Brussels Girl Geek Dinner

European e-Skills Week highlights the growing demand for skilled ICT users and professionals to drive a competitive and innovative Europe. This exciting campaign seeks to inform students, young professionals and SMEs about the vast range of opportunities that ICT-related jobs present.

Throughout the coming months, public authorities, ICT companies, education institutions and students will engage in hundreds of activities, training events, competitions and much more.  The awareness campaign will culminate in a dedicated European e-Skills Week from 1 to 5 March 2010.

This ground breaking initiative of the European Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry is coordinated by DIGITALEUROPE and European Schoolnet in conjunction with twenty national partners.

Want to know more?

• http://eskills-week.ec.europa.eu/
• Skills Week - Belgium (.pdf)

Preliminary dates for upcoming Brussels Girl Geek Dinners in 2010. Mark your calendars!

What happens if you send a bunch of car loving geek girls to an event like Top Gear Live?

They have get high on fumes, have lots of fun, and even fall in love. More details:

• Ik ben verliefd! by @eveliendb at eveliendb.com.
• We are all the Stig by @bnox at bnox.be.
• Flickr set TopGearLive in Amsterdam by CWillaerts
• The secret ingredients (to seduce a man) by @imkedielen at imkedielen.wordpress.com.
• Facebook foto’s van Imke Dielen.
• Imke Dielen’s video’s: Top Gear Live - football, Top Gear Live - motor, Top Gear Live - fire, and Top Gear Live - the start.

Below: Top Gear Live Flickr set by Gil Plaquet.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Brussels Girl Geek Dinners have been totally spoilt lately! Here’s a round up of recent sponsor contests, and the girls who won:

• Win an Anne-Sophie party dress:  won by La Fie en Rose (@Fielosophie) with A goodie outfit for Clo! Thank you Anne-Sophie
• Win 10 entries to Weight Watchers meetings: won by Witch (@Gudrun) with Weight Watchers. Thank you Weight Watchers!
• Win a ticket to Top Gear Live in Amsterdam on January 24th: won by  Imke Dielen (@ImkeDielen) with Gierende banden en blutsen in de Lamborghini and by Eveliendb (@Eveliendb) with Mijn geschiedenis met auto’s. Thank you Dunlop!

Found at http://www.barbie.com/vote/:

“Computer engineers have lots of different specialties. They can do anything from building coputers to making video games!”

The next Barbie could be an environmentalist, a surgeon, an architect or a news anchor. But if you help with this vote, Barbie’s next career could be in IT!

Mattel decides on February 12 what Barbie will be next. I can hardly wait.

Dunlop is proud sponsor of the Amsterdam edition of Top Gear Live – a thundering show filled with the roar and smoke of the world’s fastest cars and jaw-dropping stunts under the watchful eye of three grown men that talk of little else besides cars, performance, speed and someone’s supposedly whitened teeth. With this travelling show, “the boys”, give every car fan the opportunity to spend an evening on what really matters: cars.

Dunlop offers two car-loving Geek Girls the opportunity to experience the spectacle up close and personal! We’re giving away two tickets to the last European edition of the show on Sunday January 24th in Amsterdam.

As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of high and ultra-high performance tires, Dunlop’s name is inextricably linked to motorsport. The technologies that the company develops for use on the world’s leading circuits are also found in the tires it makes for everyday motoring. It is no surprise then that many of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers, including Alfa Romeo, AMG, Audi, Bentley, BMW, Jaguar, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche, fit Dunlop as standard.

Also itching to be in Amsterdam on the 24^th?

Here’s what you need to do:

1) Write a blog post before January 21st. Make sure it contains the correct answers to these three questions:

1. Of which international race, that takes place from 14 - 16 January, is Dunlop title sponsor?
2. Which Dunlop ultra high performance tire contains Kevlar® in the apex of the tire?
3. Which Dunlop winter tire was named ‘Testsieger’ in the 2009 winter tire test conducted by German automotive magazine AutoZeiting?

Also make sure to convince the Dunlop people in a few sentences why you ABSOLUTELY have to be there on the 24th!

