Brussels Girl Geek Dinner

It’s crucial for organizations to connect with their customers and build products that really solve problems or delight users. But the common brainstorming techniques just simply don’t seem to measure up to the challenges of today, really visualising in a way that is clear for everyone what the actual goal is. Since we live in a 3D world, the human brain is better equipped to deal with visualisation in a 3D manner, not just by talking about it and making some slides, but by effectively living and creating the visualisation of an idea.

During this co-creation workshop, organised by Co-Learning, using Lego® Serious Play® techniques and materials, you will visualise and improve on the HardRock Café experience. The Lego® Serious Play® technique is an innovative, experimental process designed to enhance innovation and business performance. It deepens the reflection process and supports an effective dialogue – for everyone in the organization. Step into the world of agile product management with this exclusive tasting for the Brussels Girl Geeks.

About facilitator Erik Talboom

Erik used to tutor people while still in school, helping out fellow students whenever he had the chance. It wasn’t that weird that after a few years of professional experience, he ended up teaching class. He trained and coached several teams on different subjects, ranging from process oriented topics like scrum, kanban and effective collaboration over gamestorming to more technically focused topics like test automation, test driven development and software craftsmanship principles.

The past few years he started on an adventure in the areas of lean startups and customer development around these agile methodologies. These kinds of volatile ventures also benefit a lot from the agile mindset and craftsmanship knowledge he’s built up the last decade.

18:00 Welcome, by Microsoft
18:30 Short intro: Microsoft Insiders
18:35 Katrien Barrat: New consumer
18:50 Teresa Fernandez-Gil: Healthy eating/ living
19:00 Julie Van den Kerchove: Raw living, cooking & coaching
19:10 Marcia O’Regan: Colour therapy
19:20 BREAK
19:35 Michel Schwarz: Gratitude/ happiness inside
19:45 Hanna Summanen: Hatha Yoga
19:55 Open Mic
20:05 Katrien Barrat: Outro
20:15 Dinner, drinks & dessert
20:30 Hanna Summanen: Discovery session I: Yoga discovery
21:00 Vincent Blondiau: Discovery session II: Qi Gong discovery
21:45 Dinner, drinks & dessert buffet

Key note speaker Katrien Barrat – Futureproofed

Katrien has worked both in Belgium as in France and in the UK on B2B and B2C markets, combining her background and expertise in market development for new growth markets with change management. In 2009 she launched her own company, C-Change, in sustainability & in May 2012, Futureproofed and C-Change joined operations to offer a unique combination of environmental expertise with market insights. At Futureproofed, Katrien focuses on fundamentally understanding the consumer and market needs. From the why, to the what for who and how with an implementation-driven and hands-on approach, supported by a full portfolio of market research. She’s passionate about leadership and coaching, she loves to teach and tell the story and make people grow. Katrien has been guest lecturer at Vlerick, UCL, UGhent, Karel De Grote Hogeschool and Howest.

Follow Katrien on Twitter: https://twitter.com/katrienbarrat

Teresa Fernandez-Gil

Teresa has a background in Pharmacy, a master’s degree in Public Health and a PhD in Nutrition. She’s completed her training to practice Health Counseling from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. She practices a holistic approach to health and wellness, which means that she looks at how all areas of your life are connected. Does stress at your job or in your relationship cause you to overeat? Does lack of sleep or low energy prevent you from exercising? She looks at how all parts of your life affect your health as a whole.

Julie Van den Kerchove

Meet Julie Van den Kerchove, a certified raw food chef, coach and writer. Her three greatest passions are healthy food, exercise and traveling. She’s absolutely passionate about the raw food lifestyle and loves to experiment with new recipes! After several years of severe health issues she has completely changed her eating habits and overall lifestyle in order to heal herself. It was during this search for optimal health that she discovered her love for the raw vegan cuisine: pure, natural dishes that taste delicious and heal the body. Do you want to find out how I can help you take your health, nutrition & fitness to the next level? Then have a look at how you can work with me.

