovative people. This got me thinking about a possible next Leeds Girl Geek Dinner. With so many talented and pioneering Girl Geeks in one place, it seemed a shame that there was not more opportutnity to hear more from You. I’m wondering if we put together a panel session for next time and invite contributions from the floor as well as our speakers this could spark a fun and ‘mass collaborative’ approach.
Just a suggestion.
For now, a huge thanks to everyone of you who attended last night, and a special shake of the hand to Dominic Hodgson, the lovely Deb Bassett, and the creative and organising talents of Imran Ali and Linda Broughton, without whose input (and emailing skills) none of the above could have happened.
Meantime, lets rise to Sarah’s Girl Geek challenge, and see if we can impress upon the likes of Tim O’Reilly the importance of safeguarding the professional status of Geeks. Both Girls, and Guys.
About Dr Mariann Hardey
I hold the position of Lecturer in Social Media Marketing at Durham Business School. I also spend too much time enjoying social technologies, media+ stuff. That'll make me a Geek then. And a gal.
