PALO ALTO, Calif. — October 5, 2010—The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) concluded this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing with the second annual K-12 Computing Teachers Workshop and Town Hall Meeting, a thought-provoking keynote delivered by Turing Award Winner Barbara Liskov, and an Imposter Syndrome Plenary Panel. The world’s largest gathering of women in computing, the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) is a five-day technical conference designed to bring together the research and career interests of women in computing and highlight their accomplishments across industry, academia and government. The conference, attended by 2147 people, was held in Atlanta, Georgia September 28 – October 2^nd.

Themed Collaborating Across Boundaries, this year’s GHC had attendees from 29 countries including 940 undergraduate and graduate students. Friday’s keynote speaker, Barbara Liskov, Professor at MIT and Associate Provost for Faculty Equity and 2008 ACM Turing Award Winner, highlighted the evolution of her career and the technical papers that influenced her thinking. Some of the wisdom she shared included the need to persevere, the importance of doing work that is interesting rather than expedient, and the rewards that are derived from intellectual honesty.

A group of high-ranking technology executives who spoke on a plenary panel entitled The Imposter Syndrome: Addressing Unique Challenges, provided insights to conference attendees about the common but typically unacknowledged condition. Participants included Fran Berman, Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Diane Gonzalez, Vice President of Product Development – Shared Services & Tools, Intuit; Yolanda Rankin, Research Scientist, IBM Research – Almaden; Katie Siek, Assistant Professor in Computer Science, University of Colorado, Boulder; and moderator Debra Richardson, Professor of Informatics and Founding Dean, Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

Attendees learned that many who experience the Imposter Syndrome typically have difficulties believing in and internalizing their own accomplishments despite clear evidence of success.

K-12 Computing Teachers Workshop Town Hall Meeting and Workshop

The Anita Borg Institute and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) hosted its second annual K-12 Computing Teachers Workshop and Town Hall Meeting on Friday. The town hall meeting was focused on bringing the broader community together to address the critical equity issues in computer science education. The Saturday K-12 Computing Teachers Workshop entitled: Overcoming Barriers, Boundaries, and Bad News built upon the equity issues discussed at the inaugural workshop and concentrated on identifying how each participant has the potential for transformative action. The workshop was sponsored by IBM and the Motorola Foundation. Last year’s K-12 Computing Teachers Workshop resulted in the white paper: Addressing Core Equity Issues in K-12 Computer Science Education: Identifying Barriers and Sharing Strategies.

“We’re extremely pleased about the tremendous growth and impact of this year’s Grace Hopper Celebration,” said Deanna Kosaraju, vice president of programs, Anita Borg Institute. “As we explored our theme, Collaborating Across Boundaries, attendees from around the globe shared their passion for technology. Through these conversations we expect to see further collaboration and innovation as a result. These women are changing the world.”

Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing 2011

ABI announced that next year’s Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing will be held at the Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, November 8-12, 2011.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology

The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. The Anita Borg Institute’s programs serve high-tech women around the world by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. The Anita Borg Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. The Institute’s partners include: Google, Microsoft, HP, CA Technologies, Cisco, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, NetApp, SAP, Oracle, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Motorola Foundation, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, and Raytheon. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.

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Media Contact
Anita Borg Institute
Jerri Barrett
650-857-6095
jerrib@anitaborg.org

PALO ALTO, Calif. — October 1, 2010 —The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) today announced a record-breaking turnout of 2147 attendees representing 29 countries for the first day of the 10th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. The world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, the Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) is a five-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Themed  “Collaborating Across Boundaries,” GHC is taking place in Atlanta, Georgia, September 28 – October 2, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta.