Marcia O’Regan – Colour Therapy

Marcia O’ Regan is an International Colour Therapist and Trainer and founder of Colour Harmonie. She uses the power and knowledge of colour as a tool for healing, guidance and self discovery, helping her clients be their BIGGER SELVES and reach their true potential. Marcia offers colour workshops, courses and one on one consultations. To find out more visit www.colourharmonie.com

Michel Schwarz – Owner Happiness Inside Me

After 20 years of happy and successful entrepreneurship, Michel decided to share his experience in inspiring teams to be happier and more successful in their jobs and lives.
With complementary studies in neurosciences and positive psychology – to scientifically validate how to become happier -, he started ‘Happiness Inside Me’. There’s only one rule: be deeply happier and deliver happiness to make a success of one’s life and enterprise:
Especially in a context of global change, generation Y, information society and stress, when future rewards are very uncertain. The happiest people are the most curious, adaptive, innovative, cooperative, motivated, fun, emotionally intelligent,…, person.
Nowadays, Michel’s workshops make people achieve their goals with more coherence, abilities, serenity and sense.
More info on his website: http://www.happinessinsideme.org/

Hanna Summanen

Hanna Summanen (@syogasbrussels) is a yoga teacher, consultant and facilitator. She first discovered yoga in 2001 during a burn-out after many years of corporate career, and has since become a certified yoga teacher and co-founder of the Sampoorna Yoga Studio in the center of Brussels. She divides her time between freelance consulting and sharing the amazing benefits of yoga – and in both professions she is passionate about well-being and personal transformation.
Hanna will teach a 30 minute Hatha Yoga discovery class after the speaker part of the event is over.

Vincent Blondiau

Meet Vincent, he’s a life coach & Qi Gong teacher. He studied in Belgium, France, the UK and with Chinese teacher in Europe. Qi Gong literally means “Life Energy Cultivation” & is a practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and meditation. With roots in Chinese medicine, martial arts, and philosophy, Qi Gong is traditionally viewed as a practice to cultivate and balance qi (chi) or what has been translated as “intrinsic life energy”. Qi Gong is now practiced throughout China and worldwide, and is considered by some to be exercise, and by others to be a type of alternative medicine or meditative practice. From a philosophical perspective Qi Gong is believed to help develop human potential, allow access to higher realms of awareness, and awaken one’s “true nature”.
Join a Qi Gong session in French, led by Vincent and one of his students. You’ll discover short theoretical information and a practical session (45 minutes) after the yoga discovery class. Registration required as places are limited to 15 students (wiki).
More about Vincent (in French): http://www.mingmen.be/

Pictures (and a blog post) by photodj.

First speaker was Microsoft’s Katrien De Graeve (@katriendg), and I’d like to repeat her call to action:

Now is the time to build apps that will launch your business worldwide. Visit http://msdn.be/apps to download free tools and samples, find design and code resources, and get help from experts.

Second speaker was Pureplexity’s Leslie Cottenje (@GirlGeek_be).

And thirdly, AppStory’s Elise Daans (@Ellliiissseee)

Besides are three speakers, six more brewery professionals will attend our girl geek dinner: Anne De Ryck (De Ryck), Laure Van Sluys (Duvel Moortgat), Dominique Friart (St-Feuillien), Sofie Fiers (Alken Maes), Mieke Desplenter (Ter Dolen), Nathalie Eloir (Abbaye Des Rocs), and Sophie Vercamme (John Martin).

Special guest star is beer blogger Sofie Vanrafelghem (@SVanrafelghem) of www.vrouwenenbier.be and www.facebook.com/VrouwenEnBier. In her Twitter bio, she describes herself as “Passionate about gastronomy and beer | Co-author 100x proeven van Straffe streekbieren | hobbybrewer / beerauthor / traveljournalist | beertastings”

And last but not least there’s beer sommelier Anneke Rijkers, who will guide us through the beer tasting and food pairing.

