Posted by stevi on April 11, 2012 under Announcements, Dinners, Speakers | 
We’re excited to announce that Catalysis will be hosting the 15th Seattle Girl Geek Dinner on May 10, 2012, from 6-8 pm.
At Catalysis we believe that data is at the core of every successful digital marketing campaign. We’re a 20 year old marketing agency with start-up heart and we’d love to show you around our beautiful home – a repurposed, turn-of-the-century church on Capitol Hill. Join us for a night of networking with other marketers, developers and analysts where we’ll share our vision of the future of digital marketing and the roles of data and privacy in successful campaigns.
When: Thursday, May 10th
Time: 6:00 -8:00pm
Location: 1601 East John Street, Seattle, WA 98112 (directions: http://www.catalysis.com/connect)
Parking and public transportation: We have a parking lot in the back of our building with very limited parking. There is a pay lot next door to us and street parking is typically available in the evening hours. In addition, there several bus stops within a block of our building on Thomas St.
Agenda:
6:00 – 7:00 Networking game (please bring a smartphone with you if you have one)
7:00 – 7:30 Game recap, presentation and Q&A
7:30 – 8:00 Wrap up
Beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
Presenters:
Nancy Hadley, Managing Director
As the Managing Director at Catalysis, Nancy is responsible for the operational and financial performance of the organization. In addition to her management responsibilities, Nancy is also the company’s privacy officer and holds a CIPP/US designation from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. She holds a BBA in marketing from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Vivian Lim, Software Solutions Architect
Vivian is the fearless leader of the software development group at Catalysis and has been with the company for two years. Prior to Catalysis, Vivian’s jobs included technology strategist, program manager, developer/tester, and human tissue engineer. She has two Bachelor’s degrees, one in Engineering from Concordia University and one from McGill University in Science for Microbiology/Immunology.
Posted by stevi on January 16, 2012 under Announcements, Dinners, Speakers |
We’re very excited to announce Dinner 14, which will be at Expedia’s offices in Bellevue.
Be sure to sign up on Eventbrite to ensure your spot!
Expedia loves travel and we love technology. Join us for a fun night of networking with other women in technology. Enjoy refreshments, games & prizes. Hear from our passionate panel of speakers as they discuss how technology has affected the travel industry. They’ll also share their experiences, insight and travel tips from Expedia, where we are revolutionizing travel through technology
When: February 16
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Where: 333 108th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA 98006
Map: http://binged.it/xrDyJp
Parking: There are two entrances to the parking lot. One on 4th Street and the other on 108th Avenue NE. Parking will not be validated. There may be free parking in nearby establishments.
Public Transit: If you are planning to take buses, the closest stop is Bellevue Transit Center. You will have to walk a couple of blocks to the Expedia building.
Agenda:
Networking Game
Panel discussion & Q/A
Dinner: We will have pasta and wine for dinner. Non-alcoholic beverages will be available.
Welcome & Introductions: Dara Khosrowshahi, President and CEO
Expedia Panelists:
Kristen Graham, VP Engagement & Communications
Kristin has been at Expedia for 5 years and leads employee programs for Expedia, Inc.’s companies, which have more than 100 sites in more than 60 countries. Her team oversees employee communication & events, philanthropy, learning & development, diversity, and engagement/branding initiatives. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Aman Bhutani, VP Development
Aman Bhutani leads the engineering team for the Expedia brand. The brand technology team focuses on the web tier of our global platform and services that offer differentiation from other brands. The Expedia technology team is at the heart of the brand’s product based growth strategy and has team members in many cities across the planet. Aman joined Expedia in 2010 after many years in financial services and consulting.
Katie Lykins, Software Development Engineer
Katie Lykins is a developer on the Package Discovery Service team at Expedia. She’s been at Expedia for 4 years and prior to Expedia, she worked at two different local small companies. She’s a true local, having been born and raised in Seattle and going to the University of Washington. In her free time, she’s active in playing basketball, volleyball and tennis.
Diane Omuoyo, Performance Engineer
Diana Omuoyo graduated with a Masters Degree in Information Systems from Baylor University, Waco. Her career in IT has spanned different roles and industries; including Web/Application Development, Network Tech, Business Intelligence and now Performance Engineering. She’s originally from Cleveland, OH and relocated to Egencia last year. During her free time she enjoys playing tennis and music, reading books and travelling adventures.
