Women 2.0 » Community Service

Women Techies Unite at SXSW (March 12-16, 2010)

Updated on March 20, 2010 — Baat Enosh from Women 2.0 shares her story from SXSW.

“It was quite the attraction. There wasn’t a woman who walked by (and lots of men too) who didn’t stop to see what it’s all about,” said Baat. Ranging from research to mailing lists, the organizations who participated provide a wide spectrum of tools to raise awareness for women in technology (or lack there of..).

Conversations on the topic of women in tech (both spontaneous and at the panels) addressed the entire pipeline — from teaching K-12 about creating technology (”Duh, it’s like tech for girls”) to finding out “What guys are doing to get more girls in tech”. Some were more useful than others, but at least it is clear that there is a discussion taking place. And many are involved in it! It was refreshing to see the collaboration by the different “women in tech” organizations.

Special thanks to Kaliya Hamlin for such a great initiative. Echoing the thoughts of Sharon Vosmek of Astia: We are all a part of a movement. No one is going to move the needle alone. We need to work with each other to get big results.

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“Will It Launch” Startup Idea Workshop (Feb 6-7)

Join Women 2.0 for a Startup Idea Workshop “Will It Launch?” February 6-7, 2010.

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December 2008 BizSpark Launch Party

With over 400 in attendance at the swanky Microsoft BizSpark Launch Party on December 16th, 2008 in San Francisco, Women 2.0 came out in full force to join the celebration!

At the San Francisco BizSpark Launch Party, Shaherose announced onstage to the startup community the new Women 2.0 workshop series Jumpstart Your Startup and the Women 2.0 Startup Competition - Pitch 2009. Deadline to enter is April 10th, 2009!

Did you know that as a BizSpark Network Partner, Women 2.0 can sponsor your startup to receive development tools, platform technologies, and production licenses through Microsoft’s BizSpark program? Here’s how.

Also posted in Media, Mixers

We will be at the UC Berkeley campus on Nov 18th!

So You Wanna Start A Startup?

Women 2.0 has partnered with Berkeley’s Women in Business and internshipIN to bring you the first Women 2.0 event on the UC Berkeley campus for November 18th!

Join us on Tuesday, November 18th, 2008 at 7pm in UC Berkeley’s Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union building in the Tan Oak room on the 4th floor.

Learn from five women entrepreneurs in various industries and hear how they transformed a few simple ideas into remarkable businesses!
Get students excited about your company or project with a short 1 min introductions.
Meet enthusiastic Berkeley students and potentially leave with a new co-founder or intern for your team!

Looking for an intern or new hires? Interested in sharing your entrepreneurial experiences with students? Looking to get more connected with the Berkeley startup community?

Event sponsored by Berkeley Women in Business

Speaker Bios:

Annie Chang (Co-Founder, LOLapps)
Annie is Co-Founder of LOLapps, provider of custom applications spanning pop culture, entertainment, and a variety of special interests for Facebook and other social networking platforms. Headquartered in San Francisco, LOLapps raised $4.5 million in venture funding earlier this year. Annie started her career as a computer scientist at Adobe and then moved over to product management and product design at BitTorrent. In her spare time, she enjoys bike riding in Marin and daydreaming about scuba diving in Thailand. Annie’s been helping to promote women in technology since her college days, where she managed communications for the Society of Women Engineers at Cal. Annie holds a BS in EECS from UC Berkeley.

Edith Yeung (Founder, SFentrepreneur; Co-Founder, Clue Market, Inc.;
Executive Producer, BizTechDay)
Edith founded SFentrepreneur to connect the entrepreneurship community across the greater Bay Area. She also co-founded Clue Market, a social networking and marketing company. Most recently, Edith was the executive producer of BiztechDay - a technology bootcamp for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Prior to starting all these fun projects, Edith spent 9 years in the software and consulting industry and built a successful career working with companies including AT&T Wireless, Cisco Systems, Ariba, American Management Systems, Siebel, Oracle Symantec, Telstra Australia, Matav Hungary Telecom, Autodesk, Taiwan Semi-conductor just to name a few. Check out Edith’s BiztechDay interview on Comcast/CNN.

