Tag Archives: Speakers

Dinner #57 on April 19, 2018

Electronic Arts invites you to join us for a Girl Geek Dinner on Thursday, April 19th, 2018 from 6:00pm – 8:00pm, in Belltown at our Seattle office!

EA girl geeks will give lightning talks covering a spectrum of what EA does in the gaming industry, from technical game development, to the production responsibilities as well as aspects such as legality, privacy, and security. We will also discuss how diversity is essential to EA’s growth and success, and how we celebrate and encourage diversity at EA.

SPEAKERS:

Farah Ali (Sr. Director Player & Developer Experience)

Samantha Ryan (SVP, Group GM, EA Mobile/Maxis/Bioware Studios)

Kristen Daru (Associate General Counsel, Chief Privacy Officer)

AGENDA:

6:00pm – 6:45pm – Registration, Networking, Food & Drinks

6:45pm – 7:30pm – Welcome & Keynote Followed By EA Girl Geek Lightning Talks!

7:30pm – 8:00pm – More Networking!

DISCLAIMER:

We may take photographs and/or video activities at the Girl Geek Dinner event for many purposes. By attending the Electronic Arts Girl Geek Dinner, you consent to your image being used in all marketing collateral and communications.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #57

Dinner #56 on March 8, 2018

Hello Seattle Girl Geeks! Zillow will be sponsoring our 56th dinner. “Move Fast, Think Big” will be the topic of discussion for the evening. Move your projects, team, and career in the right direction by being smart about what you spend your time on.

Agenda:

6:00pm – 6:30pm: Networking/food and drinks

6:30pm – 7:15pm: Panel Discussion

7:15pm – 8:00pm: Networking

Bio’s of speakers:

April Drake – April started her career in technology in the early 90’s, building websites for small businesses while completing a degree in Chemistry at the University of Washington. She worked as a software test engineer at Microsoft for a number of years before moving into program management. During her tenure at Microsoft she earned an Outstanding Award in Trustworthy Computing for her focus on Reliability. She started at Zillow Group in late 2016 as a Principal Program Manager, after a brief tenure at Amazon as a Senior Technical Program Manager working in fintech. She works in the Security and Compliance team in IT, and is in her last year of an MBA program in IT Management at WGU. April lives with her husband and 2 small children in Newcastle, Washington.

Lisa Johansen – Lisa Johansen is a Group Manager at Zillow leading the teams that intake and process the listing data that powers Zillow Group sites and analytics. Starting her career in network security research in academia, Lisa moved to Hewlett-Packard and then to Expedia as a software engineer realizing her passion for leadership alongside building services and architecting systems.

Debbie Dubrow – Debbie is a Senior Software Development Manager at Zillow and mom to three kids. Her team is responsible for growing Zillow’s audience by building engaging user experiences that make our paid advertising more efficient. Prior to transitioning into a Development Manager role, she was the Product Manager responsible for developing Zillow’s home seller strategy.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #56

Dinner #48 on April 6, 2017

Calling all Girl Geeks! Celebrate Inspirational Women as You Walk the Blue Carpet with Salesforce on Thursday, April 6, 2017 at the Seattle Girl Geek Dinner!

On Thursday, April 6th, Salesforce is inviting members of the Seattle Girl Geek Dinner to walk the blue carpet, enjoy a signature Salesforce cocktail, become inspired by our engineers, and enjoy meeting other members of the Girl Geek Dinner community. We want to celebrate those that have inspired us from the past, and celebrate all of you!

We’re excited to bring you an evening of inspiration, networking, and fun.

About Salesforce:

Salesforce is a trusted cloud platform that helps companies connect with their customers. We run 24×7 systems at massive scale, and give our customers innovative new capabilities with social, mobile and data science apps.

Location:

  • 929 108th Avenue NE, Suite 1800, Bellevue, WA 98004
  • Salesforce employees will greet you in the lobby.

Please follow us:

  • Twitter / Instagram / Slideshare: @SalesforceEng
  • Medium: salesforce-engineering
  • Event Hashtag: #SalesforceGGD

Salesforce Girl Geek Dinner Agenda

  • 6:00pm – 7:00pm: Registration, Heavy Appetizers, Drinks & Networking
  • 7:00pm – 7:45pm: Welcome & Lightning Talks
  • 7:45pm – 8:30pm: Networking, & Dessert

Salesforce Girl Geek Speakers

Chelsea Baltierra

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Chelsea joined Salesforce three and a half years ago as a university hire from UC San Diego. Since then she’s worked in the Communities and Sales clouds and she’s super happy to have worked on exciting Microsoft integration products as well as Chatter Feeds. When she’s not developing tests and working on exciting new features, she enjoys taking part in PTOn projects and geeking out over quality and testing best practices. Outside of the office she enjoys volunteering with Seattle high school youth, reading autobiographies of courageous women, and cuddling with her French bulldog.