Sign up on Eventbrite! We look forward to seeing you there!
–Liz and Stevi
Posted by stevi on November 17, 2011 under Dinners |
Happy Holidays Geek Girls!
For those of you that are new – welcome to our community!
This invitation is coming at the 11th hour, but better late than never, right? Microsoft Advertising has agreed to sponsor our Holiday Geek Girl Dinner.
Online Advertising is one of the fastest growing businesses on the Internet today. Microsoft is innovating rapidly to grow its share of this market by providing the advertising industry with a world-class online advertising platform and service. Come learn more from the women who influence and create the strategy behind Microsoft’s digital marketing, display, search, mobile & games advertising solutions.
We would also like to dedicate this dinner in memory of Elise Arnits. Elise was part of this community since we first started in 2008. Elise was a Database Developer for Mantis, and a single mother of two amazing boys. She lost her life in a tragic motorcycle accident this summer. We will be holding a fundraiser for her this evening.
If you would like to make a donation, please write your check to the Elise Arnits Memorial Fund.
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=152784866
Lastly, due to space constraints, I ask that you only bring one guest if you decide to bring a friend. Men are welcome, but will need to attend with a geek girl.
So, grab your party hats, business cards, and come celebrate the holidays with your fellow geek girls and Microsoft Advertising! I will provide everyone with more information on the speakers and parking after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
Time: 6-8pm
Location:
Club Contour
807 1st Avenue
Seattle, WA 98014
See you soon!
Liz and Stevi
Posted by stevi on June 21, 2011 under Announcements, Dinners |
All registered attendees should have received an email with these same details.
The location for the June 23, 2011 dinner, hosted by Bing, has changed to:
City Center Building
555 110th Ave NE, 26th FL
Bellevue, WA 98004
Parking WILL BE VALIDATED. Please bring your ticket with you to the dinner. Be sure to bring a business card to enter in the gift card drawing!
Our agenda will be:
6-6:45 – networking game/dinner
6:45-7:30 – Bing Design team panel discussion
7:30-8pm – drawing for Bravern gfit card and wrap up
Posted by stevi on May 23, 2011 under Announcements, Dinners, Speakers |
Hello again Geek Girls!
The Bing Design team has offered to host a design centric Geek Girl Dinner. For the first hour of our dinner, we will have an amazing panel composed of several key designers from Bing. They will discuss the latest innovations in design and the various career paths you can take in this discipline.
Not to mention, Bing is hosting our dinner in the café on the 23rd floor of Bravern 2 Bldg in Bellevue. Be prepared for some amazing views of Lake Washington! Side note: parking will be validated …
In the spirit of girl power, the Bing Design team will also be raffling off a $100 gift card to Bravern. You must be present to win!
The dinner is on June 23, and starts at 6 pm. Space is limited, so be sure to register at the Eventbrite page
Below are the biographies of our panelist. We look forward to seeing you again next month!
-Liz, Stevi, and Vanessa
Laura Kerr
UX DIRECTOR, Bing
Laura is a firm believer in the power of people and the strength of emotional design. She has over a decade of large-scale, consumer-facing services experience at Microsoft. She SKUs toward V1 problems, of which she still believes Search is one. At Bing, she is working toward an integrated approach that redefines a cultural balance between experience design and technology.
Laura is a Minnesota native but has been in Seattle long enough to truly appreciate the fog and rain and the quiet reflection it offers. She has an eclectic collection of higher degrees, has lived in Greece, Italy, and speaks several languages. She loves to swing dance, explore food culture, and play with her most awesome 2-yr old daughter, Chloe.
Mira Lane
Bing Design PM Lead – Studio Management, Prototyping, UX PM
Mira Lane has been leading User Experience innovation in Bing for the past 5 years. Her most recent accomplishments include the successful launch of Bing where her team was responsible for much of the visible innovations in the product from the homepage to results page. Her innovations have resulted in numerous patents for Microsoft spanning aggregation of categorized opinion data to different methods of previewing and displaying faceted search data. Upon returning from her second maternity leave, Mira has shifted her focus to design validation, prototyping and PM for horizontal user experience features.