Donielle Buie (Founding Partner, Gutsy Partners)
Donielle founded Gutsy Partners because of her passion for entrepreneurship and her belief in the power of the entrepreneur to change society. She saw that many people had the motivation and skills to start a business but unfortunately had gotten “stuck” in the planning, start-up, and growth process because they were trying to do it all by themselves. She has recently taught two 8-week entrepreneurship courses at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship and has hosted workshops, including Leadership at the Start of Your Business. Donielle holds a BS in Biomechanical Engineering and an MA in Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies from Stanford University. At Stanford, Donielle was selected for the prestigious Mayfield Fellows Program focusing on high technology entrepreneurship. Through the program, she worked at Evant, a San Francisco based software startup. This experience sparked her passion for entrepreneurship!

Hazel Grace Dircksen (Founder, Socialbees Strategy)
A consultant and entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley, Hazel Grace helps companies leverage social networking tools to reach new audiences. Her most recent company Socialbees Strategy has already crafted Facebook business pages and ads for more than twenty companies in its pre-launch stage. Prior to Socialbees, Hazel Grace was an award-winning fashion designer and launched FashionIV, a social fashion site that was a Facebook Developer Platform launch partner at F8 ‘07 through the San Francisco Ladies Who Launch Incubator. She went on to become the Ladies Who Launch Silicon Valley leader and San Francisco co-leader where she helps female entrepreneurs grow businesses. When she’s not working on a project for one of her many clients, you can find Hazel Grace on MySpace (member at the 500,000 mark), Yelp (Elite member for the past three years), Facebook (first GEO network user – ask about her top secret Facebook account!), and Twitter, just to name a few.

Alison Covarrubias (Owner, Business Legs; Director, San Francisco Chapter of Ladies Who Launch)
After working in technology sales for several years, Alison discovered that the corporate life was not her calling and made the decision to embark on her entrepreneurial career. She launched herself and her business when she joined Ladies Who Launch as the leader and director for the San Francisco chapter. Ladies Who Launch is a national organization of women who embrace creativity and entrepreneurism as a lifestyle and support each other both on-line and in-person. Her own business, Business Legs, offers start up consulting services with an emphasis on strategic planning and marketing confidence for women entrepreneurs. She is passionate about helping women live their entrepreneurial dreams and will stop at nothing to spread the entrepreneurial bug to anyone and everyone considering starting a business. Alison holds a BA in Speech Communication from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

Directions and Campus Map

Get directions on Google
(cross-streets: Telegraph & Bancroft)
Parking lots: Student Union Garage (on Bancroft west of Telegraph), West Anna Head Lot (Telegraph & Channing), and RSF Garage (in the Gold Section on Bancroft at Ellsworth).
The event will be held in the MLK Student Union’s Tan Oak room located on the 4th floor.

The MLK Student Union building on Sather Plaza.

Save a Tree!

We are promoting the use of electronic programs and printing less paper programs for Women 2.0 events. Try viewing our Koollage pod for this event on your mobile phone by clicking here.

Also posted in Mixers Comments (1)

The Finance Crisis and Your Startup - Oct 7th

Busy running your startup but wondering how the financial crisis will impact your business? How does the future for startups seeking funding? Is this a good time to launch your dream venture? We will discuss the current financial crisis and its impact on the startup world at the Institute for the Future (IFTF) in Palo Alto on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm. IFTF will demo the Massively Multiplayer Forecasting Game: Superstruct before the panel event.

Panelists:
» Shai Goldman (Director for Venture Exchange, SVB Capital)
» Rebecca Lynn (Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures)
» Prasanna Krishnan (Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson)
» Betty Kayton (CFO, high tech startups & early stage firms)
» Greg Schmid (Director, Managing Uncertainty Group)

Moderator:
» Jill E. Fishbein (Partner, Carr & Ferrell LLP)

Event sponsored by SVB Capital:

From left: Jill Fishbein (Partner, Carr & Ferrell), Prasanna Krishnan (Associate, Draper Fisher Jurvetson), Shai Goldman (Director for Venture Exchange, SVB Capital), Rebecca Lynn (Principal, Morgenthaler Ventures), and Betty Kayton (CFO, high tech startups & early stage firms).

The event was blogged at Wall Street Journal as “VCs Ask Start-Ups: What’s Your Worst-Case Scenario?”. Blogger Gwen Bell turned her live Tweets from the event into a blog post titled “Economy Got You Poppin’ Pills?: VC Advice for Your Startup (+ 5 Strategies for Thriving!)”.Gwen Bell also live-Tweeted the event.