“The Grace Hopper Celebration has increased in size by more than 37 percent this year,” said Deanna Kosaraju, ABI’s vice president of programs. “We believe this growth is tied to the continuous innovation that takes place within the conference. This innovation would not be possible without the work of our industry and academia committee members who create new tracks and content each year. One example is this year’s Open Source Track, sponsored by the National Security Agency, which was developed by members of the Open Source Community. The Open Source Track culminated in an Open Source Codeathon for Humanity which included 200 coders.”
Highlights included keynote speeches by Carol Bartz, CEO, Yahoo! who spoke on Change and Duy-Loan Le, Senior Fellow, Texas Instruments who spoke on Camaraderie and Cross Gender Collaboration. A Technical Executive Plenary panel offered insights into Collaborative Leadership in Driving Innovation featuring Amy Alving, CTO, SAIC; Kelli Crane, Senior Vice President and CIO, Thomson Reuters; Romea Smith, Senior Vice President, CA Technologies; Kalpana Margabandhu, Director, WebSphere Development, IBM India Software Lab; and moderator Rebecca Norlander, Executive in Residence, Illuminate Ventures.

The Award Ceremony featured an array of technical women whose work has not only impacted the development of technology but also positively impacted the lives of other women working in technology. Award winners included:

• The Anita Borg Social Impact Award winner Ann Quiroz Gates is the Associate Vice-President of Research and Sponsored Projects at the University of Texas at El Paso. The Anita Borg Social Impact Award is underwritten by Microsoft Research.

• The Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award winner Laura Haas, an IBM Fellow and Director of Computer Science based at IBM Research, Almaden. The Anita Borg Technical Leadership Award is underwritten by Cisco.

• The 2010 Denice Denton Award winner is Beth Pruitt, an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University. The Denice Denton Award is underwritten by Microsoft Research.

• The Anita Borg Change Agent Award Winners were Ana Regina Cavalcanti da Rocha, Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Graduate School of Engineering, Computer Science Department; Gayatri Buragohain the founder of Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT), a pioneering organization that empowers women using technology; and Tayana Etienne a full-time professor in the Science Department of the State University of Haiti and the director of the MBDS Master in Haiti. The Anita Borg Change Agent Awards are underwritten by Google.

GHC features more than 117 panels, workshops and birds of a feather sessions with 436 speakers in all. For more information visit www.gracehopper.org.

TechWomen Initiative Empowers Women in Technology, Supports Collaboration between U.S. and Middle East

In a separate announcement that was issued during the conference, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) has launched TechWomen, a new initiative to enable women in the field of technology from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to reach their full potential.  TechWomen is a professional mentorship and exchange program developed in response to President Obama’s June 2009 speech in Cairo calling for more collaborative efforts between the U.S. and the Middle East that harness the strength of global business, technology and education. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton first announced the TechWomen program on April 28^th during President Obama’s Entrepreneurship Summit. The new initiative will be administered by the Institute of International Education and its West Coast Center in San Francisco, in partnership with the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology. For more information, visit: Silicon Valley Leaders to Mentor Technical women from the Middle East and North Africa.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, Microsoft, HP, CA, Cisco, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, NSA, NetApp, SAP, Oracle/Sun, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Motorola Foundation, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, and Raytheon. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.

Media Contact
Anita Borg Institute
Jerri Barrett
650-857-6095
jerrib@anitaborg.org

Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb 2010; “Reinvent Your Company, Your Strategy, Your Marketing, Yourself” addressed the need to refine and reinvent ourselves for future success. Success Magazine’s August 2010 followed suit with its emphasis on practical ideas for personal and professional reinvention in a period of “Great Disruption”.

Business in a reinvented world requires leaders capable of navigating and managing inflection points–personal and organizational–in order to grow and sustain innovation. This calls for a range of risktaking skills from courageous visionaries and analytical, problem-solving gurus to in-the-moment gutsy types and collaborative change catalysts.

Personal risktaking skills will continue to evolve as conditions warrant, increasingly becoming more adaptive, collaborative and responsible. No one size fits all situations and, therefore, new rules are required for success. But what if a situation calls for a different risktaking style than what you bring to the table? Risktaking in a reinvented world isn’t about doing everything yourself, but about extending your reach by partnering with those who can “even out the bumps” for you.

Below are ten new rules to try on, whether you’re reaching out, stepping up, or speaking out. Participants attending my leadership workshop Collaborative Risktaking: Your Innovation Safety Net in a Reinvented World during this year’s Grace Hopper Conference will have ample opportunities to try out these new rules.

