Merry Christmas 2009

Although we can't really believe it's nearly the holidays, we'd like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and best wishes for 2010!

2009 has been a tough year for most of us and I know we're not the only ones hoping that 2010 will be a lot brighter from an economic point of view.

However 2009 has also been an incredibly busy year for us and it's simply flown by! W-Tech was a huge focus for us in the first half of the year - especially as it had to be postponed because of the heavy snow in February and re-run in June. However the effort was well worth it as it was a super event with over 700 attendees enjoying a mix of workshops and networking sessions. We're aiming to run another one in 2011 so watch this space! www.wtech-event.co.uk/

We've hosted four evening networking events: Clever Decision Making, Leadership in Challenging Times, Building a Confident Personal Brand and Survival in the City: It's not just about the credit crunch! If you missed them, photos and handouts can be found here: www.womenintechnology.co.uk/previous-events

And we've run over 20 different training courses designed to help our members succeed and achieve in their technology roles and we've got a programme of courses booked in for 2010 already. You can find out more here: www.womenintechnology.co.uk/upcoming-training-courses

Our employer focussed breakfast briefings run in conjunction with Kingsley Napley have been well received and we're running another six with them in 2010 - the schedule will become available early next year here: www.womenintechnology.co.uk/kingsley-napley-breakfast-briefings

If you're interested in connecting with us away from the face to face events...
We're active on Twitter and you can follow us at twitter.com/womenintech or if you're interested in jobs, you can follow twitter.com/womenintechjobs
We've also created a page on Facebook: tinyurl.com/witfacebookpage
And we have our group on LinkedIn: tiny.cc/LinkedIngroup

We have also been growing the team which has been exciting - Oz Ibru joined in the summer, Claire Goodwin joined in October and Bal Pabla joined in November. If you'd like to find out more about any of our team, click here: www.womenintechnology.co.uk/the-team

Oz, Claire and Bal are our new Recruitment Services Team - www.womenintechnology.co.uk/recruitment-services - so if you're looking for a job or are interested in increasing the number of female candidates you're seeing apply for your jobs, please contact Claire. And of course we've still got our employer job board where you can apply directly to technology roles with the likes of Microsoft, Accenture, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and others: www.womenintechnology.co.uk/jobs

And finally if you're looking for a new year's resolution, why not consider giving something back to the IT profession by volunteering to speak in local schools about your career as an IT professional and inspire more young people into the technology industry. There's a simple sign up process and more information can be found here: www.womenintechnology.co.uk/volunteering

Finally **Please Save the Date** as our first networking event of the year will be on Wednesday 27th January at the Royal Institution: www.womenintechnology.co.uk/women-of-substance

So we wish you all a very merry festive season and will look forward to supporting your technology careers again in 2010!

Thanks so much!

From the womenintechnology team.