2) Put a link to this post (http://www.brusselsgirlgeekdinner.be/?p=539) in your blog post so we can see it pop up in the TrackBacks of this story.

Good Luck!

Voting has just started for the election of ICT Woman of the Year 2010. Have a look at this year’s candidates:

Criteria are:

• Being Belgian and/or working in Belgium
• Cio / Ceo
• Personality
• Leadership
• Visibility
• impact on the business/ict sector

Voting round ends on 29 January 2010. Cast your vote and spread the word!

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Steffest: Back home from #BGGD23 at #cafeN with a presentation of Adobe’s Christophe Rooms. Nice seeing everyone again, tx @bnox for the impeccability

nanske: New Blogpost: “BGGD & Café Numérique” http://bit.ly/6kqLNn (expand) #bggd #CafeN

seynaeve: Voila quelques dizaines de sandwitch distribues aux nececiteux de la guare du nord grace a a @bnox #bggd, tres bon #CafeN !

kattebel: Happy to have met up again with @letzi83 @eurosocialiste and @chaos_theory_be #cafeN

melissa_bxl: A enfin rencontré @Chaos_Theory_Be @kattebel @rosefraiz et @yasinozcan! #ilnetaitpastemps #cafeN #BGGD23

francbelge: parle des droits de l’Homme, de la femme et de la lutte des classes au #cafeN. Offtopic!!!

Chaos_Theory_Be: http://twitpic.com/wy96o - #cafeN …il y a toujours du monde… Very very fun!

 ploempje: Er zijn hier tv’kes waar uwe tweet opkomt als ge hem tagt met #cafeN Test test #bggd

gregone: Adobe guy announced that flash cs5 will author objective-c apps! #cafen

Goedles: Flash will have a ‘transfer to iPhone application’ functionality. #bggd23 #cafen

Elz: Première with speech-recognition as meta-data? Keep talking Adobe-man! #BGGD

Vinch01: Listening to @christophrooms (Adobe) about future of video on the Web. #cafeN

Gudrun: flash will make video searchable. Now that would be something! #BGGD I really wouldn’t want to input the meta data :-p

Chaos_Theory_Be: Une des premieres fois que tout le monde ecoute (presque) religieusement le presentateur.Même @Mateusz fait pas ses blagues potaches. #cafeN

melissa_bxl: Adobe Open Screen? Too bad Apple’s missing from the list! #cafeN #BGGD23

Elz: HBO show from different angles looked cool! #BGGD

Gudrun: Die gast van Adobe is echt wel niet preaching for the choir, integendeel. Veel sceptische gezichten hier. #BGGD

netlash: Yeah yeah yeah. But does it run on an iPhone? #bggd #cafeN

melissa_bxl: Talking cross-platform development… #cafeN #BGGD23

Chaos_Theory_Be: tiens comique comme l ambiance du #cafeN est plus feminine aujourd hui #BGGD23 (@ Café Numérique w/ @seynaeve @melissa_bxl @mateusz)

melissa_bxl: Let’s talk seriously wirh Adobe now…#cafeN #BGGD23

Topanga: Opening BGGD, met presentatie over BGGD

mreys: @janosizoltan explains the #bggd ( I shall say this only once!) at #Cafen

Gudrun: #BGGD de mannelijke spreker die ons introduceert, vindt ons feministisch en vindt ’sacoche’ nogal denigrerend. Like we care :-p

ramonsuarez: BGGD at #CafeN starting.@janosizoltan as MC. Not so girly himself but the audience is #geekpower

zandwacht: Benieuwd naar de Adobe strategie voor webvideo in het mobiele web tijdens Café Numérique #cafeN #bggd23

melissa_bxl: @janosizoltan fait le MC pendant que @bnox le photographie #cafeN #BGGD23
miespaties: @CafeNumerique is new, free & looking for ideas & suggestions. #cafen #bggd23
Gudrun: munching away at Mirano, while chatting. I really love those #bggd #cafeN
Elz: #cafeN heeft een übercool live-twitter-systeem… +1 voor Mirano.
AnnMarcelis: At Mirano for #CafeN and #bggd23 , eating a sandwich and waiting for my ’sakoche’ @on_point
karen18: Clo is er helemaal klaar voor in de Mirano # bggd
tigressse: une 1ère, attending brussels girl geek dinner hosted par les mâles du #cafeN au Murano. 48 femelles inscrites ça risque d’être bruyant!