#1

Responsibility: Do the Right Thing for the Right Reasons

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines responsibility as moral, legal, or mental accountability. Responsible Risktaking looks beyond the immediate to the longer term impact of your decisions by assessing the upstream and downstream risks associated with business decisions. Upstream areas include the organization at large, customers, and external stakeholders, while downstream assessments would include your internal constituents, supply chain, and local communities.

#2

Collaboration: Create Your Innovation Safety Net

Innovation in a reinvented world requires a safety net, one to support you in taking greater risks that achieve better results through short-term rotational alliances and longer range collaborative partnerships. Passé: Days of the reckless risktaker whose decisions were based primarily on personal gain and bottom line results at the expense of those left to clean up the “success mess”. New: the greater the risk the wider your net(work).

#3

Transition: Manage Your Career Life Cycle

Career transition is no longer a stop-and-go process, but an ongoing ebb and flow of change. In order to take advantage of this life cycle shift, you need to understand your personal change patterns and the optimum time for reinventing yourself by letting go of the old and allowing the new to enter. Leading through ambiguity requires a certain comfort level with change, transition and personal risktaking. Building and sustaining relationships both inside and outside your organization takes center stage, as it ensures transferable connections from company to company, position to position, and person to person while you develop your expertise over time.

#4

Credibility: It’s the Real Deal

Sustainable relationships begin with rapport and end with credibility. In between we have trust, influence—guiding others to think differently—and persuasion—leading others to act differently. Business in a reinvented world will increasingly demand shorter execution cycles for building your personal credibility with others. Shorten the cycle by acknowledging your creative sources for innovative ideas and solutions–it increases word-of-mouth trust and influence with others.

#5

Career Capital: Compound Your Value

Doing the right things for the right reasons requires the right data. Quantifying your contributions can sometimes be difficult to capture, i.e., how do you measure your influence with others in leading change that benefits the company directly? It’s time to take your finance rep to lunch, seek out a mentor, or sign-up for some finance courses and learn how to identify and quantify your direct and indirect contributions. By learning how to measure and report you and your team’s contributions, you’re able to extend your valuation reach across the organization.

#6

Decision-making: Innovation across Boundaries

Decisions made in today’s business environments can feel as if they’re being made in “reinvented time”. The world is a more complex place and your decisions now have the power to directly impact and indirectly influence upstream and downstream outcomes. Thus, collaboration in risktaking and designing credibility into your relationships take on greater importance. Do-It-Yourself decision-makers won’t be as successful in this reinvented world. Even though a final decision may fall within your “accountability space”, as an adaptive leader you’ll want to tap the collective knowledge of subject matter experts and innovation tribes in order to obtain the full benefits of your decisions.

#7

Succession Strategies: Care of the Future

Whether you’re heading towards a new opportunity within the company, off-ramping for a period of time, or opting out to start your own business, a solid hand-off plan is a great way to establish your credibility across the organization and leave behind a legacy with those who you may never meet. Succession planning and execution expertise will grow in importance within the next three to five years as demographic shifts occur around the world, including the ageing of executives and senior leadership teams.

#8

Entrepreneurial Leadership: Replace Fear with Creativity

Entrepreneurial skills will continue to grow in importance as companies look to reinvent their organizations. The leadership challenge in the coming months and years is how to inspire and motivate a diverse workforce that elects to put more creative “skin in the game” for product breakthroughs and for sustaining innovation. Suggestions for entrepreneurial leaders:

• Clearly define the playing field, i.e., what does success and setbacks look like in your company’s culture?
• Is there a traceable accountability process that is consistent across the board? Do you assume responsibility for your role and actions even when the going gets tough?
• Does the workforce trust its leaders? Do you know what trust looks and feels like for you? Would you consider yourself trustworthy? Do others trust you to “have their back?”
• How does personal risktaking translate in the workplace?

