Tag Archives: Microsoft

Dinner #55 on February 15, 2018

You are invited to join the Women in Gaming Team, for an evening of learning, fun and networking. This is an opportunity to hear from our leaders, test run our tech, meet with amazing women in our industry and chat with recruiters about our open roles.

Agenda:

6:00 pm – 7:00 pm: Registration, Food & Drink, Headshots, Hands on Gaming Experiences

7:00 pm – 7:45 pm: Gaming for Everyone Initiative, Lightning Talks with our Women Leaders

7:45 – 8:30: Networking Activities

Preparation:

We will have a free headshots station, so come prepared to take an individual photo that you can use on LinkedIn or for your professional network.

Bring some business cards. We will have networking and recruiters available for some great opportunities!

Address:

15030 NE 36th Street, Redmond, WA 98052

Directions: From WA-520 towards Redmond, take the 148th Ave NE North ramp. Turn right onto 148th Ave NE. Turn right onto NE 36th St and bear left.

Park in the Building 92/Studio D parking lot and enter the front doors into the Studio D lobby.

OR

Follow the signs to park in the garage near the Studio D/Building 92 elevator bank, go up the elevator and walk around to enter the front doors into the Studio D lobby.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #55

Dinner #46 on February 2, 2017

You are invited to join the Women of TEAM XBOX for an evening of learning and networking. This is an opportunity to find out about one of gaming’s most innovative cultures and how we work to improve lives through sharing and technology.

Agenda:

6:00 pm – 6:30 pm: Registration, Food & Drink

6:30 pm – 7:00 pm: Speed Networking (bring your business cards!)

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm: Learn from Women of TEAM XBOX, Recruiting Connection

Preparation for Speed Networking:

Practice a 60-second statement that includes your name, title or occupation, what you are looking for (such as information, leads, a job or internship). Speed networking is designed to get right to the point and there is no time for small talk.

Make sure you have a supply of business cards ready. If you are currently unemployed, get some cards with your contact information and desired occupation printed on them.

Assemble brochures, resumes or other type of handout, if applicable.

Remember that you only have a few seconds to make a positive first impression.

Address:

15030 NE 36th Street, Redmond, WA 98052

Directions: From WA-520 towards Redmond, take the 148th Ave NE North ramp. Turn right onto 148th Ave NE. Turn right onto NE 36th St and bear left.

Park in the Building 92/Studio D parking lot and enter the front doors into the Studio D lobby.

OR

Follow the signs to park in the garage near the Studio D/Building 92 elevator bank, go up the elevator and walk around to enter the front doors into the Studio D lobby.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #46

Dinner #23 on October 10, 2013

Seattle Geek Girl Dinner at EMP!

What do Madonna, Chrissie Hynde, Lady Gaga, and Tina Turner (among many, many others) all have in common?  They rock.  What do you and your female counterparts in the Seattle tech community solving tough challenges, delivering innovative solutions, and changing the world we live in for the better all have in common?  You rock too.

It’s time to get all these rockin’ women under one roof to share ideas, build community, and have a little fun along the way!  Please join us at EMP for the 23rd Seattle Geek Girl Dinner, hosted by Microsoft.

Event Details

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #23

Date and Time: October 10th, 6:00pm

Venue: EMP, 325 5th Ave N., Seattle, WA 98109

Cost: We’ve got you covered for this one!  Enjoy food and beverages  (beer and wine) and the exhibits.

Must have a ticket and an RSVP to enter.  Space is limited. 

Limit one ticket per person.

Guest Speakers

Tara Roth – CVP, Office

Tara Roth is corporate vice president of Test in the Office Client Services Group, responsible for the Microsoft Office system, an integrated suite of information worker applications, servers and services. Tara is directly responsible for test teams and test engineering in the Office Group. She has additional responsibility to drive engineering standards and methods with other leader across the broader Microsoft community.

Outside of work, Tara enjoys snow skiing, boating, spending time with her husband and two children, and volunteering in local nonprofit work.

Laura Kern – Partner PM

Laura is a firm believer in the power of people and the strength of emotional design.  She has over a decade of large-scale consumer service design at Microsoft across a variety of disciplines. She started her career in the “Geography Unit” back at the formation of Encarta World Atlas and the initial foray online mapping software where she went on to co-found the Geopolitical Product Strategy unit aimed at keeping regional managers out of jail, consumers happy with Microsoft, and products on the shelves in all our markets — with lots of lively moments from world court, government officials, and political factions.