This is what we’ll be tasting:

• Hoegaarden witbier
• Ter Dolen Armand + bapa with pomegranade seeds
• Liefmans Goudenband + bapa with raisin toast and roquefort
• St-Feuillien Grand Cru + beef tataki
• Mort Subite Kriek + almond/chocolate dessert

Our three speakers at the 52nd edition of Brussels Girl Geek Dinner are all female, and all beer professionals:

Rosa Merckx, Liefmans (Oudenaarde)

Cult brewery Liefmans was founded in 1679 and was based in the centre of Oudenaarde until it moved to its present site on the banks of the Schelde in 1933. In the 1970s and 80s, Liefmans achieved a greater public profile thanks to the tireless work of its manager, Rose Blancquaert-Merckx, a former ballet dancer. “Madame Rose” eventually retired from the brewery to run a restaurant in the town that featured the local dish carbonade flamande – beef stewed cooked with Oud Bruin.

Miek Van Melkebeke, sales at Brouwerij De Ryck (Herzele)

As we’re a small team at De Ryck everybody wears several hats. But especially in the future i’ll focus more and more on the sales and public relations part, from to local to the world wide market. Since we just started our beer in bottles, this creates a lot of opportunities and off course extra work, but we believe in our products and consider the sky the limit.

Els Van Itterbeeck, promotion at Het Anker (Mechelen)

My official title is “commercial employee”, but my task consists mainly of promoting and marketing the concept of our brewery and distillery to a wide audience.
To Het Anker, brewing beer is a total experience (and soon whiskey experience) in the broad sense of the word.

About the book:
http://conversity.be/en/the-conversity-book/
Kindle version on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Conversity-Model-ebook/dp/B004P8JX6K

One of the speakers during Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #39 was fellow girl geek and Microsoftee Katrien De Graeve. From her blog post Girl Geek app for Windows Phone 7 resources, slides and write up from #BGGD39 at blogs.msdn.com:

I had great fun combining a fashion idea with the Windows Phone 7. By using Windows Phone 7 developer tools, in this case mainly Expression Blend and using built-in controls such as the Panorama control.

As promised, the slides to her presentation:

If you’re looking for the info on getting started with building for Windows Phone 7 yourself, here are some of Katrien’s recommended resources:

• Download tools: http://create.msdn.com
  Free tools are in a single download that contains Visual Studio for Windows Phone, Expression Blend (special version for Windows Phone), the Emulator and some other tools.
• Learn online:
  • Windows Phone 7 Development for Absolute Beginners: http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Windows-Phone-7-Development-for-Absolute-Beginners
  • Quicktarts: http://create.msdn.com/en-us/education/quickstarts
  • Windows Phone 7 Training Kit: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wp7trainingcourse.aspx
  • .toolbox: not to miss resource for learning Expression Blend and Silverlight (not specific for Windows Phone but very much recommended): http://www.microsoft.com/design/toolbox/

Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #29 is on Wednesday 12 May at Telenet, Mechelen. It’s fully booked, but put your name on the wiki‘s reserve list – we usually get all the reserves in.

But first: who are Ine and Catherine and what is Nomadz Lifstyle Design?

NOMADZNU
Nomadz.nu is about two thirty something girl geeks Catherine & Ine realizing their dream: to go and travel for one year meanwhile working remotely. While they freelance their way around the world, they document their social experiment in “Lifestyle Design” through Flickr pictures, Twitter updates and blog posts. Main stops include Cape Town, Thailand & Buenos Aires.

• http://www.nomadz.nu/traveljournal
• http://www.nomadz.nu/lifestyledesign
• http://www.facebook.com/nomadznu
• http://www.twitter.com/nomadznu
• http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadznu

Ine has a degree in photography and webdesign & a postgraduate degree in art. While visiting Iraq, she became fascinated by the Middle East and took off to live and study in Israel. During this trip, she started blogging at a time when the word ‘blogging’ barely existed.

Today, she combines her passion (photography) with her ‘geeky’ side (webdesign) in her company Matuvu.

Catherine has a masters degree in philosophy and a postgraduate in marketing communication. Upon graduation she was offered a job as a researcher in logics at the University of Gent.

Today she owns her own online communication company focusing on small companies within the lifestyle & design field.