#9

Tools and Technology: Level the Social, Mobile Playing Field

Don’t shy away from trying your hand at using social media. Whether you’re experimenting with a business blog or setting up a personal marketing campaign inside your organization, it’s time to jump in and try your hand at building a networked community, participating in online training, and leveraging your social capital. Mobile technologies and use of smart phones and other devices loom over how we perform our jobs, and as leaders, you’ll be expected to experiment with using new tools and technologies that move people forward faster and drive results at less cost.

#10

Emotional Maturity: Learn from the Past, Reinvent for the Future

Emotional maturity is less an “age thing” as much as it about learning to lead in healthier ways. It begins by understanding your change patterns, grounding yourself emotionally, while creating balance in your life. Courage allows for setbacks and failed attempts that result in teachable moments. The ability to rebound from personal, professional and business setbacks without miring you in fear and complacency will redefine success in a reinvented world.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — August 25, 2010 — The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) announced today the speakers for the third annual Plenary Panel of Technology Executives for the 10^th annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), which will be held September 28-October 2 at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta, Georgia.  The Plenary Panel of Technology Executives will include Amy Alving, Chief Technology Officer, SAIC, Kelli Crane, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Thomson Reuters, Romea Smith, Senior Vice President, CA Technologies, Support and Kalpana Margabandhu, Director, Websphere Development, IBM India.  The panel will be moderated by Rebecca Norlander, Executive in Residence, Illuminate Ventures.  The theme of the panel is “Collaborative Leadership in Driving Innovation”.

The world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, GHC is a five-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Leading researchers and industry experts discuss their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today’s technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research, and engineering. The theme of this year’s conference is “Collaborating across Boundaries”.

About This Year’s Senior Technology Plenary Panel Speakers

Amy Alving, Chief Technology Officer, Science Applications International Corporation

Dr. Amy Alving is the Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President at Science Applications International Corporation.  She leads SAIC’s Office of Technology and is responsible for the creation, communication and implementation of SAIC’s technical and scientific vision and strategy. Dr. Alving has a diverse background in government and academia, with over 15 years of accomplishments in the areas of technology and national security.

Kelli Crane, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Thomson Reuters

As CIO of Thomson Reuters, Kelli Crane spearheads the development and implementation of a global information technology plan that aligns with the business strategy and leads the organization in implementing advanced enterprise information systems across its vertical businesses. She plays a key role in driving the execution of strategic initiatives and coordinating and tracking major technology projects, bringing Thomson and Reuters together under one technology umbrella. Ms. Crane has been with the company for 23 years, holding positions in technology and operations.

Kalpana Margabandhu, Director, Websphere Development, IBM India

Kalpana Margabandhu is the Director of Websphere Development in the IBM India Software Lab. Kalpana has received several awards in recognition of her leadership with the India Software Lab. She was named the recipient of the IT People Award for Women Leadership in 2007 and the Women in Leadership (WILL) Women’s Choice Award in 2008. In addition to being on the Board of IBM India, Kalpana is very involved in various women’s groups in India.

Romea Smith, Senior Vice President – CA Technologies, Support

Romea Smith was appointed Senior Vice President – CA Technologies, Support in April 2008. Since joining CA in 2000, Romea has been instrumental in enhancing CA Technologies’ ability to provide quality technical support and has been the driving force in improving customer satisfaction and employee experience. Prior to joining CA Technologies, Romea held multiple leadership positions with Sterling Software and Systems Center.

Rebecca Norlander, Executive in Residence, Illuminate Ventures

Prior to joining Illuminate Ventures, Rebecca Norlander started as a Software Design Engineer at Microsoft in 1991. She held many positions in various Microsoft development organizations, most recently as General Manager of the System Protection Team in Windows.

Tthe world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, GHC is a five-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Conference registration is now open. For more information, go to www.gracehopper.org.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, Microsoft, HP, CA, Cisco, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, NSA, NetApp, SAP, Oracle/Sun, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Motorola Foundation, Yahoo!, Amazon, Facebook, and Raytheon. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.