Also posted in Awards, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, Business, Debriefing, Events, Investors, Media, Media Training, Mixers, Savings Comments (2)

Beyond the Spark Conference Wrap-Up

Stanford, California - May 10, 2008 - Entrepreneurs and VCs gathered on the grassy lawn of the Stanford Golf Course for the 2008 Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in Business Conference Beyond the Spark: Entrepreneurship Redefined. The conference included panel discussions, an interactive lunch with Silicon Valley movers and shakers, and an afternoon session with Pitch 2008 Finalists. We boasted 300+ entrepreneurs, investors, students, and a special visitor - June Sarpong, top television personality and producer from the UK (MTV UK, T4, and more) and campaigner for the HRH The Prince’s Trust. She is building an influential political and lifestyle platform and will be joining the entrepreneurial ecosystem in LA.

Team Koollage won the 2008 Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition, scoring a private meeting with Esther Dyson and business services worth over $15,0000. Team Gaiagy walked away with the People’s Choice Award, as voted by the audience with their cell phones. TechCrunch covered Pitch 2008 here.
Podcasts of all panels, speakers, and competition finalists are available here.

The vision of the conference was to ignite and inspire - to expand what we know and what we expect from ourselves and our peers. Through the stories of an esteemed panel of speakers (Google.org, d.light design, Market For a Change, allvoices, and many more), we learned how to think and execute beyond Facebook apps and social networks to find NEW ways to make millions while positively affecting change.

Inside the white tent, napkin submissions for the Business Plan Competition lined a wall. Chris Shipley asked aloud: “Business plans or prayer flags?”

Chris Shipley (Guidewire Group) has an early morning fireside chat with Rachel Payne (Google.org).	Rachel Payne (Google.org) fields many questions from the audience about Google.org.
Dr. Maggie Haersch (VOICEMAP), Dr. Jwala Karnik (JawalCo), Pat McEntee (AuxoGlobal), and Amy Love (Protégé Performance Group) are on the morning’s panel assembled by SWIB.	Amy Love (former CEO of the Forum for Women Entrepreneurs) encourages entrepreneurs to be proactive and be heard.
Afternoon panel: Erica Estrada (d.light design), Amra Tareen (allvoices), and Leila Chirayath (Market for Change).	Erica Estrada (d.light design) holds up the $25 solar-powered flashlight that illuminates homes in developing third-world countries.
Melanie Swan (MS Futures Group) moderates the afternoon panel.	Erica Estrada (d.light design) inspires the audience to do good. She regularly conducts field work in places like India, China, and Burma.
At lunch, each table had one or two “lunch leads” — entrepreneurial movers and shakers in the Silicon Valley.
Karen Hartline (CommunityNext), Katherine Barr (Mohr Davidow Ventures), and Angie Chang (Women 2.0).	Jeni Diaz and Roseanne Wincek (imthemusic) with Mary Wallace (Wallace Productions).
The judging panel lines up in front of the stage to hear the pitches from the five finalists of the 2008 Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition.
Mythili Sankaran (Koollage) pitches.	Margot Eiran (Gaiagy) pitches.
Debbie Cheng and Lindsay Tabas (Skill Shop) pitch.	Hope Schultz and Bill Zaccheo (WebVet) pitch.
Kristyn Heath (Passive Devices) pitches.	The judges voted Koollage winner of the 2008 Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition!
The audience used Mozes to vote for the “People’s Choice Award”, which went to Gaiagy.
How to vote using Mozes.	Winner of the People’s Choice Award - Gaiagy!
Hope Schultz (WebVet) talks to Joanne Wan (GigaOm).	Shannon McClenaghan (Jimmyjane), Sharon Vosmek (Astia), and Dana Florescu (Oracle).
Dr. Jwala Karnik (JwalaCo).	Artise Hardy (Strategic Analytics), Aihui Ong (Women 2.0), and June Sarpong (The Prince’s Trust).
Lindsay Tabas and Debbie Cheng (Skill Shop).	Tiffany von Emmel (Dreamfish).
Rachel Payne (Google.org) and Leila Chirayath (Market for Change).	Patricia Roller (frog design) is also a member of the Angels’ Forum.
Maya Baratz (MochiMedia) and friends.	Marleen McDaniel (Women.com).
Audree Halasz (dutchy) with friend.	Leila Chirayath (Market for Change) and Alice Wang (FTVentures).
Susan Lucas-Conwell (SD Forum).	Mitchell Tsai (Spiritual Business Companions) and Amra Tareen (allvoices).
Aihui Ong and Shaherose Charania (Women 2.0).	Current SWIB girls with the founder of SWIB.
Despite sharing the same last name, Angie Chang and Annie Chang (LOLapps) are not related.	Pokin Yeung and Shaherose Charania (Women 2.0) with Alka Gupta (Ojas Group).