Nazanin Bakhshi

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Nazanin moved to Canada from Iran to do her Masters in Computer Science. She studied there for two years and later started working at Amazon and then Salesforce as a Software Engineer. She has recently moved to Seattle. Her journey has not been an easy one, from being more than 6000 miles apart from her family, to trying to fit in a new culture, but was lucky enough to have crossed path with many inspiring men and women who encouraged and supported her. She now believes it is her turn to pay it back.

Bhavana Rehani

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Bhavana has been with Salesforce for over 10 years. She has worked on various teams and has donned many hats throughout her Salesforce career. Her love for learning and contribution keeps her equally enthusiastic as much today as she was 10 years ago!

As an engineer, Bhavana helped build many amazing pieces of software and delved into all layers of the application. Currently she manages an amazing engineering team, dedicated to building our amazing Chatter product. She is passionate about mentoring and guiding others into learning more about Salesforce technology.

Bhavana also loves sharing her experiences and learnings, especially about leadership/soft skills with her peers and directs. She strongly believes in people – that they can achieve just about anything with the right support and opportunities. Hence she continues in her journey to build great teams, a great culture, a spirit of knowledge and learning to make the organization stronger and to build fulfilling careers for her team.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #48

Dinner #43 on November 17, 2016

Please join Zillow as we host this month’s meet up and dinner! Mingle with other Geek Girls in the area with light snacks and refreshments provided. Several of our women leaders will be speaking to you on various topics related to the tech industry. Meet our speakers below and read an overview of their talking points.

Speakers:

Joyce Wu is a Development Manager at Zillow. She’s been writing code for ten years, interned at Amazon back when all the interns fit in one small conference room, and at Microsoft, back when the Surface was the size of a coffee table (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VfpVYYQzHs and the parody here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY). Since then she’s worked as an IC on shipping Windows 8, the Xbox One, and Zillow’s Premier Agent Advertising Product. She will be presenting the career advice that she’s heard over the past eight years and that she’d wish she’d known when she started.

Amy Winther first ran into the term “user experience” at the University of Washington and was instantly hooked. Graduating with a degree in Interaction Design, she started out designing custom mobile apps before finding her home at Zillow. Four years later, she has is now a UX Design Manager and will be speaking about designing and building user driven experiences.

Rebekah Bastian is Vice President of Product at Zillow, driving the strategy and execution of product teams focusing on advertising, financial systems, and connecting real estate buyers with agents. Rebekah was one of Zillow’s first employees, coming over from Microsoft in 2005, and has led the development of several areas of the site since its launch. Always searching for ways to connect her personal values to her technology career, Rebekah launched the Community Pillar program to help connect low income renters with affordable housing and serves on several local boards related to rising housing costs and homelessness. Rebekah will be speaking about how tech communities can create social change.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #43

Dinner #38 on December 2, 2015

Google looks forward to hosting local GirlGeek members at a Seattle open house on Wednesday, December 2. We hope that you will join us for presentations and a panel focused on the career experiences of three female engineers at Google. There will be plenty of time for conversation and networking, and in true Google fashion, there will be food and beverages on hand.

Agenda (subject to change)

6:00    Doors Open, Check-in & Mingling
6:20    Career Lightning Talks
6:45    Career Panel
7:30    Mingling & Networking
8:00   Good Night!

Speakers & Panelists: Check out the evening’s awesome speakers and panelists!

Details around logistics including parking and accessing the event space will be emailed to confirmed attendees on Monday, 11/30. Also, please enter on the north side of the building for access to the event.

Reach out to Liz Morgan or The Google Events Team with questions or requests for special accommodations.

WHEN: Wednesday, December 2, 2015 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM

WHERE: Google – 601 N. 34th Street Seattle, WA 98103

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #37

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

Dinner #22 on September 18, 2013

Expedia, one of the world’s leading online travel companies, invites you to join us, network with other technology enthusiasts, and learn about some of our products. Our panel of speakers will discuss how Expedia is using technology is used at Expedia and how we are using it to revolutionize travel.

When: Wednesday, September 18

Time: 6:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Venue: Expedia Inc. Headquarters

Address: 333 108th Ave. NE, Bellevue, WA 98006

Register for this event on Eventbrite!

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #22

Map: http://binged.it/xrDyJp

Parking: Parking is available at the Expedia Inc. building parking lot and nearby establishments. Please note that parking will not be validated.

Public Transit: If you are planning to take the bus, the closest stop is Bellevue Transit Center. The- Expedia building is a couple of blocks from there.