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Media Contact
Anita Borg Institute
Jerri Barrett
650-857-6095
jerrib@anitaborg.org

“The Imposter Syndrome panel discusses why women in particular have a difficult time internalizing their accomplishments. In order for women to advance in their organizations, it’s important this phenomenon be addressed. Technical women are responsible for amazing work and innovation and often they do not think it is worthy of acknowledgement. Because this issue is prevalent at all stages of a career, we have decided to make it a plenary session.” said Deanna Kosaraju, Vice President of Programs.

Panelists

Dr. Fran Berman is Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. From 2001 to 2009, she served as Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) where she led a staff of 250+ interdisciplinary scientists, engineers, and technologists. Dr. Berman has been recognized by the Library of Congress as a “Digital Preservation Pioneer” and by BusinessWeek as one of the top women in technology. She was awarded the inaugural ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award in 2009 for “influential leadership in the design, development, and deployment of national-scale cyberinfrastructure.”

Diane Gonzalez is the Vice President of Product Development for the Shared Services & Tools team within Intuit’s CTO organization.  Ms. Gonzalez has held senior management positions at Prism Solutions, ViewStar Corporation, and Ingres Corporation.  Ms. Gonzalez started her professional career at Hewlett-Packard after graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Applied Mathematics.

Yolanda A. Rankin is a Research Scientist at IBM Research. Yolanda accumulated extensive experience in telecommunications at AT&T Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies.  She managed the product development of optical networking subsystems at Luxcore Networks. Yolanda completed her Ph.D. in Computer Science at Northwestern University..

Debra J. Richardson, Professor of Informatics and founding dean of UC Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences, joined ICS’ faculty in 1987. Under her leadership as chair, ICS was promoted from department to the only computing-focused school in the University of California in December 2002, after which she served as dean through June 2010.

Katie A. Siek is an assistant professor in Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Her primary research interests are in sociotechnical interventions affect personal health and wellness. Her research is supported by NIH, RWJF, and NSF including a five-year NSF CAREER award. Most recently, she received a Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance Distinguished Visiting Fellowship.

The world’s largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, GHC is a five-day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Conference registration is  now open.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. ABI programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, Microsoft, HP, CA, Cisco, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, NSA, NetApp, SAP, Oracle/Sun, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, Motorola Foundation, Yahoo, Amazon, Facebook, and Raytheon. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.

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Media Contact
Anita Borg Institute
Jerri Barrett
650-857-6095
jerrib@anitaborg.org

• Before you arrive at your interview, extensively research the Company you will be interviewing with including their website, annual report, product reviews, media reports, financial news.
• Create a set of basic stories that illustrate how you are qualified for the position. Go in with a handful of stories prepared of successful projects that you completed in previous positions.  Be sure the examples are diverse, for example, ones representing your work with local, off-shored and remote resources; start-up; enterprise-wide; small and large teams; etc.  For each story prepare notes regarding what difficulties you faced, how you  dealt with them, what was easy and why, why you used certain tools, difficulties you encountered personally and what you did about them, results (preferably in numbers), and so forth. Memorize these stories and be able to explain what they illustrate about you.
• Also have personal stories prepared  such as times when people disliked you but you made them thinking differently, when you not only succeeded but exceeded expectation, when you failed but recovered from that failure, and so forth.
• Remember there may be no I in team but there are I’s in interview. Interviewers want to hear what you did and what your personal contribution to your team/project was. If you were very junior on the team and can’t discuss a contribution you made, then talk about what you learned.
• Be prepared for some of the more standard questions such as:
  • Describe how you handled a challenge.
  • How you would start a new project?
  • Describe one of your successes.
  • Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
  • Do you prefer teams or working more independently?
  • Why do you want to leave your current position?
  • Why do you think you are a good fit for this position?
  • What do you bring to the table?
• Have a set of lists known by heart. On this should be some of the following:
  • What professional blogs do you read and why?
  • What tools (usually web-based or version tracking, or bug tracking as well as a few that are career specific) do you think are useful/best?
  • What do you think are the 10 books that everyone in X position should own and why (think of having these in order in case you are asked for more than one)?
  • What are you reading now?
• If you get asked the question “What are you reading now?” you can say you just received a book that you really want to start to read and that you are hoping to start it tonight. For example, at the moment that book could be “Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age”. On the other hand, if you get asked what book you recently finished you could say you have been rereading an important technical book, or reading something to understand the basics of something relevant to your current skill sets (i.e. something on a different CMS system. The purpose of questions like these is for the interviewer to get an idea if you are keeping current in your field, if you are adaptable in terms of technologies, and if you bring something new to the table.
• Bring examples of your work such as designs, reports, etc. Think about creating an interview folder or portfolio. Make sure to include extra resumes.
• Create a reference list but do not give it to the interviewer unless you are asked for it.  Let your references know in advance you are going to be using them as a reference – send them the job description and your latest resume.
• Prepare a specific set of questions for the interviewer. For example – what do you like most/least about working here?, why did you join this company?, what is the organizational structure?

