Last few tickets available for Critical Skills for Leadership workshop!

We’re excited about our next event Girl Geek Scotland Mentoring Community: Critical Skills for Leadership on Tuesday 7 November 2017 at Whitespace in Edinburgh.

Last few tickets available!

 

Have you been looked over for a Leadership position? In this set of workshops Girl Geek Scotland will tell you what you need to know, and what you may not want to hear.

Workshops

1. Essential Skills for the Board in a Digital Age.

2. Do You Have The XFactor?

3. Finding Your Purpose.

Pre-register on Eventbrite

Register and find out more here:

Eventbrite - Critical Skills for Leadership

EVENT: Sign Up for our FREE Mentoring event on Tuesday 7 November 2017- Critical Skills for Leadership

News about our next event on Tuesday 7 November 2017:

Girl Geek Scotland Mentoring Community: Critical Skills for Leadership

Did you know that mentors routinely give men and women very different advice? While men are told to fill specific gaps in experience, and build much needed skill-sets, women are told to improve confidence. The subconscious bias in this advice is responsible for holding a lot of women back from Leadership roles. In this workshop we will explore what skills and experience are needed to get into a Leadership role, and what special qualities are desired at the highest levels.

Girl Geek Scotland (GGS) has been developing world-class 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.

 

Pre-register on Eventbrite                                               

Please pre-register for the event as there are limited spaces and fire regulations mean that only people who register on Eventbrite can be admitted.

Eventbrite - Critical Skills for Leadership

EVENT: Sign Up for our FREE Mentoring event on Tuesday 5 September 2017- Crossing The Great Divide

News about our next event on Tuesday 5 September 2017:

Over half of female graduates in the digital technology sector come from non-tech backgrounds such as creative arts, business studies and natural/ social sciences. (Tackling The Technology Gender Gap Together).

This event uses a range of case studies from industry, showcasing initiatives designed to help you make that sideways move and develop the skills you need for a digital technology career. Whether you plan on professional training, going back to work, or enrolling on a graduate scheme our workshops can help you identify, plan for, and fill your skills gap to make that move. Please come along to meet likeminded people and engage in lively discussion and action planning!

Girl Geek Scotland (GGS) has been developing world-class 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.

 

The workshops are as follows:

Professional Training Schemes: Transitioning to a career in digital tech

Back to Work: Inclusivity and Diversity at Sky Technology

Graduate Schemes: DXC’s initiative to get students’ into tech

 

Pre-register on Eventbrite                                               

Please pre-register for the event as there are limited spaces and fire regulations mean that only people who register on Eventbrite can be admitted.

VISIT OUR EVENT PAGE TO FIND OUT MORE AND TO REGISTER

 

Girl Geek Scotland activities in 2017

GGS have had a BUSY year so far. We have held 8 events so far in Mentoring, Cybersecurity and Blockchain; we’ve delivered a report on role models and mentoring for school age girls for Skills Development Scotland including four webinar sessions; and launched our Declaration of Support for Women in Technology with the delightful support of our Subscribers who help us achieve our aims of: Sharing Best Practice, Profiling Women, Supporting the Delivery of Training, and Being Visible Allies. We would therefore like to give thanks again to all our Subscribers for their ongoing support in our activities. They are:

and of course LINC Scotland.

We’d also like to thank our parent organisation Edinburgh Napier University and Bright Red Triangle.

For the remaining part of the bonnie year of 2017, we are focusing on developing our Mentoring Programme further, updating our website, we will be profiling some inspiring women in tech and related sector roles, and do look out for news of the confirmed dates of our Autumn events. But first we have a Summer casual meetup event coming soon – find out more below.

…also huge thanks to all our beloved GGS Volunteers who help make so much happen, and our event attendees and online community members! We do it all for you and each other :-)

Girl Geek Scotland and Digital Scotland’s ‘Tackling The Technology Gender Gap Together’ published

This year, Girl Geek Scotland worked with Digital Scotland to produce a report to inform, encourage and support school age girls to consider a career in technology and related sectors through a role model and mentoring initiative by Skills Development Scotland.

You can read more about this initiative here on the Our Skillsforce website, and view the report in full on the Skills Development Scotland website.