Pictures are from the photo galleries of Shirley Lin, Mitchell Tsai, and Angie Chang with permission. Please go to their galleries to find more pictures from the event. If you took pictures from the event and would like to share them, please use the tag women2.0 on Flickr or leave a comment below.

Also posted in Awards, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, Debriefing, Media Training, Mixers Comments (11)

Intrapreneurship event wrap-up

Thanks to our esteemed speakers Nina and Cynthia, and our moderator Indu, we learned that intrapreneurship is about lobbying, pitching your efforts, getting allies, leveraging resources, exuding empathy, etc.

Practicing intrapreneurship within your organization is a way to gain credibility and a track record - all the tools are at your fingertips, from colleagues to materials. Below are pictures from the event:

Women 2.0 Intrapreneurship Fireside Chat

Women 2.0 Intrapreneurship Fireside Chat

And thanks to Annie Chang, we have notes from the event! You can find them after the jump.

Also posted in Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, Debriefing, Media Training, Mixers

Things to do, women to meet…

This is a call for volunteers to support:

ASTIA VENTURE CONFERENCE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 from 7:30AM to 6:00PM (ending with a networking reception)
Microsoft Silicon Valley Conference Center, Mountain View, CA

This year’s event is due to exceed expectations and features an outstanding group of 30 high-growth companies created and led by women; all carefully screened by venture capitalists in the San Francisco area. The keynote speaker is Lynn Brewer, chairman and founder of The Integrity Institute and Enron whistleblower, as well as author of “Is There a Little Bit of Enron in All of Us?” View conference agenda.

Astia is recruiting volunteers to provide on-site support the day of event. Please contact Candice Abellon at Candice@astia.org. Once your interest is confirmed, you will be provided with additional details. Thanks for supporting Astia and women entrepreneurs!

SHE’S GEEKY - a women’s tech (un)conference
MONDAY & TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22-23, 2007
Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA.

She’s Geeky is designed to bring together women from a range of technology-focused disciplines who self identify as geeky. The goal is to support skill exchange and learning between women working in diverse fields and to create a space for networking and to talk about issues faced by women in technology. Conference producer Kaliya unveils her ideas and motivations for the conference at her blog Identity Woman.

She’s Geeky is offering $25 off the regular conference price to the Women 2.0 community. To redeem this special discount offer, please register for the She’s Geeky (un)conference here.

Ladies Who Launch presents “Ladies Who Launch Live!” on Friday, October 26, 2007 from 9:00am to 4:00pm at Presidio Officer’s Club. Connect with other inspiring women to grow dreams, businesses and creative projects. Re-ignite any idea that has taken a back seat. The day includes inspiring speakers sharing stories of launching, living, and dreaming: Mariel Hemingway (Actress, Author), Jill Lublin (Author), Jory Des Jardins (CEO of BlogHer), and Randy Peyser (Author).

Consultations with one of dozens of experts in PR, marketing, communications, packaging, design, finance, pitching, script doctoring, beauty, start-up 101, trade show navigation, brand strategy, and more! A percentage of the proceeds will go to a non profit organization - Spark!

Comments (1)

Wine & Cheese for Women 2.0’s August Mixer

It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other! Come on out to our impromptu wine and cheese gathering for the latest on what everyone’s doing.

Join us for a Women 2.0 Wine & Cheese Mixer!
When: Thursday, August 30, 2007, 7:00pm
Where: 354 25th Avenue, San Francisco, CA
* Call 510-710-8336 if you need to be let in.

Bring a bottle of wine or cheese if you have some to spare. Come with business cards!

This event is open to everybody! - See you on Thursday night!

— The Women 2.0 Team
(Shivani, Shaherose, Wen-Wen, Annie, and Angie)

Also posted in Media Training, Mixers

Call For Talent!

Are you interested in helping Women 2.0 put on the big events, market, and more? We are currently looking for a couple of people for the following positions:

Event Coordinator
We are looking for an energetic, creative, and responsible woman to plan monthly mixer events and help with planning large events (one large event will be held in November). To be in charge of logistics, planning, and organizing all aspects of the events that bring the Women 2.0 member base together.