Mira graduated from the University of Waterloo with degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics. She has worked as a developer at Quack.com in the silicon valley, which was acquired by AOL, and later at Nuance building speech-driven applications.
Outside of work Mira has a full plate as an artist, a mother of two, and outdoor enthusiast. Though her recent family additions have limited her to Rattlesnake Ledge, her outdoor pursuits have taken her from the mountaintop of Kilimanjaro, to Everest basecamp to backpacking around Asia.
Christina Koehn
User Experience Designer, Bing
Christina has been working professionally as a graphic designer since 2007 and is currently a User Experience Designer for Bing.com. Bing is Microsoft’s search engine and is changing the way that people think about search and finding information on the web.
Prior to this, Christina spent time working with the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices division on interface and information design for connected entertainment and for various print and web design agencies in the Seattle area. Her most recent projects at Bing include a redesign of the global visual language system, as well as many design iterations around html5, and the next generation of search.
Christina graduated from the University of Washington in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication Design and a minor in Art History. When not working, Christina loves to stay active by running and training for half marathons, playing volleyball, doing yoga and volunteering as a dog runner at the Seattle Humane Society and also enjoys traveling and reading about design and technology.
Goldie Chaudhuri
Program Manager
Goldie Chaudhuri joined Bing in the last year and has worked on Windows 8 and the Bing iPad app. She recently joined Bing Design as one of their first Program Managers, working on cross-device cross-team projects. Prior to Bing, Goldie worked on various experimental prototypes like Seadragon and Pivot at Live Labs and Spatial Databases at SQL Server.
Goldie graduated with majors in Computer Engineering and Studio Art from Case Western Reserve University, a weird but awesome campus spread out through 80 of Cleveland’s museums and non-profits. She grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and now lives in Capitol Hill where in her spare time she likes printmaking, soldering glowing costumes, geeking out about food and Belgian beers, wandering farmers markets and folk festivals, travelling, doing yoga, and biking around when it’s sunny.
Posted by stevi on April 5, 2011 under Dinners |
Happy Spring Geek Girls!
Facebook will be hosting our next Girl Geek Dinner in May! Our community will have the opportunity to check out their new digs in downtown Seattle, enjoy some deelish appetizers, and listen to a panel discussion about “Life as a Facebook Engineer.” The panel will consist of the following women from the engineering ranks at Facebook:
Amy Platt, Software Engineer
Jocelyn Goldfein, Director, Engineering
Kari Lee, Manager, Engineering
Raylene Yung, Software Engineer
There are a limited number of registration seats available (due to size of location), so please register at the Eventbrite site as soon as you can!
If you decide you cannot make it, please email us to cancel your registration so your other fellow girl geeks can attend.
Looking forward to seeing you there!
Stevi, Liz, and Vanessa
Posted by stevi on December 27, 2010 under Speakers |
Here are the bios of our speakers and their topics for our upcoming dinner on 1/13, sponsored by Microsoft Windows Server and Cloud division.
Shannon Loftis
Studio Manager, Good Science Studio
Shannon Loftis has been has been making games since 1995 and is currently the Studio Head of Good Science Studio. Good Science has led the way in innovating for Microsoft’s Kinect on Xbox 360, starting with its first published game, “Kinect Adventures,” which introduced the world to controller-free gaming on Kinect this holiday.
Prior to this, Shannon spent two years in the United Kingdom establishing Microsoft’s European-based game publishing subsidiary. Her most recent games include “Fable II” and “Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts,” in addition to her contributions to more than 30 games since joining Microsoft.
Shannon graduated from Duke University in 1987 with degrees in Computer Science and Math. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. When not working, Shannon loves to spend time with her husband and two sons, aged 7 and 9, either travelling, running, or flying.
Speaking topic: Disruptive Creation: Breaking Down Barriers to make Kinect
Kinect’s main goal from the start is to break down barriers between people and technology. Many rules and norms had to be discarded in the process of bringing this technology to market. Shannon will discuss the changes to approach, success factors, lessons learned, and what to do in order to have a creative technical career, based on her experiences building games for Xbox360 and for Kinect.