She has spent the last decade in online services, most notably in design and user experience on Bing where she and the other early members learned the ins and outs of building an algorithmic search engine from the ground up, using data in design, and how to run and innovate within agile service models. She also brought the team and the principles together to enable high-value editorial to search as illustrated by the vibrant Bing homepage. She is currently the GM of Design & UX for Microsoft Advertising. Laura is a Minnesota native with a super-charged 5-year-old daughter, a Microsoft husband, and a passion for making things

Joy Chik-Partner Development Manager Windows Server and System Center (WSSC)-Remote Desktop Services

As Partner Development Manager, Joy Chik is responsible for delivering a rich and fluid desktop and application remoting solution called Remote Desktop Services (RDS) which generates $1B revenue as of FY12.  RDS is the workload within Windows Server that enables users to connect to virtual desktops, session-based desktops and RemoteApp programs.  The key value that RDS provides is the ability to centralize and control the applications and data that employees need to perform their job, while making them accessible from the wide variety of devices the employees use.  This provides “work anywhere from any device” while ensuring that your control and compliance needs are met.

Prior to joining Microsoft full time, Joy interned at Microsoft with the Exchange team in 1996.  She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY in 1998.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #23

Upcoming Summer and Fall Events

Hi all! Two quick updates for you:

I am super excited to announce the line up for upcoming events starting in August through the fall!

August – Code Fellows
September – Expedia
October – Concur
October – Microsoft

Please stay tuned for details regarding each SGGD event. Coming soon …

Second, it’s SGGD’s 5th anniversary! We had our first event on June 28, 2008. Microsoft Research sponsored our first dinner. It goes without saying, a BIG thank you to Microsoft and my manager (at the time) for the funding and believing in our mission as a community.

–Liz

Dinner #20 on May 16, 2013

Light a Fire with IGNITE!

Seattle Girl Geek Dinners and IGNITE are excited to partner in our first fundraising event to support IGNITE’s mission: to educate and increase exposure of STEM related careers to young girls.

IGNITEâ„¢(Inspiring Girls Now In Technology Evolution) is a nonprofit educational program that addresses the lack of women in STEM related careers. Originally launched in the Seattle School District, IGNITE’s program connects school-age girls to professional women in STEM careers who act as role models and mentors. IGNITE’s founder, Cathi Rodgveller (M.S. Ed.), has been recognized multiple times for her inspirational work including the Anita Borg’s Social Impact Award in 2012 and the Women’s eNews “21 Leaders for the 21st Century” in 2009. Since 1999, IGNITE has grown from a local presence in Seattle Public Schools to internationally with chapters as far away as Nigeria. With Cathi’s leadership and hundreds of volunteers, IGNITE has touched the lives of over 20,000 girls.

Seattle Girl Geek Dinners community and IGNITE have formed a partnership to achieve the following:

Volunteerism: Increase the number of mentors and event volunteers for IGNITE programs
Company sponsorship: To seek financial endorsement from corporations for IGNITE programs to continue to grow and make an impact at a local and international level

It is our job, as a community to increase the the representation of women in STEM and support educational programs that inspire the next generation of women on the career options available to them in the fields of science and engineering.

Please join us for an evening of networking and fun, as we tour the Microsoft museum and hear the founder of IGNITE, Cathi Rodgveller, discuss the IGNITE mission, program, and how we, as a local women’s community can impact the future of women in STEM related careers. We’ll even hear directly from the IGNITE Alumni! Drinks and light refreshments will be served.

Thank you to PACE Staffing for sponsoring this event and making this fundraiser possible!

Date: May 16, 2013

Time: 6-8 pm

Location: Microsoft Visitor Center, Building 92

15010 NE 36th Street
Redmond, WA 98052

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #20

Dinner #17 on October 11, 2012

It’s that time again, Seattle Girl Geeks!

Our next dinner is being hosted by Microsoft’s Online Services Division, Windows, Windows Phone Division and Interactive Entertainment Business on October 11 – and they are mixing it up for us this time around!  Rather than meeting on campus or at a restaurant, we’ll be meeting at the swank new event venue in downtown Seattle, 1927 Events.

Come prepared to enjoy great food, learn first-hand about the exciting new products launching this fall, and win some great prizes!  This event is sure to please, so RSVP today!

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #17

See you next month!

