The afternoon will kick off with a panel of startup founders who are igniting global change, then at 2:30PM the TOP FIVE teams in the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition are pitching LIVE!

Finalist #1: Koollage (San Francisco, CA)
The Team: Mythili Sankaran, Steve Rhoads, and Geetha Murali
One Line Pitch: A social “mini” blogging and “micro”media platform for the mobile generation.

Finalist #2: Gaiagy (Newton Center, MA)
The Team: Margot Eiran, Kanika Singal, and Rucker Alex
One Line Pitch: Distributor of integrated eco-efficiency products, offering a personalized savings calculator via social networking site applications & other channels.

Finalist #3: Skill Shop (San Francisco, CA)
The Team: Debbie Cheng and Lindsay Tabas
One Line Pitch: Putting the right people on the right projects shouldn’t waste time and money; let SkillShop reduce both these pain points to optimize IT resources.

Finalist #4: WebVet (Chicago, IL)
The Team: Bill Zaccheo and Hope Schultz
One Line Pitch: WebMD for Pets.

Finalist #5: Passive Devices (Denver, CO)
The Team: Kristyn Heath
One Line Pitch: Maker of SnoopTunes, Passive Devices is an advertising company in the consumer electronics space specializing in portable peer to peer music sharing.

» Get your ticket now for this all-day event!
(There are ticket options for entrepreneurs, investors, Stanford students, or just for the pitches)

There we have it — a day of entrepreneurial activity and fun with Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in Business. Hope you can make it!

While Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition submissions are being furiously perfected before the clock strikes midnight, Women 2.0 is giving away two FULL conference passes to Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, April 22-25.

Web 2.0 hosts Web2Open unconference emphasizing discussion and participation around Web 2.0 topics. Register for a free badge for Web2Open using the the code “websf08opw” to get into Web2Open sessions, Expo Keynotes, Show Floor, Launch Pad, and Women’s Networking Evening on Thursday, April 24th from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at the Marriott’s View Lounge. If you attend Web2Open, you’ll also get a ribbon to attend 3 hybrid conference sessions: Creating a Coherent Social Strategy for Business, Influence is Overrated, and Taking Web 2.0 Offline and On the Desktop.

WIN one of two FULL Conference Passes to Web 2.0 Expo!

Two FULL Conference passes to Web 2.0 Expo (valued at $1,695 each) will go to the two who best answer the question, “How can Web 2.0 further improve your daily life?” Leave your answer in the comments section of this post, along with a valid email address. Winners will be notified April 19.

The women discussed the importance of the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition and the ideas behind it - Watch the ABC 7 Morning News Segment report on how entrepreneurs share ideas with Women 2.0.

» Watch Women 2.0 on ABC 7 News!

(Original Air Date: March 26, 2008)

Most good business ideas are not germinated from a spreadsheet or powerpoint. All you need is a pen and a cocktail napkin. Doodling is a universal language and visual thinking has created many great companies (e.g. Southwest Airlines). Check out these great doodles on napkins on BusinessWeek, or the cool doodles at thebackofthenapkin.com.

The deadline to enter the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition is EXTENDED TO APRIL 15, 2008. So pull together a team of at least 50% female representation to be eligible to enter (you can also enter as a solo female entrepreneur) and get started! All submissions will receive written feedback from the judges (read their bios here).

Top 5 finalists present LIVE to the judges at the Women 2.0 and Stanford Women in Business Conference on May 10, 2008 at Stanford. Winner is announced at the end of the conference and scores a meeting with the iconic Esther Dyson, along with a grab bag of legal and PR goodies.

ARE YOU IN? More info at http://pitch.women2.org

Women 2.0 held Open Mic Session #2: “Meet The Customer Rainmakers” on Thursday, March 6, 2008 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Ning in Palo Alto, CA, discussing real strategies for customer acquisitions with our esteemed panelists.