Christoph Rooms joined computer software company Adobe in 2002. The first 5 years he’s been evangelizing the LiveCycle platform and Flex towards the enterprise market.
Since December 2009 he is working on business development for Adobe Creative Pro market for the Belgium and Luxemburg area. Product wise this means all different flavours of Creative Suite, Flash Media streaming, Indesign server, Flash platform (designers and developers), e-books, …

Christoph Rooms  will talk about 2 topics

1. the evolution of video on the web
2. a short update on Flash on mobile

The guestlist on http://brusselsgirlgeekdinner23.pbworks.com/ is full but if you still want to join us: put your name on the Reserves List. We usually get all the reserves in.

The first BGGD of the new year will be on Wednesday 6 January at 6:30PM at the Mirano (Leuvensesteenweg 38, 1210 Brussels).
Every Wednesday night is Café Numerique (@cafenumerique) at the Mirano. But for once, the Café Numerique will be all about the Girl Geeks and what they are passionate about!

Agenda:

• 6:30PM - Welcome drinks (for those who registered at the wiki)
• 7:00PM - Introduction of BGGD by Zoltán Janosi
• 7:30 PM - Keynote by Christoph Rooms, Technical Evangelist at Adobe Systems
• 8:30 PM - Networking: drinks and snacks

We’ve had a busy few months and it’s time to slow down a bit. But before we go: an overview of all the different ways you can keep track of upcoming Brussels Girl Geek Dinners, and get/keep in touch with each other:

• Facebook Group Brussels Girl Geek Dinners (276 members)
• Twitter List Brussels Girl Geek Dinners (following 128, followers 66)
• LinkedIn Group Brussels Girl Geek Dinners (110 members)
• Blog feed subscribe by e-mail (397 subscribers)
• Blog RSS feed (71 subscribers in Google Reader, not sure about the rest)

Wanting to lose the kilos from your mother’s Christmas turkey? Or just wanting to find a healthy way of life by better controlling your alimentation?
Weight Watchers is giving away 10 free entrances to the meeting of your choice! You will be amongst the first to discover its brand-new ProPoints Program!
How to participate?
Write a blog post, completing this story:

‘Your mother has prepared a delicious but sooooooooo calorific Christmas meal… She would really be hurt if you didn’t participate to this orgy! But you really don’t want to see it fixed on your ankles for months (or more!). You have no choice, you cannot escape it… unless you…’

How will you get out of that situation? Give us your solution on your blog! The entries will be judged on the following criteria: humor, originality and visuals.
Make sure to put a link to this blog post in yours, so we can see you participated in the trackback.

You can participate until the 31st of December.

Short personal note: it’s almost Christmas and New Year, and I haven’t got a thing to wear. As the girl geeks at Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #21 at Anne-Sophie will remember, the Anne-Sophie team has helped me to pick out three sets of party clothes. Here they are:

Time for a little contest!

• I win: the set of clothes that was chosen by you. Yes, you! Write a blog post linking to this one, in which you elaborate on why I should pick set 1, set 2 or set 3. I will comply to whatever the most convincing majority tells me to.
• Who else wins? The Smartshopping experts over at Anne-Sophie will have a look at all the incoming links below this post and pick one winner who has
  1) the most original arguments on what I should wear
  2) a link to Anne-Sophie
  3) if you were at BGGD #21, what you thought of the colour advice / hair make-over / …
  This winner (boy or girl, but has to live in Belgium) gets a voucher of 125 euros worth to spend in one of the Anne-Sophie shops. To give you an idea: it’s called Smartshopping because the dresses are hand picked because of their stylishness but just as well because they are reasonably priced. Your chances of finding a pretty dress for around 125 euros at Anne Sophie are pretty high!

