Geek Chic - Leeds Girl Geek Dinner 5

On Wednesday 21 October, The Loft hosted the fifth gathering of  Leeds Girl Geeks for our Girl Geek Dinner. The day got off to a great start with nti’s own Leia Bassett and Becky Edlin from Magpie Communications being invited on to the Radio Leeds breakfast show to explain what being a girl geek is all about.

As well as being a relaxing, informal networking event for women in our sector, Girl Geek events are also about great speakers. First up was Sarah Hartley, digital editor from The Guardian,  with an insight into to the dramatic changes that are taking place in the journalism profession.   Sarah illustrated the changing role of a journalist from the community grassroots to main stream media.  The movement of fresh news through blogs, websites and collaboration, has challenged traditional ways that  information is both received and communicated.  Sarah then outlined her new project with The Guardian which aims to bring local content in to the Guardian online site. Pilot cities are  Leeds, Cardiff and Edinburgh.  A job ad is now being advertised for a journalist - the role has been titled Beatblogger.   We’re hoping that Sarah will come back and tell us how its all going at a future GGD, but its great news that we’ll get a wider audience for all the great things happening in Leeds.

Abigail Brinton from Lee & Priestley was attending the Girl Geek Dinner for the first time, and commented on Sarah Hartley’s insight into the growing discussions around online content.” All the news I receive is from online sources during my lunch hour. Bringing together grassroot communities and main stream brands, will help new readers quickly find related information about a specific topic.”

Next up was new Leeds Metropolitan University, Innovation North staff member Christine Morris, to talk about her online presence using video blogs by creating AppsandHats.com. The topic title was “Using Video To Make An Impact”. Christine began by highlighting the fears around publishing yourself on the web with videos.

“Fear is not an option if you are going to video blog online. Even when you think you have failed, it pushes the boundaries to get better next time.”

Christine’s belief is that  passion is vital for talking confidently into a camera, even if it is a small web camera. The world wide web is now saturated with information which is raising the importance of creating engaging content.  AppsandHats.com is a a quirky short podcast where Christine’s passion for Apps is the main theme, with the twist being that the presenters dress up in amazing costumes.  Christine is an Apple fan and praised the Final Cut software for being so easy and quick to edit the podcast. Girl Geeks were left to ponder on the quote from Albert Einstein that summarised the heart of the presentation,

“For an idea, that does not first seem insane - there is no hope”.

Christine’s enthusiasm and positive outlook really shone through in her talk, and you had the feeling that she could achieve whatever she put her mind to. It was pretty inspirational stuff. We’re wondering whether Christine has considered a career as a motivational speaker!

With 80 tickets sold, its was the biggest Leeds GGD so far. We’d like to thank everyone who supported it and came along. It was great to see Lydia Machell, of Primavista Music back  again. Lydia spoke at the very first dinner, back in August 2008, about her startup, and it’s really good news  that she now has her first orders coming through.   Hello also to Nicole Mathison who I first met when I went to  a London Girl Geek Dinner earlier this year. Nicole has now moved to Leeds. It was great to see you Nicole and hope all goes well for you in Leeds.

The success of the Leeds Girl Geek Dinner over the last year has led to a successful  funding bid, with Scottish Girl Geeks,  to bring in global speakers who can inspire us to achieve whatever we want. This new project, entitled ‘Inspiring Women’ funded by  the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, and the West Yorkshire Lifelong Learning Network, supports  Leeds and Scotland Girl Geeks  in their programme of dinners for 2010. This project will work with leading women across the world to create podcasts and interactive learning materials to help inspire young women in who are the girl geeks of the future.

Linda Broughton from nti Leeds and Imran Ali of Carbon Imagineering are the main organisers of the Leeds Girl Geek Dinners, along with Monica Tailor from Kilo75.  Thanks to West Yorkshire Lifelong Learning Network, Leeds University, and Techmesh, for their sponsorship for this event. If you didn’t make it to this event but would like to find out more about future Leeds Girl Geek Dinner’s and how you can volunteer, or even be a sponsor, visit the website at http://leedsgirlgeekdinners.com/ or get in touch with Linda Broughton at nti Leeds by phone on 0845 122 1555 or www.twitter.com/lindabroughton. Follow Leeds Girl Geeks at www.twitter.com/leedsgirlgeeks

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