London Girl Geek Dinner 4 Year Anniversary - Sponsored by Channel 4!
Wednesday, August 26, 2009 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM (GMT)
Event Details
As many of you know, every year in August we try to hold an extra special Girl Geek Dinner event to mark our anniversary. On the 16th August 2005 Girl Geek Dinners had their first event! Well this year, our fourth year we are celebrating at Channel 4's office! (no coincidence!)
Channel 4 have been great and have offered us their Cinema room as well as drinks, canepe's and their great speaker Alice Taylor!
The dress code for the evening is party outfits, dress to impress! Go as cool, fun and funky as you like!
So what do we have in store for you? Well I thought it would be a great idea for us to get the discussion going on how technology and technologists represented in the media. So I went about putting a panel of fantastic people from media, research and the technology industry together. I'm hoping that the panel along with yourselves might come up with and help to create an event that can move the role of women within the technology industry forward and inspire media organizations to positively represent the technology industry in their programs, news and reports where possible.
So I bet you are all wondering who the panel are... so here you go:
Moderator
Hosting the panel we have Maggie Philbin - As I like to say and Maggie will probably go a little red - she was one of my role models when I grew up all those years ago!
Panel:
AliceTaylor - Commissioning Editor, Education for Channel 4
Belinda Parmar – Belinda Parmar, Founder of Lady Geek, http://ladygeek.org.uk & consultant for Saatchi & Saatchi
Margaret Robertson - Writer & Consultant - Gaming & Education
Emma Persky - Software Engineer, Trampoline Systems
About our Panel:
Maggie Philbin:
Maggie Philbin has worked in radio and television for 30 years on a wide range of science, medical and technology programmes. Currently providing analysis and comment on technology and a regular reporter on BBC 1’s “Inside Out”, she has a unique resonance with audiences, having grown up with them on much loved shows like “Swap Shop”, “Hospital Watch” and “Tomorrow’s World”. Many of the everyday gadgets we now take for granted were demonstrated on live television for the very first time by Maggie – the first truly mobile phone, the first car navigation system, the first fax machine, even the first supermarket barcode reader.
Additionally, Maggie’s extensive radio and television career has also included working with ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5. She has covered stories all over the world, from earthquake prediction systems in Iceland, to wave power technology in Norway, to possibly the most dangerous system for rescuing people from ski cable cars in Switzerland! In September 2008 she worked on a project with the BBC, NHK (Japan) and RAI (Italy) to give the first live international demonstration of Super Hi-Vision, the broadcasting system that will be used in ten years time!
Her reporting career on live programmes from “Hospital Watch” to “This Morning”, on network television and on local radio has taken her into every imaginable and unimaginable situation. “The most memorable moments have come from people I’ve met, who have been generous to trust me with their stories and experiences. I never take this job for granted.” In 2007 she and the BBC Radio Berkshire news team beat the Today Programme at the Sony Awards for the quality of their news coverage.
She is keen to help improve the visibility of successful scientists and engineers, both to encourage young people and women to pursue careers and reach top positions in these areas. “In Britain we have a history of viewing scientists as remote loners, who pursue their unfathomable work in dusty laboratories. In an era where many children aspire simply to “be famous” and where winning “X Factor” is seen as the ultimate goal, it’s vital for the science and engineering community to raise their profile and use powerful role models to help young people understand the reality of these professions. It’s heartbreaking to think of the amount of talent and innovation going to waste, simply because children and their families haven’t the faintest idea what an engineer or technician actually does.”
In November 2008, she pioneered “TeenTech”, a lively interactive one day event which brought 400 young teenagers, scientists and technology companies together. “The kids had their stereotypical image of engineers completely reversed and the companies were staggered by the enthusiasm and innate talent of the teenagers.” The BBC1 Politics show devoted half their programme to the event. TeenTech will run again as part of Science Week in 2010.
Maggie sits on the panel of the New Engineering Foundation, which supports the development of Vocational Education and helps lecturers in FE get cutting edge career development in industry. She is also patron of the Daphne Jackson Trust which helps scientists, engineers and technologists return to their careers. “Getting the right support and training is key, whether you’re 16 or 60. It makes an enormous difference not only to the personal development and confidence of individuals but to the success and reputation of companies and institutions.”