EVENT: Sign Up for our FREE Mentoring event on Tuesday 23 May 2017- Breaking the Glass Ceiling

This event will provide valuable insights to those of us that have experienced ‘the glass ceiling’ effect in our workplace as well as to employers who would like to maximize the potential of their employees.

We have a fantastic range of speakers and workshops planned to tell you more about the initiatives that are operating across a number of companies and how as individuals we can empower ourselves to challenge this issue within our own work environment.

Free Event SIGN UP ON EVENTBRITE HERE

For security please ensure you register for access to the building.

Event Details

Location
Anderson Strathern Solicitors, 1 Rutland Court, Edinburgh, EH3 8EY

Speakers
(Host) Anderson Strathern Solicitors
Talat Yaqoob – Director, Equate Scotland
Ceri Shaw – Engineering Manager, FreeAgent

Agenda
6.30 pm – 7pm Registration and networking
7pm Welcome and introductions
7.10pm – 7.30pm Presentations
7.30pm – 8pm Networking
8pm – 9pm Workshops led by speakers
9pm – 9.45pm Wrap up and networking

Refreshments
Wine/soft drinks and nibbles provided

EVENTS: Sign Up For our FREE webinars: Tackling The Technology Gender Gap Together

An introduction to becoming a digital technology role model or mentor for school age girls.

Free Webinar SIGN UP ON EVENTBRITE HERE

 

  • Thursday 27th April (19:30)
  • Thursday 4th May (12:30)
  • Tuesday 9th May (10:00)
  • Saturday 13th May (13:00)

We are repeating the webinar four times to ensure everybody who wishes to take part gets a chance to join in at a time that is convenient.

This is an online event lasting approximately 40 minutes.

Whether you’re a school leaver on a training course, a recent graduate, or early in your tech career, please volunteer to become a role model or mentor for school age girls! By becoming a role model, you will be making an important contribution to the future of the digital technology sector and helping improve the economic prosperity of Scotland.

This training webinar will get you started, show you how to use the available resources, and help you know what to expect, so you can go into schools confident you are fully prepared.

You will learn how to talk to teenagers about digital technology and gender discrimination and why both are important. You will learn how to create engaging presentations and interactive learning experiences while developing your communication skills and enhancing your professional capabilities and relationships.

We will review the accompanying activity packs and guides that will help you when you are ready to become a role model or mentor. You will be able to download these soon from www.digitalworld.net

The webinar will cover:

  • how to engage a teenage audience,
  • why digital technology is important and the range of jobs available,
  • why we have a gender problem in digital technology,
  • why it is important to get more girls into technology,
  • how to talk about jobs in digital technology so that they appeal to girls,
  • how young people can get into the industry,
  • how to use and tailor the provided resources,
  • how to construct and deliver interactive learning experiences,
  • what practical information and logistics you need before visiting schools,
  • how to become a role model or mentor.

All the webinars will cover the same material but places are limited so please select a time that is suitable for you.

These webinars will use Google Hangouts to enable the widest possible audience. It’s available online and for both iOS and Android mobile phones. The link to the Google Hangouts will be shared with ticket holders the week before the webinar takes place.

Please also fill in our survey. This will help us understand what we can do to support and motivate you in your role.

NEWS: Girl Geek Scotland Join Scottish Mentoring Network

Girl Geek Scotland (GGS)‘s Mentoring Community in Digital Technology was launched in 2016. We have been victims of our own success as demand has been higher than we expected and at times quite overwhelming.

To respond to the demand for this we have:

  • Grown our Mentoring Team to 8 people in clearly defined roles
  • Diversified our programme through a number of channels creating a one-to-many, and many-to-many model for improved efficiencies through events and workshops
  • Developed an online network to engage with wider group (geographically distributed)

We hold 4 mentoring events a year and aim to match 150 people with mentors in 2017. We also run an online peer-to-peer mentoring network where people can come to share experience and advice online. Experienced community managers who provoke, and support healthy discussion lead this.

We are now seeking to increase our impact with the support of the Scottish Mentoring Network (SMN).

SMN offer a range of benefits and support that we can draw on (click here to find out more).