LIFESTYLE DESIGN
With his book “The 4-Hour Workweek”, Timothy Ferris introduced the term ‘lifestyle design’ to the world. Lifestyle design is about styling your life in the way you’d like it to be, based on the experiences you’d like to have. To do everything you want to do (experiences) and to be everything you want to be (being) are central concepts in it.
It’s all about the ‘here’ and ‘now’. skiïng in Japan, writing a book, discovering far off countries, or running marathons in all parts of life are experiences our society considers to be only accessible to the extremely rich or the retired. Lifestyle Design adepts are convinced that, by using certain lifehacks, a bit of creativity and ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, this lifestyle can be accessible to both you and me. So, why not live the life you want to, right now?

Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #27 (on Wed 5 May in Antwerp) is fully booked, but no worries: there’s still room at Brussels Girl Geek Dinner #28 on Sunday afternoon 9 May in Ghent. Put your name on the wiki to be part of this unique art event!

Electrified 02 – Hacking public spaces, the second edition of  S.M.A.K. and the Vooruit ‘s biennial art project, takes up a decisive position on the crossroads of several directions in the visual arts. At the same time it will expose the friction between the areas where the two institutions operate: the S.M.A.K. in contemporary art and the Vooruit in media art, sound and performance art. In the quest for a shared ‘mentality’ in these different dynamics, the public space is taken as a common thread. In this case, the term ‘public space’ is all-embracing, without losing sight of the actual distinction between real and virtual public space.

About the artist (from Vooruit.be):

In her work, Roberta Gigante (b. 1986, Arpino, Italy) explores relationships between public space, image and sound. More specifically, she examines the resonance frequencies of various objects and how sound behaves as an ‘image’. As part of Electrified02, Gigante will be going to the harbour in Ghent. It is not so much the setting that interests her as the site, where twelve gigantic metal pipes are being stored. The pipes lie next to one another, like separate organ pipes waiting to be brought together in one instrument. Each pipe – depending on its thickness, diameter and length – has its own resonance frequency, which is recorded and then used as a keynote in a site-specific sound installation. In OrganOOn the artist ‘hacks’ the port site in Ghent with a sound installation that appeals to the imagination and will be activated just once, namely on Sunday 5 of May, 2010. This unusual organ concert also questions the classical organisation and setting in which concerts like this are held.

Programme of the day (on Sunday 9 May):

• 13:30 Attendees arrive at the S.M.A.K.’s The Factory
• 14:00 Welcome + start of the tours: electrified (2 groups) & ed templeton (1 group)
• 15:00 End of tours + cake and coffee
• 15:30 Transport to secret location in Ghent harbour – use the wiki to arrange your own transport by car
• 16:00 Arrival of Roberta Gigante
• 16:30 Cava moment
• 17:00 End  - transport back to S.M.A.K or home

Michael Uyttersprot is a 28 years old, Brussels based software engineer currently employed in healthcare. He’s a passionate programmer as well as photographer.

Michael started coding in BASIC at the age of 9 with his first computer: a disused Amstrad CPC464 received by my aunt. Today he has a degree in applied computer sciences. At this moment, he does all his coding on a MacBook Pro, sometimes in Windows, “because he has to”.

Why talk about Android?

Michael Uyttersprot: “Since the beginning of the mobile internet I have been discovering a new world. He started making little mobile web pages for fun, for using it on my Mitsubishi m21i iMode-phone. Years after that, the Android SDK came out and I started making mobile applications that use real-time location-based information. I now think I have quite good insight in that operating system and am doing some freelance work on it. I used to be a Nokia fanboy and silently still am. I recently started playing with Qt 4.6 so I can make Nokia apps for Maemo and Symbian as well.”

Inge Rock – the daughter of two teachers – was brought up in the thick of teaching, inspiring and motivating from a very early age. Subsequently, it was perfectly logical that she should end up studying teaching herself. She was a sales manager and trainer for a cosmetics’ company for many years, managed her own perfumery business and, along the way, became increasingly interested in psychology and personal development.

After years of home-studying, she came into contact with Bob Proctor, the American inspiration behind ‘The Secret’ (a method for realising happiness and success). Thanks to him, she managed to transform her skills into ready-made, goal-oriented European programmes.

