A Day at She's Geeky Un-Conference

I just got back from a day at the She's Geeky Un-Conference.  A really good, if exhausting, day!

More geeky women in one place than I've *ever* seen!  One friend asked if I was gonna be "the grand poo bah." No freakin' way I was close to being the alpha geek in this crowd.  I was probably at the median or below.  I mean, we're talking Major League Geeks!  And proud of it!

The thing was called an "un-conference" because it didn't have paid presenters, it didn't have a preconceived session plan, and the sessions were not just talking heads -- they were very discussive and participational, and the formation of sessions was rather organic. If you came prepared to talk about something, you could. If someone else came prepared to talk about the same or *nearly* the same thing, the two would get together and figure out whether to collapse it into one session or whether it really was two different sessions.  And you got to pick your venue of the various break-out areas/rooms.

AND each session had its own note-taker who was supposed to get their notes typed-up and e-mailed back in to the crew by tonight so they can create a Proceedings-like substance to distribute within the next few days.  (Hey! I remember a time when the Proceedings of a conference were not scheduled to be delivered for 18 months!)

On top of that, my friend Krista was there. We got to spend time bonding before the sessions, between sessions, during lunch, and after the sessions. We elected to attend different sessions. And she gave one, too.

I sat in on a session ostensibly about using social media to promote social change and social justice. Lots of different discussions about the uses and abuses of social media. A WAY different focus than those I've been being presented with of late.  Issues of privacy and identity also came up.  Very interesting. 

I was in a session on WordPress.  Now I'm gonna hafta learn PHP cuz most of the features in WordPress are customizable  and are done mostly in PHP.

I also sat in on a session on Agile project management in its various forms and learned of another new source control system: GIT.

Oh! and the food was SO not conference food.  They had a Barista to fix me Lattes in the morning to go with the bagels, fresh fruit, yogurt, juices, bottled water, and may other healthy breakfast noshes. There were noshes out all day (to go with the happy beverages from the Barista) like granola bars, trail mix, M&Ms, Kisses, fresh fruit, quick breads, and more. And the buffet lunch included 3 kinds of salad, watermelon, two kinds of grilled sausages, grilled chicken, "western" beans, grilled bread, and some vegetarian things on another table.  All of it was quite tasty!

Oh, one of the bonuses of the Un-conference format: it only runs around $100 a day even if you register at the very last minute.  And they offered "scholarships" for students and the unemployed. Cool!