In particular GGS will make use of the SMN Good Practice Guide, and the training they provide for mentors. With this support we aim to raise standards and professionalism in mentoring, providing a benchmark for programmes across a range of contexts.

We are currently seeking sponsorship to take our own Mentoring Team through accredited training in 2018. This will pave the way for GGS to take on the role of mentoring the mentors for the SDS Role Model and Mentoring Framework in Digital Technology for School Age Girls. This will provide additional support for young mentors who are themselves still in FE, training courses or in the early stages of their careers.

The Scottish Mentoring Network

The Scottish Mentoring Network began in 1997 as an informal group of individuals and organisations interested in mentoring. It is now a membership organisation covering projects throughout Scotland.

The SMN aim to provide a distinctively Scottish perspective on mentoring, which is developed and sustained through co-operation and partnership between mentoring providers and users at a national, local and thematic level and policy/decision makers, funders and the academic community.

Our GGS Mentoring Community

Girl Geek Scotland, Mentoring Community: Duration, Value, Timescales, KPIs

Girl Geek Scotland started our Mentoring Community in June 2016. This was in response to research which identified mentoring as critical to developing careers for women in technology.

Objectives for 2016:
  • Create 1 role to Lead the Mentoring Programme, to be responsible for organising events and manage matching of candidates with mentors through our partners
  • Create an annual programme of 4 – 6 informal networking meetings
  • Estimated participants per event 30 – 50
  • Place 15 people per quarter (a total of 30 people) in 2016
  • Develop a network of partners to support our programme with sponsorship and mentor outreach

This is an ongoing project which we expected to grow slowly over time and improve incrementally in response to the needs of the community.

Performance Exceeded Expectations

We estimated events to attract 30-50 people, and that perhaps 30-50% of the audience may sign up for mentors. For our first event we booked a venue for 50 people, but due to over 100 ticket registrations we moved to a larger capacity venue. We expected 12- 20 requests to be mentored, but instead had over 130 by the end of our second meeting.

Applications were closed temporarily, to enable us to implement a number of mitigating strategies to better support the initiative which I have described below. We were able to place over 60 people in 2016, and with our new personnel and processes in place we expect to have successfully placed over 200 people by the end of 2017.

Objectives To Meet 2017 Goals
  • Grow our Mentoring Team to 8 people in clearly defined roles
  • Diversify programme through a number of channels creating a one-to-many, and many-to-many model for improved efficiencies
  • Develop an online network to engage with wider group (geographically distributed)
  • Identify Key Issues and Challenges from online network to feed into the programme
  • Grow core operational support from Admin Comms and Marketing to 3 people
  • Create an annual programme of 4 Mentoring Events and Workshops
  • Provide for 80 – 100 participants per Mentoring Event (up to 400 people pa)
  • Place 50 people per quarter, and a total of 200 people in 2017Finesse on-boaring of candidate mentees (wider group than events programme)
  • Finesse onboarding of large-scale corporates to support our programme in bulk
  • Develop process for Mentoring Team to enhance quality of matches

EVENT: Mentoring: Sticky Floors – Registration Now Live

 

Girl Geek Scotland Mentoring Community: Sticky Floors

Is your mind honed for opportunity? Do you project confidence? … or… Is your subconscious holding you back? Nice girls don’t get the corner office!  At least that is what we hear – but it is all too easy to lay blame on the Glass Ceiling. So, what can you do to improve your mind-set AND your opportunities? In this workshop we will have a range of speakers who work as personal coaches, and can help you think differently to overcome the subconscious blocks that are holding you back in your career.

Event Details

This event is taking place at Waverley Gate in Edinburgh on the evening of Tuesday 7 February 2017. We will have some great speakers and breakout sessions – along with the usual time for drinks and networking. Bring those business cards!

Date: Tuesday 7th February 2017

Time: 6:30-10pm

Location: Amazon Development Centre Scotland, 2-4 Waverley Gate, Ground Floor Meeting Suite, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG

Cost to attend: FREE

Refreshments available: small snacks, drinks

What you need to bring: This is a networking event so don’t forget your business cards!

What we need from you: For entry to the building YOU MUST REGISTER VIA EVENTBRITE.