She is currently one of the top coaches in Flanders and coaches artists, top athletes, entrepreneurs and leaders. Inge is an inspirational and motivating speaker and personal coach. She is the author of the book “Je wordt wat je denkt” (You become what you think) and has also set up her own coaching academy.

Inge Rock also plays a key role in Oral B’s “There’s more in you”  programme.

You are always singing and everyone around you says that you have a great voice but does the thought of getting up on stage bring you out in a cold sweat? Do you want to develop further in terms of work but lack the self-confidence to take on bigger projects? When you are in a group or meeting, do you often have brilliant ideas and clear opinions but do not dare or know how to express them effectively? This is your chance!

Oral-B wants to help three women fully develop an ambitious plan (artistic, professional or personal). In just twelve weeks, coach Inge Rock will use inspirational coaching to guide you towards a dream result.

Are you a woman with a plan? Tell us about your project and you may win coaching that will make your dream come true! You will receive all of the details on 31 March 2010 during BGGD 25.

The 24th edtion of BGGD is planned on Wednesday 24 March from 5-7 PM at TAN, one of the best bio shops and restaurants in Brussels . And this time, it’s going to be a special, “bring a child” edition, inspired by www.atelier-alibaba.be.

Speakers:
Beatrice de Mahieu (pictured) and Fleur de Meeus.

Topic:
Cooking for kids + nutri coaching

Where and when:
Wed 24 March 17:00-19:00
TAN
Rue de l’Aqueduc, 95 (= near Place du Châtelain)
1050 Brussels

Both nutritionists will animate the evening by splitting the group of children and the group of Girl Geeks.

Best age for the child is as from 6 years old. One child per Girl Geek. But of course you’re free to come on your own if you can’t find a child  for that evening!

Want to join us? Put your name on the wiki page to get in for free. Seats are limited to 20 ladies (plus the children they bring along) so don’t wait too long!

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.

On Tuesday 8 December at 18:00 CET in Kortrijk Xpo the International Trade Show Design at Work opens with a keynote by none less than Ji Lee, creative director at Google. This is the first time Ji Lee is in Belgium and a unique opportunity to get an insight in Google’s creative processes.

And guess what: up to 30 girl geeks get in for free – just put your names on the wiki page. And yes, you can bring male guests, as long as everybody’s real names are on the list.

About his master lecture Ji Lee says

Yes, my talk is focused on how personal and professional can complement each other and when it happens, it produces AWESOME. I also will talk about how Google as company encourages its employees to work 20% of their time to come up with their OWN ideas of innovation. And also how Google create free and useful tools for people to make their projects come alive.

After the masterlecture you are invited to discover Design at Work with its surprising architecture and a long list of productlaunches, such as for instance the Nissan Cube and the Dyson Air Multiplier…

Design at Work  aims for the establishment of a platform related to all aspects of product development and innovation, be it about products or services, in any possible field (such as market research, industrial design, prototyping, engineering, intellectual property, packaging, branding, etc.)

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Dominique D’Heedene graduated in Business Administration from KU Leuven in 1986. She started her professional career in Latin America, during and Aiesec traineeship in a banana company in Ecuador for 2 years. Right after she spent 8 months at IBM in Puerto Rico. Back in Belgium she continued to work for IBM until 2007 as an IT Architect.
In 2007 she interrupted her career at IBM and launched her own company, DesignArenas, an e-tailer specializing in bringing hotel luxury and lifestyle at home. DesignArenas partners with luxury and design hotels, build collections of interior design articles used in the partner hotels and builds a compelling visual experience through the webshop. Dominique is the architect of the business model and the portal and webshop structure. She negotiates with hotels and suppliers and runs DesignArenas. Today there are 6 online shops as a result as partnerships with Belgian and Spanish Hotel groups. These online shops offer the design and luxury products that can be found in the partner hotels and “bring hotel luxury home”.
This completely new direction in her life gives her plenty of energy and space for her own creativity and drive. With DesignArenas, Dominique wants to put money aside and create a children fund for her 3rd career in charity sector within 10 to 15 years …
Since October 2009, she’s back at IBM as an IT Architect while she continues as an entrepreneur with DesignArenas.