Agenda:

6:00 – 6:45  Check-in, networking

6:45 – 8:00  Panel discussion & Q/A

8:00 – 8:30  Raffle and more networking

Dinner, dessert, wine and non-alcoholic beverages will be served.

Panelists

Kristin Graham, VP – Engagement

Kristin has been at Expedia for more than 6 years and leads global communications and employee programs for Expedia, Inc.’s companies, which have more than 150 sites in more than 70 countries. Her team oversees global communication & events, philanthropy, diversity, and engagement/branding initiatives. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Aman Bhutani, SVP – Technology

Aman Bhutani leads the engineering team for the Expedia brand. The brand technology team focuses on the web tier of our global platform and services that offer differentiation from other brands. The Expedia technology team is at the heart of the brand’s product based growth strategy and has team members in many cities across the planet. Aman joined Expedia in 2010 after many years in financial services and consulting.

Sarah Gavin, Director – Public Relations

As Director of Public Relations and Social Media for Expedia, Sarah Gavin holds responsibility for influential programs across press, bloggers, broadcast and social media for the Expedia brand. Sarah has a strong background in technology communications and came to Expedia after six years at Waggener Edstrom where she worked on Windows and Internet Explorer. Sarah is passionate about the marriage of technology and travel and joined the Expedia team in fall 2011.

Jennifer Capasso, Director – SEM Product and Technology

I started my career in consulting, and then went to get an MBA at Carnegie Mellon, which first sparked my interest in technology.  I joined Expedia as a product manager 6 years ago. I have worked on both our hotel and check out product and last year, I moved from the customer facing web product to SEM {Search Engine Marketing} product and technology.

Maria Tiganus, Sr.  Software Engineer in Test

Originally from Romania, I came to the US 7 years ago, with a dual degree in Computer Science and Economics. I joined Expedia five and a half years ago, and I have been working in BFS (Best Fare Search) ever since. As a Software engineer in Test  for BFS & Air Shopping,  my role is to ensure that the quality of our product thrives with every release, leveraging developed automation to guarantee high performance, accuracy and competitiveness in the results.  I love psychology and movies, which is what I occupy my spare time with.

Julia Stefani, Technical Product Manager

I am originally from Tirana, Albania. I moved to the states to do my undergraduate studies in Computer Science and Business Administration/Finance at Truman State University. I then moved to St. Louis, MO where I got my graduate degree in Information Management from Washington University of St. Louis. I joined Expedia in April 2012 as a Technical Product Manager for the Mobile Web team in San Francisco. I love learning new things, traveling, foreign languages, food/cooking and keeping up with technology.

Register for this event on Eventbrite. Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #22

Dinner #18 on December 13, 2012

Happy Holidays Girl Geeks!

We are so fortunate to have a new sponsor for our Holiday Girl Geek Dinner! Cobalt will be making sure we end the year with a bang. So … get ready to party and hear what’s on the forefront of automotive technology.

Cobalt, which is based in downtown Seattle, offers customers nothing less than a reinvention of traditional automotive marketing. Cobalt has the most comprehensive suite of digital marketing services available for both automotive dealers and manufacturers.

Lisa Koutek, Sr. Director of Customer Experience, and one of Cobalt’s first employees, has seen (and been part of) major changes in how the automotive industry reaches its customers through technology.  Lisa’s got well over a decade of seeing how women have influenced how car shoppers find what they’re looking for online. Lisa will be talking to us about how women have helped shape the future of the auto industry.

Agenda for the evening:

6pm – 6:45pm – networking, wine, cheese and dessert

6:45pm – 7:25pm – speaker

7:25pm-8pm – more networking and wrap up

One request to the community – please limit the number of guests you register/bring to the dinner to one person per attendee.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #18

See you on December 13th!

Liz and Stevi

Directions:

 

The Cobalt Group, Inc (Division of ADP)

 

605 5th Ave South, Suite 800

 

Seattle, WA 98104

 

(The Entrance to our Building is in the courtyard across from Tully’s)

 

206-219-8000

Please allow sufficient time to park since parking is limited here in the International district. Here are some parking and public transportation options:

 

  • There is a parking garage (Union Station Parking Garage) located at 550 4th Avenue S.  Go to P2 Level and find the signage for “605 Lobby” elevator.   Bring your ticket with you and the Front Desk will validate it for you. Park anywhere other than “2-hour parking” (unless your interview will be 2 hours or less)
  • Diamond Parking has a series of pay parking lots roughly four to six blocks southeast of the building across from Dearborn.
  • Light Rail: stops in bus tunnel – International District Station (5th Ave South and South Jackson Street)
  • Metro Transit Bus: stops in bus tunnel – International District Station (5th Ave South and South Jackson Street)
  • Sounder Train: (stops at 5th Ave South and South Jackson Street)

From the South:

 

1)     Take I-5 North

 