 

“Creating Compelling Outcomes” – Maria Hamilton will discuss NLP approaches to ‘Sticky Floors’ – overcoming our internal barriers to achieving things. To create and manage compelling outcomes this presentation will cover the 4 levels to success; managing your thinking, language, emotions and behaviour.

Girl Geek Scotland’s Mentoring Community

We are working to build a fantastic community and make it as easy as we can for interested people to find mentors in their area. If you are looking for advice or guidance from those working in your industry, in similar situations, on how to get into the industry, how to handle difficult situations, or almost anything we will find you a mentor to work with you. You may also have skills, knowledge or experience that another member of the community is interested in, so be prepared to share! The Girl Geek Scotland Mentoring Community is running its first live networking event for anybody who wants to be part of the mentorship community. The event and the mentoring community is open to people of all genders, over 18-years-old.

Why not sign up to find a Mentor or Mentee?

If you’re looking for a mentor in the technology or related sectors why not join our mentoring community. When you sign up you should also think about how you could mentor others, everyone has something to offer. Graduates can mentor university students, people moving into technology for the first time may have great skills in communication and leadership. Being a mentor can give you the opportunity to grow your skillset and help others! It will only take 5 minutes to sign up for the community, any information you share with us will be private, but we will use it to find you the best mentee / mentor. Sign up to the mentoring community here.

What happens once I register?

We aim to pair you up with the perfect person for you whether a mentee or mentor and make those initial introductions. Many people worry about the time commitment – don’t. Most mentee/mentor relationships are only 1 hour per month!

Sign up for our Online Community

Register for the GGS online community and be the first to find out about new events, the latest new or strike up a conversation with others: http://www.girlgeekscotland.com/join

REGISTER TO ATTEND THIS EVENT FOR FREE HERE ON EVENTBRITE

GGS Event Policies

Please refer to our Anti-Harassment Policy and Event Photography / Videography Policy as set out on our website. Your acceptance of which is assumed should you register to attend one of our events.

With thanks

With enormous thanks to our partners, sponsors and suppliers who help us make this happen. They are:


Amazon Development Centre Scotland in Edinburgh is responsible for devising and growing innovations for Amazon around the world. Small teams of developers, designers and leaders run major parts of Amazon’s business, technology and operations. From interactive UI design to large-scale distributed systems and machine learning, we do whatever it takes to deliver great products and experiences for our customers.

This is a place where you can make a real difference to customers by inventing, enhancing and building world-class software and delivering amazing results. We offer exceptional opportunities to grow your technical and non-technical skills by working on exciting and challenging projects.

Enigma People Solutions are a multi award winning recruitment consultancy, specialising in contract and permanent vacancies across: Digital Media, Software Development, Electronics, Technology Sales & Marketing, Technology Support, We offer a professional, flexible, and honest consultancy service to businesses across Scotland, The UK, and internationally.

Cathcart Associates was founded by a team of the country’s most successful recruiters, with a desire to show that good recruitment consultancy should provide a service which is simple, professional and effective. Their approach demonstrates that recruiting technical talent can be simple, seamless and enjoyable, and provides a service which adds value at every stage of the recruitment process. They are an agile and independent organisation with no parent group and are able to offer a more cost-effective solution, allowing investment more freely into their database and advertising reach.

Spring

Spring Personnel specialise in all aspects of office based and industrial recruitment. Their expertise lies in the provision of flexible staffing programmes, developed to ensure that clients receive a comprehensive staffing service. Their consultative approach is designed to ensure that each client experiences a service that is relevant to their recruitment strategy and organisation. From one-off assignments to totally managed recruitment programmes Spring Personnel has the expertise and resources to deliver a full range of recruitment services, addressing the entire recruitment cycle.

Administrate are a dedicated team that are passionate about making lives better through software. They spend most of their day talking to, developing for, and thinking about training providers (their customers) and their students. Their software helps training companies and training departments manage their entire business. Their integrated online system includes three products that focus on making training administration easier, helping deliver outstanding e-learning, and assisting in keeping websites up-to-date.

