On January 31, 2008, over 600 girl geeks and their male guests gathered at the Googleplex for the 1st Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner in the United States. Girl Geek Dinners have been held in London, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brussels, Malaysia, and more. This Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner is the first of its kind in the U.S.
Katherine Barr, a partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, moderated the diverse panel of women in tech discussing building credibility and reputation in technology and business — women such as Irene Au, Google’s Director of User Experience; Rashmi Sinha, CEO of SlideShare; Leah Culver, Co-Founder and Lead Developer of Pownce; and Sumaya Kazi, Sun Microsystem’s Social Media Manager and serial entrepreneur by age 25.
The panelists shared their experiences as women in technology, the struggle to gain respect in the tech industry, and the funny things they experienced in work and life. While the panel focused mostly on the panelists’ individual experiences, the audience asked for advice on how to survive as a woman in a male-dominated technical culture. Women asked such questions as, how do you dress for occasions, how do you deal with lack of respect in the office, and how do you have it all? — both children and an executive career, as in the case of Irene.