» Maria Sipka (Co-Founder and CEO, Linqia)
» Rebecca Weeks (Director of Business Development, RealGirlsMedia)
» Gina Bianchini (Co-Founder and CEO, Ning)
» William Bunker as moderator (Co-Founder and Principal, White Space Ventures)

How do you build a community, a community of communities, and a wine company from the ground up? Each of these entrepreneurs started with a clean slate and today, designed products for their target markets to become recognizable brands in their respective markets. Are you applying to the Women 2.0 Business Plan Competition? Learn from our esteemed speakers practical customer acquisition strategies as you begin your own venture!

Women 2.0 had an intimate lunch with CEOs Joyce Kim of Soompi, and Marleen McDaniel, emeritus of Women.com (bought by NBC) on Saturday, Feb. 23rd in Sun Microsystem’s board room overlooking San Francisco’s streets.

We discussed successful leadership experiences and explored challenging situations and solutions while in the hot seat. This was an exclusive opportunity by Women 2.0 for Women Leaders to start the formation of the “New Girls Club” — and to be part of the next generation of entrepreneurship!

Open Mic Session #2 Video - Part 1

Open Mic Session #2 Video - Part 2

Over 600 people celebrated girl geeks and watched the panelists discuss building credibility and reputation in technology and business. Katherine Barr (Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures) moderated a discussion between Leah Culver (Co-Founder and Lead Developer, Pownce), Sumaya Kazi (Entrepreneur and Social Media Manager, Sun Microsystems), Irene Au (Director of User Experience, Google), and Rashmi Sinha (CEO, SlideShare).
The panelists’ jobs and roles were diverse, and the variety in personalities and attitudes toward work and life made for a very interesting panel discussion.

If you’re interested in attending future Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners, check out the website or join the group on Facebook for updates. Questions? Email angiechang@gmail.com

Women 2.0 partnered with Girls in Tech to experience the inner-workings of a television newsroom with CBS 5 News Anchorwoman Sue Kwon on Monday, December 3rd, 2007. Sue took a group of women from the two organizations on a tour of the CBS studio to see how stories are selected, who makes decisions, and how a story makes air - from manager meetings to crunch editing before show deadlines. She led the women in small groups into the control room to see a portion of the live broadcast and the anchors at work.

Sue demonstrated her passion for helping businesswomen and startups get their products, services, and stories heard. She spent more than an hour giving us the low-down on how a reporter thinks and selects her stories, leading exercises on the correct way to pitch - or as she demonstrated many times, spin - a story to the media. Sue focused on questions such as: what the newsroom looks for in a story, what captures their attention, what’s the wrong way to approach a reporter, how to give a sound bite, and of course, what NOT to do if you want your story to get into the news!

In the end, everyone exchanged business cards and information. After all, that’s what these events are all about, right? Stay tuned for an exciting announcement tomorrow about our holiday party!

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:

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

NINA BHATTI (HP Principal Scientist)

Intrapreneur
Internalizing mission of organization, absorbing customer’s problem, and driving creative solution.
1. Understand organizational landscape/politics.
2. You can make something great happen.
3. Make your key stakeholders look good (win-win for all, not just
about you, later looks obvious).

Creating your labor of love:
- Understand the organizational landscape.
- Make something great happen.
- Don’t assume anything.
- Make your key stakeholders look good.
- Don’t be intimidated.
- Bigger efforts require teams, but with bigger results.
- Be fearless, keep the faith.

CYNTHIA JOHANSEN (Yahoo! Product Manager)

Product: Yahoo! Kickstart (18-24 y/o demographic)
- Scrummed up mobile team, early-stage, very bureaucratic. Bradley Horowitz. Scott Gatz (Yahoo! mail, friends’ page)
- Enabling venues for innovation, scrum process helps create priorities.
- Hack days. “Schwag.”

***

Backed by business, you have access to colleagues, tech, tools, lab, and not having to worry about monetization schemes, not being locked down to a bottom-line.