Informatics

Informatics Ventures supports globally ambitious technology companies headquartered in Scotland. Through practitioner-led entrepreneurship education and community networking, they prepare and equip Scotland’s technology entrepreneurs to scale up internationally. Engage Invest Exploit (EIE), their flagship technology investor showcase, connects Scotland’s most exciting and innovative young companies with investors from all over the world and prepares them for the process of securing investment. There is no bigger platform for Scottish businesses than EIE.

SISCA

SICSA The Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance (SICSA) is a Scottish Funding Council Research Pool, comprising 14 of Scotland’s Universities. Our goal is to develop Scotland’s research excellence in Informatics and Computing Science (ICS) by supporting and facilitating collaboration among our members.

Now home to over 18,000 students from over 100 countries, we first welcomed 800 students as Napier Technical College in 1964. However our story goes back to the time of John Napier, the brilliant sixteenth century mathematician and philosopher from whom we take our name. When you come to Edinburgh Napier University, you’ll study at one of our six specialist schools. Each of our schools is an impressive institution in its own right, with world-class facilities, academics, researchers and international links.

Bright Red Triangle (BRT) offers a comprehensive set of professional/personal development activities for students and graduates in partnership with key stakeholders within and beyond Edinburgh Napier. Our focus is on improving the enterprise skills and employability of our students and graduates while instilling them with an entrepreneurial mindset. We offer business incubation services, paid consultancy experience as well as design thinking and design your future courses to our current

NEWS: Volunteering, Mentoring, and Programme for 2017

We have 3 announcements that will follow in the next few weeks.

  • Next Mentoring Event in 2016
  • Programme Announcement for 2017
  • Volunteers Wanted

So please look out for details that will follow before the end of the year. Girl Geek Scotland has gone through massive growth this year. After being dormant for a while we relaunched in February, aiming to rebuild our community. The truth is we were unprepared for demand. Each event we have held was sold out to max capacity, and our last event had a waiting list that was almost as long as the delegate list.

Volunteer Now With Girl Geek Scotland

If you can support us by becoming a Mentoring Relationship Manager please email us at jayne@girlgeekscotland.com.

Mentoring Relationship Manager (2 roles)

  • Gathering mentor & mentee details
  • Matching mentors and mentees
  • Keeping everyone informed of progress (emails etc)
  • Ensuring any safety info is adhered to
  • Designing questionnaires and surveys
  • Ensuring Next Steps are always clear to sponsors & delegates

More Mentors Needed at Girl Geek Scotland

We are keen to get more mentors to sign-up and for support in helping us match mentors and mentees. If your organisation can help us find more mentors please email us at lauren@girlgeekscotland.com.

Mentoring Programme Update

We knew (we had listened!) that you wanted a Mentoring Programme. We expected a small group of around 30 and by the close of the second event we had over 100 people signed up. What this means is that we have struggled with the workload of matching people with mentors. I want you to know that we are still working on it and we expect to find mentors for everyone by the close of the year. To meet this demand and to progress our vision for the year ahead, we have been focusing on growing our team. We now have 12 volunteers! This will help us to speed up the matching process for our Mentoring Programme, while still curating the world class panel events that we have become known for. Please remember that most of us work full time and squeeze Girl Geek Scotland volunteering into coffee breaks and after hours effort. So although we may not get back to you immediately, please know that we are working hard behind the scenes to create events and a service, that will help you in your career.

Our Team So Far

Morna Simpson – Founder and Programme Lead
Jane Grant – Parent Organisation, Accounts & Sponsorship
Belinda Love – Head of Administration & Comms
Ali King – Lead for Coding & Development Workshops
Arlene McDaid – Lead for Hackdays
Samantha Leeman – Lead for Panel Events
Jayne Coulthard – Event and Volunteer Management
Laura Forsyth – Sponsorship Support
Maria Hamilton – Event Curation
Lauren Gemmell – Mentoring Community Lead
Maria Rooney – Mentoring Community, Relationship Management
Emma Corstorphine – Mentoring Community, Relationship Management

A huge thank you to our team of volunteers for giving their time to work with us, and welcome to our new recruits! Things are heating up as we prepare for next year. We have one more event planned and will advertise for the volunteers to fill the roles above. So please look out for emails over the next few weeks in the run up to Christmas.

Best wishes
Morna

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