Erin Chapple
Group Program Manager, Windows Server
As part of the Server and Cloud Division, Erin Chapple’s team is responsible for driving the Management Experience and Automation Platform for Windows Server. Common across these deliverables is the goal of providing our customers rich, cost effective solutions to manage their environment. Erin joined Microsoft in 1998 and has held several roles focused on delivering solutions for IT. Erin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. In 2005 she completed a Master’s in Applied Behavioral Science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle. In 2007 she was recognized by her Alma Matter with a UW 50th Anniversary Alumni Award for her work supporting women in technology. In this same year her peers at Microsoft presented her with the Outstanding Mentor for Women Award. Most recently, Erin was recognized as one of ten “Microsoft Woman Worth Watching” on Mary-Jo Foley’s ZDNet Blog.
Speaking topic: Why Every Women Needs Her Own Board of Directors
One of the strongest means of support for your career advancement and overall job satisfaction are women. Yet we often find excuses as to why not to invest in building these relationships even though the pay-off is huge. As a founding member of the Server and Tools Business (STB) Women’s Leadership Council, Erin will talk about her experience developing her own Board of Directors and the impact a strong women’s community has had personally and professionally across the women in STB.
Event: Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #9
Date: Thursday, January 13, 2011 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (PT)
Location:
116 Bellevue Square
Bellevue, WA 98004
Reserve your seat at Eventbrite!
Posted by stevi on December 15, 2010 under Announcements, Dinners |
Happy Holidays Ladies!
The Microsoft Windows Server and Cloud division has decided to sponsor SGG dinner #9! The dinner will be held at the new Microsoft Store in Bellevue Square. Shannon Loftis, Partner Studio Manager of the Microsoft Gaming Studios will talking to us about Microsoft Kinect! I will be sending out her bio and more information on her talk closer to the date.
We will have great food, an amazing speaker, and a Kinect tournament. So, come ready to learn and play!
Also, please bring a business card, as we will be raffling a Kinect!!
Please park in the Nordstrom parking lot area for easy access to the Microsoft Store in Bellevue Square.
Space is limited, so please sign up at Eventbrite.
Have a safe and wonderful holiday season! See you in 2011.
Liz, Stevi and Vanessa
Date: Thursday, January 13th
Time: 6 pm – 8 pm
Location: Microsoft Store, 116 Bellevue Square, Bellevue, WA
Guest Speaker: Shannon Loftis, Partner Studio Manager of the Microsoft Gaming Studios
Registration: Eventbrite
Posted by stevi on August 9, 2010 under Announcements, Dinners |
Happy summer, everybody! We’re excited to announce that Mantis Technology Group, Inc. will be sponsoring a barbeque-style dinner at Marymoor Park in Redmond on August 18. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and veggie burgers will all be available.
Space is limited for this event, so be sure to sign up via Eventbrite!
Date: Wednesday, August 18th
Time: 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm
Location: Marymoor Park, 6046 W Lake Sammamish Parkway NE, Redmond, WA
Guest Speaker: TBD.
Parking details will be sent the day of the event.
Liz, Stevi, and Vanessa
Posted by stevi on June 24, 2010 under Dinners |
The topic for tonight’s Seattle Girl Geek Dinner has been announced, it will be Cloud Storage FUD (Failure, Uncertainty, and Durability). Our speaker will be Alyssa Henry, General Manager of Amazon Simple Storage (S3). Her overview:
Failure and uncertainty play a key role when engineering a general purpose online storage system to be durable, available, scalable, and cost effective. I’ll share some of the uncertainty we’ve encountered and the impact of that uncertainty on the design of the system. I’ll also cover some of the hardware and network failures we’ve encountered, others that we anticipate occurring, and how we’ve engineered Amazon S3 to be resilient to them.
Parking information:
There are two types of paid parking: short-term for up to 2 hours and longer-term for up to 10hours. Some of the 2-hour parking will also be signed for Residential Parking.
In the Cascade neighborhood where there are many older buildings, some streets will be signed for RPZ parking. Residents with RPZ permits may park for free on the designated streets and are not subject to the two-hour time limit.
Event Location
Van Vorst Conference Center (building has a yellow V in front, and is in the center of the courtyard).
PLEASE ENTER THROUGH THE RIGHT SIDE of the conference center.
Address: 426 Terry Avenue North, Seattle 98109
And don’t forget, our generous hosts, Amazon.com, will be giving away a Kindle, so please bring your business cards!