Intrapreneurship is about lobbying, pitching your efforts, getting allies, leveraging resources, exuding empathy — “currency” by instantiating people.

Requires absolute passion, prompts risk-taking, to NOT have your success determined by another group’s vision. Internal forces will listen to external forces.

In-house incubator, whether you’re truly addressing a need. Flickr was a gaming company –> photo sharing. Is launching into the next innovation chapter.

SCRUM at Yahoo! - Agile development process. Old-school waterfall. PM working with designers/engineers/QA. Sprints. Much more dialogue. Features are built in iterative clumps.

When: Thursday, November 15, 2007, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Where: Yahoo! Building E (Classrooms 9 and 10), 700 First Ave., Sunnyvale, CA
Why: Learn from our amazing speakers. Meet fellow movers & shakers.
Cost: $5 General, and free for Yahoo! employees
***Please register online at http://intrapreneurship20.eventbrite.com/!***

Women 2.0 and Yahoo! invite you to join us for a fireside chat with Cynthia Johanson (Yahoo! Product Manager, Advanced Development Division) and Nina Bhatti (HP Principal Scientist) about some real ways they have been entrepreneurial within their companies, and how you can be entrepreneurial too. Learn how large corporations can provide the perfect space to foster your personal entrepreneurship, and how to embrace opportunities to ship projects. Intrapraneurship within your company provides valuable experience in product management, and puts you one step closer to becoming that startup CEO one day!

Cynthia Johanson, Yahoo! Product Manager
After beginning her career at Yahoo! as a software engineer on the Mobile team, Cynthia is now a product manager on the Advanced Products team. Her most recent project is the just-released Kickstart product, a new social networking service that matches college students to employers.

Nina Bhatti, HP Principal Scientist
Nina creates unique consumer experiences with specially designed imaging technology. She assembled and led an all-star team within HP to enable camera phones to correctly capture skin tone, ultimately assisting in cosmetics purchases. Her team is currently in talks with cosmetics giants to bring this technology to you.

The fireside chat will be moderated by Indu Navar, co-founder and CEO of Serus. She has been on the ground floor of several startups and large companies, including Healtheon (WebMD), Silicon Graphics, and NASA.

Light appetizers will be served at 6:30pm. The fireside chat will start at 7:30pm.

Hosted by our friends at Yahoo! and special thanks to Ginny Hung and Karolina Buchner.

Directions to Yahoo!: From 237/101, exit NORTH Mathilda and make a left at First Avenue, then a left again to the Building E parking lot. Visitor parking spots are available near Building E, and also across the street by the security attendant’s booth. Main campus is at 701 First Avenue.

» SNAP Summit Special Discount for Women 2.0 Members
SNAP Summit is San Francisco’s first major conference on the Facebook platform. SNAP is the first conference to feature Ami Vora, one of Facebook’s senior female employees, as headlining speaker. SNAP takes place THIS FRIDAY, October 26th, 2007, and SNAP Summit organizer Christian Perry of SF Beta and geekSessions fame would like to offer a discount to all of our Women 2.0 members.

Register for SNAP here to save off 15% off all ticket types simply for being a part of Women 2.0!

» Reporting about the Grace Hopper Celebration 2007
THIS IS A DEBRIEFING on the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Orlando, Florida from October 17th thru October 20th.

Over 1,400 women in computing from 22 countries amassed ourselves at the Walt Disney Hilton for days discussing our roles in computing, stressed the importance of mentorship, shared tips on running birds-of-a-feather women in computing groups, and much much more.

Pictures say a thousand words, so check out pictures I’ve uploaded to Flickr. Find even more pictures from GHC2007 here. Leave a comment if you have more to add!

» She’s Geeky (un)conference wrap-up
Also, check out these pictures from the She’s Geeky (un)conference which took place in Mountain View, California on Monday and Tuesday. Women 2.0 is a proud media sponsor of She’s Geeky!