November 2009 Update

Wednesday 4th November 2009 - Update from Maggie Berry, Director, womenintechnology.co.uk

We can hardly believe it's only 50 days until Christmas! The lights were switched on in Oxford Street last night and things are starting to wind up (!) for the festive season at the womenintechnology offices after running our last two evening networking events of the year in October. We still have three training courses coming up before the end of the year, and there's still a few places left on next week's 'Style DNA' course so get in touch asap if you'd like to come along. Below we've collated a list of events, journals and calls for speakers and volunteers that I hope will be of interest to you as members of womenintechnology.co.uk - you can click on the link for full information and please get in touch with the relevant contacts for more information - thanks so much!

1. Call for speakers from Imperial College Student Society for Women in SET - Tuesday 10th November 2009

2. Women in Technology: 20 years on from the fall of the wall - have the barriers been removed for us too? - Tuesday 10th November 2009

3. Dine with Female Entrepreneurs and Internet Heroes on Women’s Enterprise Day - Wednesday 18th November 2009

4. Executive Women in IT: Global Business Need-to-Knows - Thursday 19th November 2009

5. Call to complete survey for dissertation about women in business - Deadline 30th November 2009

6. Call for speakers - What is it like to be an IT professional? Tuesday 8th December 2009

7. Warwick University project looking at the quality of UK part-time work

8. The International Journal of Gender Science and Technology

1. Call for speakers from Imperial College Student Society for Women in SET
A bit last minute - the Imperial College Student Society Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WSET) is looking for three speakers to give a short talk at an event they're running on Tuesday 10th November at 6pm in South Kensington, London. They're looking for women working in IT who can talk about their background, experiences in the SET field, work and future plans - in seven minutes!
One of their main aims as a society is to connect women in industry with female university students and the purpose of this event is to help students during this job application period - especially in times like these when not many companies are hiring and students need all the help they can get. They anticipate that they will draw an audience of between 30 to 40 attendees. This is a great opportunity to connect with Imperial College students and promote the SET area you work/have worked in.
If you are free next Tuesday evening and would be happy to give up your time, please contact Aiman Alam-Nazki, Chair, WSET as soon as you can - women.set@imperial.ac.uk or 07950 950 327.

2. Women in Technology: 20 years on from the fall of the wall - have the barriers been removed for us too? Tuesday 10th November
Are you going to Microsoft Teched In Berlin later this month? If so, they are running a Women in IT session at 17:00 on Tuesday 10th of November. It has been 20 years since the fall of the Berlin wall, which was seen by the world as the symbolic end of the Cold War. The Technology Industry has always been traditionally a predominantly male environment. Taking that as our starting point, how far has women’s representation in the Technology Industry come in the past 20 years across Europe and what can we do to continue the transformation? What can we learn from different countries across Europe? The event will kick off with short table discussions on the last 20 years. Then attendees will dive into TRIBES and Women transformational leaders and move into team work to create your TRIBE business plan. Join them and share your experiences with some of the great technical women in Europe presenting, working at, and attending TechEd Berlin 2009. Celebrate their successes and meet and network with other women from across Europe and beyond, in our highly interactive Session Women in Technology session. More information can be found here.

3. Dine with Female Entrepreneurs and Internet Heroes on Women’s Enterprise Day - Wednesday 18th November 2009
7.00pm to 11.00pm
Cost: £65.00
This event will see leading, founding and investing women and men from across the internet industry come together in Notting Hill. A sumptuous setting will provide the relaxed backdrop to a refined evening of delectable food and wine and a talk from theOutNet.com Director, Stephanie Phair, culminating in a surprise centre piece to end the evening.
Designed to facilitate peer-to-peer business conversation, the dinners includes a keynote from a Female Internet Hero and the chance to engage in conversation with London’s most innovative thinkers who are working or investing in Web 2.0. The Special Kitchen Dinner will play host to businesses from across Europe and the Americas that have made the internet their platform for success.
NextWomen focuses on start-ups and growing internet businesses, be it in the media, service, retail, communication or any other industry. Its mission is to become the platform for news, leads and discussion around women led businesses. TheNextWomen.com also profiles female heroes in business, making them notable and quotable.
For more information click here.