Liz and Stevi

Date:  Thursday, Oct. 11

Time: 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Location:

1927 Events

1927 3rd Ave / corner of  3rd and Virginia downtown

Seattle, WA

 

Agenda:

6:00 – 6:30pm:  Arrivals, Networking & noshing

6:30pm – 7:00pm:  Welcome & introductions to the evening

7:00 – 8:00pm:  More networking, mixing and learning at the demo area

Parking:

There are four pay public parking lots within one block of 1927 Events. For a map of the area: http://1927events.com/info.html

 
Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #17

Dinner #13 on Dec. 7, 2011

Happy Holidays Geek Girls!

For those of you that are new – welcome to our community!

This invitation is coming at the 11th hour, but better late than never, right? Microsoft Advertising has agreed to sponsor our Holiday Geek Girl Dinner.

Online Advertising is one of the fastest growing businesses on the Internet today. Microsoft is innovating rapidly to grow its share of this market by providing the advertising industry with a world-class online advertising platform and service. Come learn more from the women who influence and create the strategy behind Microsoft’s digital marketing, display, search, mobile & games advertising solutions.

We would also like to dedicate this dinner in memory of Elise Arnits. Elise was part of this community since we first started in 2008. Elise was a Database Developer for Mantis, and a single mother of two amazing boys. She lost her life in a tragic motorcycle accident this summer. We will be holding a fundraiser for her this evening.

If you would like to make a donation, please write your check to the Elise Arnits Memorial Fund.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=152784866

Lastly, due to space constraints, I ask that you only bring one guest if you decide to bring a friend. Men are welcome, but will need to attend with a geek girl.

So, grab your party hats, business cards, and come celebrate the holidays with your fellow geek girls and Microsoft Advertising! I will provide everyone with more information on the speakers and parking after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Date: Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

Time: 6-8pm

Location:
Club Contour
807 1st Avenue
Seattle, WA 98014

See you soon!
Liz and Stevi

Location Change for Dinner #11

All registered attendees should have received an email with these same details.

The location for the June 23, 2011 dinner, hosted by Bing, has changed to:

City Center Building
555 110th Ave NE, 26th FL
Bellevue, WA 98004

Parking WILL BE VALIDATED. Please bring your ticket with you to the dinner. Be sure to bring a business card to enter in the gift card drawing!

Our agenda will be:
6-6:45 – networking game/dinner
6:45-7:30 – Bing Design team panel discussion
7:30-8pm – drawing for Bravern gfit card and wrap up

Dinner #11 on June 23, 2011

Hello again Geek Girls!

The Bing Design team has offered to host a design centric Geek Girl Dinner. For the first hour of our dinner, we will have an amazing panel composed of several key designers from Bing. They will discuss the latest innovations in design and the various career paths you can take in this discipline.

Not to mention, Bing is hosting our dinner in the café on the 23rd floor of Bravern 2 Bldg in Bellevue. Be prepared for some amazing views of Lake Washington! Side note: parking will be validated …

In the spirit of girl power, the Bing Design team will also be raffling off a $100 gift card to Bravern. You must be present to win!

The dinner is on June 23, and starts at 6 pm. Space is limited, so be sure to register at the Eventbrite page

Below are the biographies of our panelist. We look forward to seeing you again next month!

 

-Liz, Stevi, and Vanessa

 

Laura Kerr

UX DIRECTOR, Bing

Laura is a firm believer in the power of people and the strength of emotional design. She has over a decade of large-scale, consumer-facing services experience at Microsoft. She SKUs toward V1 problems, of which she still believes Search is one. At Bing, she is working toward an integrated approach that redefines a cultural balance between experience design and technology.

Laura is a Minnesota native but has been in Seattle long enough to truly appreciate the fog and rain and the quiet reflection it offers. She has an eclectic collection of higher degrees, has lived in Greece, Italy, and speaks several languages. She loves to swing dance, explore food culture, and play with her most awesome 2-yr old daughter, Chloe.

Mira Lane

Bing Design PM Lead – Studio Management, Prototyping, UX PM

Mira Lane has been leading User Experience innovation in Bing for the past 5 years. Her most recent accomplishments include the successful launch of Bing where her team was responsible for much of the visible innovations in the product from the homepage to results page. Her innovations have resulted in numerous patents for Microsoft spanning aggregation of categorized opinion data to different methods of previewing and displaying faceted search data. Upon returning from her second maternity leave, Mira has shifted her focus to design validation, prototyping and PM for horizontal user experience features.

Mira graduated from the University of Waterloo with degrees in Computer Science and Mathematics. She has worked as a developer at Quack.com in the silicon valley, which was acquired by AOL, and later at Nuance building speech-driven applications.

Outside of work Mira has a full plate as an artist, a mother of two, and outdoor enthusiast. Though her recent family additions have limited her to Rattlesnake Ledge, her outdoor pursuits have taken her from the mountaintop of Kilimanjaro, to Everest basecamp to backpacking around Asia.