Preparation is critical for a successful job interview.  You can never prepare too much.  Being prepared will increase your confidence and make you a stronger candidate.   If you are coming to the Grace Hopper Celebration planning to interview, be sure to look at all our sponsors’ websites – they are all actively recruiting and you never know which organization will be the best fit for your career.

It is a nice view here, being a Program Co-chair that is. Since the very first conference I have been a presenter, an attendee, a member of the Industry Advisory Board, Chair for the Papers/Panels/Workshops committee (twice at that!) and now I am here, in this lovely seat. It has given me a different perspective of the immense amount of effort it takes to put on this celebration (by the way – it is more than you can ever imagine). And, it really gives me an opportunity to explain why this celebration is so important to not only our industry sponsors but also potential attendees from the business world.

Yes, it is a celebration and that had always been a sticking point back at the office. A good friend, mentor and engineering fellow at Digital Equipment Corp (that is where Anita Borg worked when this all started) told me time and again, the conference needed to be more technical. I would always nod and say, “Thanks for the input Alan.” I don’t think he can say that anymore and I certainly never thought that was an issue. From the start this conference has been all about providing women a place to gather, network, learn and, well, have a bit of fun. This is a place for women to openly discuss often difficult topics related to the work environment, to discover that there are so many others like them, to share knowledge without feeling awkward or threatened, to gain technical insight into the directions of the industry, to show the world that women are, well, brilliant!

So just how can you convince your manager, sometimes it is not easy, that they should sponsor your attendance? I truly don’t know the answer. Over time I was funded by my own group and by a group that heard about my work for the conference committee and found out I had no way to get to the conference. I had many co-workers who sometimes had funding, had partial funding and on occasion, paid for their own attendance. We all worked for a large corporate sponsor. So on the one hand, the company saw value in being a sponsor but sometimes not in actually sending anyone to the conference. Maybe they were just squeezing budgets. Being creative always seemed to help. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Share key parts of the program schedule with your manager – the keynotes are great, the invited technical talks are spot on and important to all of us in industry, the phd forum and new investigator sessions really gives you a heads up on what direction things are taking, the technical sessions are expanding. The addition of the special topic tracks seems to be a big win from this perspective. The career development and mentoring opportunities are unique.
2. Point out the opportunity for networking with people from other companies in your industry. You can learn much from them!
3. Sometimes it is helpful to just refer to this as a technical conference for women and downplay the celebration part when requesting that your manager sponsor you. Friends found this sometimes helped particularly when discussing with a male manager.
4. Point out this is a great place to go for a vacation – well, maybe not this one….
5. If your company is a sponsor, hint that they must think it is important and they need to send you to find out and report back. Reporting back is always a good thing, even if you only share with other women in your organization and perhaps some HR folks and senior managers.
6. If your company is not a sponsor hint that not only should they send you, so you can take advantage of the great offering, but also that they should consider becoming a sponsor of the next conference.  There are benefits to both attendees and sponsors!
7. Let your manager know you are interested in helping to learn about retention of women in computing and you want to help them in this area. Don’t threaten to quit if they won’t send you – the job market is not all that great right now.
8. Remind your manager how much you like to dance. Okay, maybe not this one either.
9. Get involved – submit a proposal and become a presenter. Maybe you did that and discovered it is getting harder and harder to have them accepted. Some companies will give you credit for trying and send you. And, for many, your proposal will get accepted and your company might send you.
10. Get involved – join a committee. Sponsor companies will recognize the effort you do on their behalf and perhaps send you along. And, even if they don’t, you will learn a lot about working remotely, communicating with a diverse and distributed team. All skills you can use to further your career.
11. Let your managers know that they will see a great improvement in your overall attitude toward work.  You will return with an amazing sense of being energized. It is a win-win situation!
12. If all else fails, consider splitting the cost with your company. Have them cover the conference fees, you pay travel and then find someone to share a hotel room with. Lots of folks do this. Last year I shared a room with the conference general chair. Figure out which way the cost splitting works to your advantage, take note of the discounted registration for industry people paying their own way.