Contest closes in 1 week: on Thursday 24 December Anne-Sophie will announce the winner on this blog so make sure to post before that date.

Kerstdineetje met Weight Watchers, jawel @ Witch: “We kregen een korte uitleg vanwege de Weight Watchers zelf, en werden daarna vergast op Mitch Coldenhoff, een voor mij nobele onbekende, maar niettemin best charmant :-p Hij mag misschien niet veel van geeks weten en geeft dat ook grif toe (I quote: “Ik heb vandaag twee nieuwe woorden geleerd, geek en blog”), koken kan hij gelukkig wel. “

Girl Geek Dinner @ Sara Van de Velde: “Het gezelschap was super, het eten lekker en de sfeer was über gezellig! (…)
En tuurlijk ook Weight Watchers. Dankzij het kookboek e.d. in de goodie bag zullen er velen van ons het nieuwe jaar goed inzetten, met de tips van Weight Watchers!”

A Weighty Decision @ bnox: “To make things even more complicated, I can’t make it to Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #22 tonight and ask the Weight Watchers people myself how to survive the upcoming holiday season without feeling guilty about eating all that food.”

BGGD22: Weight Watchers Christmas @ De avonturen van het endimi-konijn: ” Bij het hoofdgerecht merkte ik dat de Weight Watchers coaches echt wel gelijk hadden: de nieuwe gerechten gaan voor het gevoel van voldaan zijn op het einde van de maaltijd, en ik kreeg zelfs mijn portie niet op!
Als dessert was er de goodie bag, met daarin een starterspakket voor Weight Watchers, een boodschappengids, een 365 dagen kookboek met gezonde gerechten, het Weight Watchers magazine en een doosje Lemon Meringue bars als dessert.”

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

The girl geeks that attended Weight Watchers’ cooking workshop yesterday had the pleasure of receiving a perfect starter kit to test the brand-new ProPoints Program:

• Shopping guide: Giving all the ProPointsTM value of the most common food, and for the most important brands
• 365 days cookbook: healthy cooking pleasure for the whole year.
• … and more!

Remember the 19th edition of Brussels Girl Geek Dinners , the one with @designarenas and @imaterialise as the speakers? We launched a Facebook contest shortly afterwards, with even more design prizes to win. And here are the winners:

• Ann Marcelis won the vases
• Lien de Leenheer won a market tote
• Elvire van Ooteghem, Gudrun Rombaut, and Inge Mestdagh each won a bravit candle

Oh, and one more thing: if you’re in trouble finding a holiday gifts, do yourself a favour and get them at http://arenascollection.com.

Already thinking about the delicious Christmas meal your mother will prepare but dreading to stuff yourself with calories? Don’t be afraid of the end-of-the-year festivities. Weight Watchers, the leader of all weight loss methods, will show you how to cook for Christmas in a healthy but delicious way! For the 22nd edition of the Brussels Girl Geek Dinner, Weight Watchers invites you to celebrate Christmas at a cooking workshop on Wednesday 16 December from 18:00 to 22:00.

20 girl geeks are invited to the Kookeiland cooking studio in Deurne. They will follow the advice of young chef, Mitch Coldenhoff, a regular on television for “De perfecte keuken” with Piet Huysentruyt.
During this workshop, the girl geeks will get a chance to discover in avant-première the new Weight Watchers ProPoints Program, the most flexible program ever developed by Weight Watchers! To participate, write your name on the wiki.

Address:
Kookeiland
Suzanne Spanhovenstraat 2
2100 Deurne

Course of the evening:

• 18h30    Welcome drinks
• 19h00    Nicky & Cindy : A new Weight Watchers for Christmas: long life to healthy pleasure!
• 19h15    Workshop with chef Mitch Coldenhoff & Christmas celebration
• 22h00    Goodie bags from Santa Claus!

Weight Watchers will be offering 10 free entries to Weight Watchers’ meetings to 3 lucky girl geeks. More details to follow during the event and on this blog! Weight and see….