Girl Geek Scotland (GGS) has been developing and delivering exceptional educational and networking experiences for women in Digital Technologies since 2008.

We see the engagement of women in technology as being critical to the competitiveness of this sector, and to the development of our economy. As such we keep abreast of the research in this sector and leaders in industry. We have engaged with EU research and policy development through public engagement at National and International conferences.

Our aims are to:

• Sharing Best Practice: To improve working processes, culture and environment to appeal to and retain women across the digital technology ecosystem.
• Profiling Women: Either by offering speakers, mentors or role models for events across the digital technology ecosystem.
• Supporting the Delivery of Training: Enabling the widest distribution of training resources in digital technology sectors, sub-sectors and associated sectors across Scotland.
• Being Visible Allies: Promoting women in technology by contributing to events and supporting the widest distribution of promotional materials to inspire women to enter into or remain in digital technology sectors.

Our programme has always had a strong entrepreneurial thread and have invited high profile guests from around the world to take part in our panel events. We have worked specifically in the area of “Creativity, Computing and Enterprise” since 2009, attracting global thought leaders to our events as panel guests.

In 2010 we ran the very successful “Silcon Valley Speaker Series” which paired speakers from our own community with very high profile women from Silicon Valley. The same year we raised £85,000 to run our “Women In Enterprise, Workshops” which invited 45 women to participate in weekend long, immersive workshops to develop a initial business plan and introduce them to the funding pipeline. By the end of the 3^rd workshop 17 women had registered their business. In 2013 we ran a panel session with Silicon Valley heavy weights Heidi Roizen, Karen White, Anne Winblad, and Wendy Lea, and we invited Suzanne Doyle Morris (now at the InclusIQ Institute) to interview our guests.

This experience means that we have developed a good deal of expertise in developing the context and content for women in Digital Technology and especially those in the startup community. Our community includes Developers at the hard end of the spectrum, but also associated roles from across the technology sector, including softer skills. Our mission to support a broad spectrum, and include creative skillsets, is useful as a marketing strategy to women who tend to identify as creative; in developing the sharing of knowledge across a broad spectrum of interests; in encouraging women from different career backgrounds to understand the breadth of roles available, and to encourage more engagement of women in startup initiatives.

Aims

We have an incredible network across the entire ecosystem. We have developed strong relationships with many universities, startup incubators, public sector organisations SMEs, corporates, 3^rd sector and charitable organisations.