Over the years I have tried to remain optimistic that I could find a way to attend the conference. My company went through two mergers, one the largest in the industry just a few years ago. I have been to all but 3 conferences. I have learned so much. I have made lifelong friends. I believe that Anita and Telle had a spectacular vision when they came up with the idea. I believe that, although perhaps initially rolling over in her grave, Admiral Grace Hopper would wholeheartedly approve of how far we have come. And, I truly believe attending that this celebration is one of the best investments you (and your company) can make in your career.

Every year the Grace Hopper Celebration has grown. The 10th Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is distinguished by an increase in technical content with four technical tracks, along with the traditional New Investigators and PhD forums Our previous “View from the Program Chairs” letter mentioned the Open Source Track ending with a Hack-for-Good session, a Human-Computer Interface (HCI) Track with a field trip to the GVU Center at Georgia Tech, and a new Technical Research Papers Track. Here we take a closer look at each of these along with the Invited Technical Talk Track.

An exciting addition this year is the Technical Research Paper track where all submissions went through a blind review process. Technical papers had previously been included with the submissions for Panels, Workshops, and Presentations. However, with the increased content the conference steering committee responded by creating this new track. The papers represent one person’s or a group’s research/area of expertise, is very specific to that area of research/expertise, and allows for in-depth discussion of that technical topic. There will be 8 talks covering a wide variety of topics including security, distributed computing, infrastructure and more. These talks are being presented by researchers from both industry and academia. This new track is complementary to the Invited Technical Speakers Track.

The Invited Technical Track features seven leading technical women who are working at the cutting edge of computing technologies. The invited speakers span a wide range of technical topic areas and institutions: Catherine Baudin from eBay Research Lab (text mining), Carla Gomes from Cornell University (computational sustainability), Susan Graham from UC Berkeley (programming language implementation), Claudia Bauzer Medeiros from University of Campinas in Brazil (managing scientific data), Lucila Ohno-Machado from UC San Diego (healthcare information technology), Jan Moolman from Association for Progressive Communications (technology to end violence against women), and Fernanda Viegas from Flowing Media (visualization as a medium). Get your seats early for these talks as they fill up quickly!

The conference steering committee is always faced with a challenge when discussion turns to special tracks. Last year, we had a great robotics track. In the past few years we have seen an increase in interest in the Open Source community. Our solution, a special, dedicated Open Source Track. OSS leaders will introduce participants to the career opportunities of Open Source Software and how to get started. Panelists from various organizations will discuss humanitarian causes targeted by Open Source Software developers. The track culminates in a Codeathon for Humanity where participants team up to build software that directly helps those in need. This track was created specifically for us by key women in the open source community.

Never wanting to our job to be easy, the steering committee also felt we had a unique opportunity to offer a Human Computer Interaction track along with an offsite laboratory tour of the GVU Center at Georgia Tech. During the tour demonstrations by Georgia Tech Faculty and students will illustrate first hand how research in human-centered computing is fostered by crossing the disciplinary boundaries in collaborations with experts in science, engineering, design, art, and the humanities. The HCI Track will include an overview the career path of a researcher and practitioner in HCI, the study of the interaction between people (users) and computers. Several technical women in HCI will share their career stories, addressing both challenges and opportunities that HCI work provides.