Maggie is a popular keynote speaker for businesswomen. “We need more female entrepreneurs and more women on the boards of companies. I’m not just banging the feminist drum, it makes very sound economic sense. Companies waste a lot of talent by neglecting mentoring.” Maggie provides practical advice on how businesses can harness modern technology not only to improve their profits but to develop their trust and credibility.
Maggie has a twenty one year old daughter, Rose, named after the woman who gambled on a young student being able to handle the BBC’s first Saturday morning show
Alice Taylor
Alice Taylor is Commissioning Editor, Education for Channel 4, where she is developing a number of informal learning projects involving ARGs, casual gaming and other interactive entertainment formats. Before this, she was the Vice President of Digital Content for BBC Worldwide[1]. In September 2006 she was named one of the Game Industry's 100 Most Influential Women by Next Generation Magazine Online. She founded and edits the blog Wonderland.
In 1997, she was defense on the first UK Quake team, and a member of the UK's Demonic Core clan. In September 2002 she was an exhibit in the Game On exhibition at the Barbican, and featured in the accompanying book, Game On: The History and Culture of Video Games.
She attended the University of London 1990-1994. She currently lives in Central London, having recently moved back from the Los Angeles area.
On 3 February, 2008, Taylor's daughter with Cory Doctorow, Poesy Emmeline Fibonacci Nautilus Taylor Doctorow was born.[2] Taylor and Doctorow married on Sunday, October 26th, 2008.[3]
Belinda Parmar
Lady Geek has become like an itch- I can’t seem to stop thinking
about it. I really believe there is so much brands can do to empower
women to feel inspired by technology and games rather than daunted and
intimidated which is what a group of women I spoke to currently feel.
My vision is that women dream about their 37inch HDTV before they go to
bed. That technology makes a women’s heart beat faster….in a good way,
not gradually sends them into the depths of despair because either the
retail experience is so dire or the products and marketing are so
Barbiefied.
To paraphrase Jean Paul Sartre, for many women, hell on earth is shopping for a HDTV or a new digital camera. And when you think about what you are buying, something that is going to transform your living room or capture images or those dearest to you, why should it be so god damn awful?
Mmh…the choice between some Jimmy Choos at £200 or the Xbox 360. At the moment, women are not swapping their Choos for the Xbox. I want to help change that.
We launched in the press yesterday and got great coverage ranging from Wired to the Independent to PC Pro. It’s clear that there are very few companies within the tech space who are effectively targeting women. Those that do fall in to the clichés and stereotypes and end up pinking up and dumbing down their products and end up as one woman said, ‘treating them like a special needs case.’ Those that don’t even have any communication strategy targeted at women are missing our on £600million that is just going begging for the taking. Hello boys!
Belinda is a planning director at a well known advertising agency, a lecturer at Syracuse and a brand republic blogger.
Margaret Robertson
I'm a writer and consultant, mostly about games. Lookspring is home to my blog (also mostly about games), and is a hub for my professional work. Check the links below to see more of the things that I've written, and the consultancy services I offer, or to get in touch.
Emma Persky
Emma Persky is a passionate evangelist for the barcamp movement, an
avid traveler and a vibrant storyteller. When not on a global
expedition or planning her next barcamp, she can be found in London,
England, engineering software for Trampoline Systems.
Along side this event we will have NewsPepper doing live streaming of the event which we will host over on the London Girl Geek Dinners site and Ipadio have also given us a channel for you to leave comments and feedback about the event and get some convesation going as well! So if you don't get a ticket or can't make it, then you can still see the event and be involved.
The event hashtag for this event is #GGD4yr
Please tag all video, photo, blog or audio content around this event with the hashtag!
Press
If you would like to cover this event as press then please do get in touch and we will add you as a press invite, we will need your e-mail address, which paper, any dietary requirements and whether your require wifi access. If you are after doing interviews with any of the panel or the organizers then please can you let us know in advance so that we can schedule this in please.
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