Geek Girl Dinner – Microsoft
This past Thursday, I left work early and joined Kunaal on a train out to (the new) North Ryde Station. We were heading to Microsoft for this month’s Geek Girl Dinner. (The Snook had planned to go with me, but he had a work deadline so Kunaal took the spot instead.) I have to say, I was a bit underwhelmed by the Microsoft Sydney offices. I guess I was spoiled by Google and Yahoo last month, but I expected more than just a normal, sterile cube farm. (At least they didn’t make me sign an NDA.) We signed in and were directed to a lounge filled with party pies and bottles of Coke. Huh? It felt like a kids’ party. (Not to mention the fact that my iPhone couldn’t connect to Twitter through their “guest” Wi-Fi. Whatever, Bill!) Luckily we met up with alyshajane and her husband, who were fun. We were then herded into a conference room for the Lego “Serious Play” portion of the evening. We all had small packets of Lego, which we were instructed to use to illustrate challenges and issues facing women in technology. We then had to each explain our “stories” to the other people. Honestly, I thought this part of the evening was a little “touchy-feely” for me. I wanted the evening to celebrate women in tech, not simply to provide a group whinge session about what was wrong. Still, I had a nice time with the folks at our table (including Kate Carruthers, who was tweeting right beside me). After the Lego, we headed down to the Xbox lounge for more food, alcohol (finally!), and free play on half a dozen Xboxes. Kunaal and I jumped on Guitar Hero. So overall this wasn’t my favorite GGD so far, but I did end up having a good time.