Christina Koehn

User Experience Designer, Bing

Christina has been working professionally as a graphic designer since 2007 and is currently a User Experience Designer for Bing.com. Bing is Microsoft’s search engine and is changing the way that people think about search and finding information on the web.

Prior to this, Christina spent time working with the Microsoft Entertainment and Devices division on interface and information design for connected entertainment and for various print and web design agencies in the Seattle area. Her most recent projects at Bing include a redesign of the global visual language system, as well as many design iterations around html5, and the next generation of search.

Christina graduated from the University of Washington in 2007 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Visual Communication Design and a minor in Art History. When not working, Christina loves to stay active by running and training for half marathons, playing volleyball, doing yoga and volunteering as a dog runner at the Seattle Humane Society and also enjoys traveling and reading about design and technology.

Goldie Chaudhuri

Program Manager

Goldie Chaudhuri joined Bing in the last year and has worked on Windows 8 and the Bing iPad app. She recently joined Bing Design as one of their first Program Managers, working on cross-device cross-team projects. Prior to Bing, Goldie worked on various experimental prototypes like Seadragon and Pivot at Live Labs and Spatial Databases at SQL Server.

Goldie graduated with majors in Computer Engineering and Studio Art from Case Western Reserve University, a weird but awesome campus spread out through 80 of Cleveland’s museums and non-profits. She grew up in Jacksonville, Florida and now lives in Capitol Hill where in her spare time she likes printmaking, soldering glowing costumes, geeking out about food and Belgian beers, wandering farmers markets and folk festivals, travelling, doing yoga, and biking around when it’s sunny.

Speakers and Topics for Dinner #9

Here are the bios of our speakers and their topics for our upcoming dinner on 1/13, sponsored by Microsoft Windows Server and Cloud division.

Shannon Loftis
Studio Manager, Good Science Studio
Shannon Loftis has been has been making games since 1995 and is currently the Studio Head of Good Science Studio. Good Science has led the way in innovating for Microsoft’s Kinect on Xbox 360, starting with its first published game, “Kinect Adventures,” which introduced the world to controller-free gaming on Kinect this holiday.

Prior to this, Shannon spent two years in the United Kingdom establishing Microsoft’s European-based game publishing subsidiary. Her most recent games include “Fable II” and “Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts,” in addition to her contributions to more than 30 games since joining Microsoft.

Shannon graduated from Duke University in 1987 with degrees in Computer Science and Math. Prior to joining Microsoft, she was a management consultant at Booz Allen & Hamilton Inc. When not working, Shannon loves to spend time with her husband and two sons, aged 7 and 9, either travelling, running, or flying.

Speaking topic: Disruptive Creation: Breaking Down Barriers to make Kinect

Kinect’s main goal from the start is to break down barriers between people and technology. Many rules and norms had to be discarded in the process of bringing this technology to market. Shannon will discuss the changes to approach, success factors, lessons learned, and what to do in order to have a creative technical career, based on her experiences building games for Xbox360 and for Kinect.

Erin Chapple
Group Program Manager, Windows Server
As part of the Server and Cloud Division, Erin Chapple’s team is responsible for driving the Management Experience and Automation Platform for Windows Server. Common across these deliverables is the goal of providing our customers rich, cost effective solutions to manage their environment. Erin joined Microsoft in 1998 and has held several roles focused on delivering solutions for IT. Erin holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo. In 2005 she completed a Master’s in Applied Behavioral Science from the Leadership Institute of Seattle. In 2007 she was recognized by her Alma Matter with a UW 50th Anniversary Alumni Award for her work supporting women in technology. In this same year her peers at Microsoft presented her with the Outstanding Mentor for Women Award. Most recently, Erin was recognized as one of ten “Microsoft Woman Worth Watching” on Mary-Jo Foley’s ZDNet Blog.

Speaking topic: Why Every Women Needs Her Own Board of Directors
One of the strongest means of support for your career advancement and overall job satisfaction are women. Yet we often find excuses as to why not to invest in building these relationships even though the pay-off is huge. As a founding member of the Server and Tools Business (STB) Women’s Leadership Council, Erin will talk about her experience developing her own Board of Directors and the impact a strong women’s community has had personally and professionally across the women in STB.

Event: Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #9

Date: Thursday, January 13, 2011 from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM (PT)

Location:
116 Bellevue Square
Bellevue, WA 98004

Reserve your seat at Eventbrite!

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