You might not realize it, but we started planning for this spectacular conference in July 2009. For us, it is wonderful to see the schedule come together, the letters of acceptance go out to the hundreds of presenters, the keynotes lined up, all just in time for us to start work on next year’s conference.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This year’s conference theme, Collaborating Across Boundaries, highlights collaboration across boundaries of: academics, industry and government; international borders; multidisciplinary aspects of computer science; K-12 and higher education. There are probably more but you get the gist. It is a very broad set of topics.

This is a milestone conference. Not only is this the 10th celebration, it is the largest and we have responded to your input by adding new tracks, new collaborations, all at an exciting venue. This year the program committee saw an increase in the number of papers, panels and workshops that were submitted for review. Wow. So many great ideas. We have seen an increased interest in the conference from both academia and industry, here in the US and abroad. We are truly getting noticed.

Here, in this first article in our “View from the Program Chairs” series we take a look at many of the conference features and a closer look at a new event, the new Career Fair, and the Open Source track as well as the Technical Papers track.

In response to requests from our industry partners, the committee has added a Career Fair to be held on Tuesday (Note that is a day earlier than usual! Be sure to mark your calendars.) The Career Fair will have simultaneous tracks where you can meet up with our many sponsors who are hiring and also where you can work on your resume. In addition to the Career Fair and Resume Clinic there will be a Women of Color Workshop on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we will have the Phd Forum and New Investigator talks, and lots of career development workshops for both industry and academia. These will be followed by the poster session and opening reception.

After that great start the conference will have 10 tracks for you to ponder on both Thursday and Friday. (remember, it is the10th anniversary). We highly recommend you attend the Newcomers session on Wednesday to get tips for selecting from the wide variety of choices. The tracks are focused on Academia, Industry, Technical, Student, Career, our Theme track, Invited Technical Speakers, a special Steering Committee track, an Open Source track and an HCI track. There are Executive Forums, Leadership workshops and more.

The Open Source technical track is being designed specifically for the conference by a team of women who are dedicated to increasing the number of women involved in the open source community. A series of talks and hands on exercises will lead you through the process of getting started and understanding the tools out there.

In addition to the Open Source track we will be presenting a special track on Human Computer Interaction (HCI). This will be highlighted in our next article, along with some of the other special topics and presenters that we have lined up.

All in all this is going to be a very exciting conference!

When you register for the conference, you’ll be given the option to add your Twitter name to our list of GHC10 attendees and, if you’re presenting, to our list of GHC10 speakers. This will make it easier for presenters and attendees to connect through Twitter. It also makes it easier for the GHC Twitter account (@ghc) to follow you and assist with questions about the conference.

Here’s how to make the most of Twitter for GHC 2010:

• Follow @ghc for Grace Hopper Celebration updates on Twitter.
• Start your tweet with “@ghc” to address a comment (suggestion: introduce yourself!) or question to the GHC twitterer.
• Find out what others are saying about the conference using our hashtag #ghc10
• Join in by including the #ghc10 hashtag in your conference-related tweets.
• When you register for the conference, add your Twitter name to our list of GHC10 attendees and, if you’re presenting, to our list of GHC10 speakers.
• Complete your Twitter profile with a picture, bio, and link to your website or blog so other participants can tell who you are.

Remember that if your profile is protected, others will not be able to view your tweets by search or through the lists unless they go through the process of getting your permission.

If you’ve wondered who is behind all those @ghc tweets, our primary twitterer is BJ Wishinsky, Communities Program Manager at the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI). Assisting from time to time are other ABI staff and, as we get closer to the conference, volunteers from our GHC 2010 Communities Committee. Watch for more information on the committee in an upcoming newsletter.

For those not yet familiar with Twitter, here’s a short video by Common Craft to explain the concept: Twitter in Plain English.