Online Community Manager
Yes, that’s right - we’re looking for somebody to help us increase our online presence! All of you Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, Wordpress, etc. fans out there, we’re looking for you!

VOLUNTEERS WANTED FOR PITCH NIGHT 2008!!

Join the Women 2.0 team in planning next year’s most innovative Pitch Night for 2008. This is your opportunity to participate, gain a unique experience and get to know the sponsors, investors and participants of Pitch 2008. We are seeking top talent to support this event in the following areas:

Pitch Night 2008 Event Managers (2 of them!)
Plan, innovate, manage then implement the Pitch Night from start to finish. All decisions from theme to cupcake flavors rest in your strategic decision making skills. Your organizational and detail orientation will ensure the event is perfect to the T!

Experienced Business Development Manager (just one!)
Working directly with Women 2.0 team, help craft the pitch to investors and sponsors. Ideally you’ve done this before and have warm connections and are polished at what you do. More importantly you are passionate about the Women 2.0 mission and want to help us grow Pitch 2008. We are looking for experience working with Angel investors and large corporations to raise funds.

Pre-Pitch Program Managers (2 of them!)
Plan, innovate, and manage the 5 sessions in advance of the pitch night. These sessions are designed to prepare the participants for a prime performance (4 P’s in one sentence!). These sessions begin in October. These sessions are the core to the success of the participants and we need support in managing all content development and event management.

How do I get involved with Women 2.0?
Submit a contextual resume and exciting intro to women2.0@gmail.com. Please attach the resume in WORD format and include your exciting intro as the body of the email. Highlight reasons why you want to, should be, and must be part of the Women 2.0 Team.

Women 2.0 in Canada represent at Mesh Conference 2007.

Also posted in Business

Winners Declared for Napkin Business Challenge

The Women 2.0 Pitch Night was a smashing success! Over 150 people came to CNET to support women entrepreneurs who pitched their businesses to venture capitalists and successful women executives. The finalists fielded tough questions from the judges and in the end, only two teams received grand prizes of $1500 each, pitch coaching from Guidewire Group, and meetings with Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital.

The winning teams were Laser-Seal (envisioning faster, cleaner wound closures in the operating room with laser technology), and O’Light (O for Organic!) which aims to create fashionable, OLED lighting concepts. The audience voted with their cell phones using Mozes to determine O’Light as the crowd favorite, making O’Light the recipient of the People’s Choice Award.

Laser-Seal team wins Napkin Business Challenge O Light wins twice - the Peoples Choice Award

Tags for Flickr: women20, upcoming:event=150336

More pictures after the jump »

Women 2.0 extends another big THANK YOU to our sponsors who made this event possible. We also thank everyone who helped out, from volunteers to bloggers. To Annie Chang for coordinating the event and being a superb hostess. To all the participants in the Napkin Business Challenge. To the Women 2.0 community of entrepreneurs, tech mavens, and the business-savvy. To us, the movers and shakers. Congratulations, and cheers!

Also posted in Awards, Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, Debriefing, Media Training, Savings Comments (8)

Volunteer Opportunities for Women 2.0

There are a lot of young women who would greatly benefit from working with female entrepreneurs. The need for positive and intelligent role models is immense.

Women 2.0 will be working with Women in Community Service (WICS) to mentor students that come to Job Corps. It’s not unusual to come across young ladies at Job Corps who were formerly homeless or incarcerated, and these young ladies (and men) have expressed interest in having mentors.

We invite all of you Women of the Women 2.0 world to join in the effort of helping young people succeed by sharing your time and expertise! You can volunteer your time as a volunteer mentor, tutor, or speaker.

Comments (1)

Community Service

Women Techies Unite at SXSW (March 12-16, 2010)

“Will It Launch” Startup Idea Workshop (Feb 6-7)

December 2008 BizSpark Launch Party

We will be at the UC Berkeley campus on Nov 18th!

The Finance Crisis and Your Startup - Oct 7th

Beyond the Spark Conference Wrap-Up

Intrapreneurship event wrap-up

Things to do, women to meet…

Wine & Cheese for Women 2.0’s August Mixer

Call For Talent!

Winners Declared for Napkin Business Challenge

Volunteer Opportunities for Women 2.0

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