4. Executive Women in IT - Global Business Need-to-Knows
Date: Thursday 19th November 2009
Time: 4.30pm (11.30am EST) - please note this a telephone / web-based meeting and is free to participate in
In the past, studies have shown cultural barriers have the potential to result in women being viewed as inferior to men when crossing international borders. Fortunately, female executives have proven this myth to be incorrect and are building successful corporate relationships abroad.
Join a panel of your peers led by global CIOs: Mojgan Lefebvre of BioMerieux, Denise Coyne of Chevron, and Jeri Dunn of Bacardi-Martini who will share their first-hand experiences in tackling the global market as female executives. Topics to be covered are:
- How to get involved in global business.
- How has your involvement in global IT and business been affected by your gender?
- What are the cultural barriers confronted by women IT leaders?
- Effectively communicating your corporate mission to foreign business associates.
- Best practices for women in building global relationships.
- Whether women who are given the opportunity to conduct global business have been more successful than their male counterparts.
- Advantages to your career in crossing international borders.
If this web meeting appeals to you, please send your name, job title and email address to Maggie Berry - mberry@womenin.co.uk

5. Call to complete survey for dissertation about women in business
Natalie Coker, a student at Canterbury Christ Church University is currently undertaking some research for her dissertation which is about women in business and she is looking for women working in IT to complete this short survey: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=G4NTNX6DFhrDj_2bQyO_2blGmg_3d_3d. The deadline is midnight on the 30th November 2009. If you'd like to find out more about Natalie's project, please contact her directly: n.l.coker10@canterbury.ac.uk.

6. Call for speakers - What is it like to be an IT professional? Tuesday 8th December 2009
Andrew Tuson - Head of the Department of Computing at City University London - is currently looking for speakers for an event on Tuesday 8th December. The full day event is for Lower Sixth / Year 12 pupils who are studying A Levels or BTECs in IT at schools in low participation boroughs in London. The morning part of the event includes sessions with three speakers working in the IT industry - they have a speaker from the gaming sector and Andrew would like a speaker working in business computing (IT management, systems analysis, consulting etc.) and a speaker from software engineering (development, programming etc.). He's looking for the speakers to talk about their job and explain what a 'real' IT professional does - the talk is 15 minutes with 15 minutes for Q&A - and speakers will need to do the talk three times with groups of up to 20 pupils. Andrew anticipates that the talks will be done by 1pm at the latest and you would be welcome to stay for the afternoon with involves an interactive business game.
If this is something you would be willing to do and help promote women working in IT, please contact Andrew on andrewt@soi.city.ac.uk by the end of next week.

7. Warwick University project looking at the quality of UK part-time work
Clare Lyonette works in research for Warwick University and has recently begun a government funded project to look at UK quality part-time work. Part of the research is to assess if and how organisations are responding to the recession by introducing reduced hours etc. and how that might change mindsets (i.e. increase good practice in terms of offering more quality part-time posts now or in the future). Even if part-time positions / flexible working models are not specifically due to the recession, Clare would like to talk to individuals (HR/Diversity Managers etc.) as to how they think these types of part-time posts are working out and what the costs/benefits are of introducing such working models.
Clare would be asking for up to 30 minutes of time on the phone to discuss this topic. All information would be treated confidentially and would be anonymous in the final report (of which a copy would be available to anybody who takes part). The project isn't an evaluation of individual organisations but a way of finding out what worked, what didn't and how to extend good practice, hopefully after the recession, as well as during it. Clare would really like to talk to both an HR representative and a diversity Union representative in each organisation but if only one is available, that will be fine too. Interviews need to be completed by the beginning of December at the latest.
If this is something you would be happy to be involved with, please contact Clare directly: Dr. Clare Lyonette - Research Fellow, Institute for Employment Research at the University of Warwick, C.Lyonette@warwick.ac.uk

8. The International Journal of Gender Science and Technology
Finally, we’d like to draw your attention to a new online journal that I think would be of interest to you. The International Journal of Gender Science and Technology is an important new publication which brings together research, case studies and perspectives from academics, practitioners and policy makers in this area. The journal focusses on focuses on gender issues in and of science and technology, including engineering, construction and the built environment, and aims to explore the intersections of policy, practice and research. If you'd like to find out more, please click here: http://genderandset.open.ac.uk/index.php/genderandset