2)     Take exit 164A for Dearborn St toward James St / Madison St

 

3)    Follow signs for Dearborn St

 

4)   Turn right at S Dearborn St

 

5)   Make a U-Turn

 

6)   Turn right at 5th Ave S

 

From the North:

 

1)     Take I-5 South

 

2)     Take the I-90 E exit toward Bellevue / Spokane

 

3)     Keep right at fork, follow signs for Dearborn St

 

4)     Turn Right at S Dearborn St

 

5)     Turn right at 5th Ave S

 

From the Eastside:

 

1)     Take I-90 West

 

2)     Take exit 3B for Rainier Ave N

 

3)     Merge onto Rainier Ave South

 

4)     Turn left at S Dearborn St

 

5)     Turn right at 5th Ave S

 

 

Dinner #16 on August 23, 2012

Hello Seattle Girl Geeks!

Amazon.com will be sponsoring sweet #16 for our girl geek dinner community on Thursday, August 23, 2012 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Our event will be held in their new urban South Lake Union campus.  If you haven’t been yet, it’s about time to check out South Lake Union and experience how Amazon, Vulcan, and SLU designed a thoughtful, walkable and attractive campus right in the heart of the city. Please register on Eventbrite to attend.

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #16

In the spirit of shaking things up a bit … Amazon has asked Laura Baldwin, President of O’Reilly Media to come speak to at our event! Check out her bio below:


Laura Baldwin started with O’Reilly Media in October 2001 as Chief Financial Officer and added Chief Operating Officer to her responsibilities in October 2004.  She became O’Reilly’s first President in March 2011. Laura is largely attributed with managing O’Reilly through the tech downturns of the past decade, and is currently responsible for O’Reilly’s worldwide businesses.  Prior to O’Reilly she was a consultant to the publishing industry through BMR Associates and managed several large consulting engagements across all genres of publishing.  Laura’s publishing career started at Chronicle Books the large, premiere publisher of popular culture, art, and children’s books as well as gift products where she served as CFO for ten years, establishing Chronicle’s successful distribution business as well as helping bring Chronicle’s Gift Business to market. 

 

I can’t let the entire cat out of the bag, but what I can share is that Amazon has a very fun evening in store … so, register, mark your calendars and see you next month!

 

Date: Thursday, August 23, 2012


Time: 6:00-8:00pm


Agenda:

Networking/Dinner: 6:00-6:45pm

Speaker: 6:45-7:15pm

Topic: TBA

Wrap up: 7:15-8pm


Address:

Van Vorst Building

426 Terry Avenue North

Seattle, WA 98109


Parking:

For a list of parking lots close to campus, please visit:http://www.standardparkingnw.com/locations/default.asp#south_lake_union_seattle

 

Thanks,

Liz and Stevi

Eventbrite - Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #16

Dinner #15 on May 10, 2012

We’re excited to announce that Catalysis will be hosting the 15th Seattle Girl Geek Dinner on May 10, 2012, from 6-8 pm.

Register for Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #15

At Catalysis we believe that data is at the core of every successful digital marketing campaign.  We’re a 20 year old marketing agency with start-up heart and we’d love to show you around our beautiful home – a repurposed, turn-of-the-century church on Capitol Hill.  Join us for a night of networking with other marketers, developers and analysts where we’ll share our vision of the future of digital marketing and the roles of data and privacy in successful campaigns.

 

When:  Thursday, May 10th

Time:  6:00 -8:00pm

Location:  1601 East John Street, Seattle, WA 98112 (directions: http://www.catalysis.com/connect)

 

Parking and public transportation:  We have a parking lot in the back of our building with very limited parking.  There is a pay lot next door to us and street parking is typically available in the evening hours.  In addition, there several bus stops within a block of our building on Thomas St.

 

Agenda:

6:00 – 7:00 Networking game (please bring a smartphone with you if you have one)

7:00 – 7:30 Game recap, presentation and Q&A

7:30 – 8:00 Wrap up

Beer, wine and hors d’oeuvres will be served. 


Presenters:

Nancy Hadley, Managing Director

As the Managing Director at Catalysis, Nancy is responsible for the operational and financial performance of the organization.  In addition to her management responsibilities, Nancy is also the company’s privacy officer and holds a CIPP/US designation from the International Association of Privacy Professionals.  She holds a BBA in marketing from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from the University of Washington.


Vivian Lim, Software Solutions Architect

Vivian is the fearless leader of the software development group at Catalysis and has been with the company for two years.  Prior to Catalysis, Vivian’s jobs included technology strategist, program manager, developer/tester, and human tissue engineer. She has two Bachelor’s degrees, one in Engineering from Concordia University and one from McGill University in Science for Microbiology/Immunology.

Register for Seattle Girl Geek Dinner #15

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