In late July, a few of us got together in a downtown Guelph cafe to drink coffee and talk about ideas for local Girl Geek Dinner events. We’ve enjoyed the Kitchener/Waterloo events, and we want to foster something similar in Guelph.
We’d like the dinners to be a positive environment for women to connect over good food and interesting subjects. The dinners will provide a chance to network with like-minded women in your community, establish informal mentoring relationships, and to explore some interesting subjects. Previous dinners in KW have discussed how Google uses its tools to support disaster response and girls and gaming.
We had a false start in June, so we’re planning at a shiny new Girl Geek Dinner for September. We’re looking for the sweet spot that gives us Girl Geek Dinners with
- Accessible cost
- Downtown venue
- Fresh speaking roster
Cost
We want the Girl Geek Guelph dinners to be affordable for students as well as professionals, so we’re looking at ways to keep costs down. One way is by finding venues that allow attendees to purchase their own meals. If this isn’t possible, we’ll make sure we tell you about the catered food that your ticket will buy. Once we’re up and running, we’ll also look at ways to sponsor attendees who might find the cost a barrier to attending.
Venue
We want to keep the venue near Guelph’s vibrant downtown. We’re looking for a place that can provide meals for purchase as well as the meeting space and Wi-Fi that we require. This is a challenge. We’re open to suggestions and to hearing from local businesses who would like to host.
Roster
We want speakers that you haven’t seen much of at other local tech events. We’re also discussing alternating speaking events with social events.
Stay tuned for more details as September approaches. If you have questions or suggestions, you can tweet them to @GGDGuelph.
