As the end of the year neared, the GGD PHL scheduled a town hall to review the accomplishments of 2011 and talk about the future plans for 2012. The meeting took place on November and was run by Tristin Hightower and Nicole Kline, Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia co-founders. It was held at Indy Hall, a co-working space for designers, developers, entrepreneurs, or anyone who works on a computer and wants to work with some dangerously awesome creative and technological minds in Philly.
It was decided that 2011 was very successful from three full dinners including the launch dinner for GGD Philly, a new logo courtesy of melissahead design / Operation NICE, three happy hours, and even a karaoke night at National Mechanics.
The first issue on the table was to discuss whether men should or would be allowed at future dinners. In the spirit of keeping the ‘Girl’ in ‘Girl Geeks’, it was decided that the rule would be only Girls at the dinners and the exception would be to invite ‘Boy Geeks’ if the topic would be enhanced by having the gender diversity. As always, Boy Geeks are welcome at other events such as the happy hours.
It has become apparent that the Girl Geeks need a better medium for communication within the group. The pros and cons of various forums, social networking sites and email clients were discussed. The decision was tabled, but the the team will be looking at options.
The group then moved into discussions about future activities. There will definitely be the standard quarterly GG Dinners and monthly happy hour. From movie nights, to high tea to girl fight club, all options were considered. There’s an open invitation for volunteers to organize an on-going event. Also, once the communication tool is launched, the group will be able to organize on-the-fly events as time and desire permit.
With the evening’s discussion wrapping up, it was time to move on to the most important part- mingling and refreshments. Being the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, attendees brought scrump-diddly-umptious leftovers from turkey chili to vegan chick pea salad to a stack of pies, some melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip cookie bars and some et cetera yum.
Recap written by Girl Geek Dinners Philadelphia member, Meg Widholm.
Meg has been in IT for over 13 years. From developing websites, to managing an IT team, to providing Helpdesk support, she can’t eat enough computers. Her dentist told her that she’d better stop, so she has started a locally-sourced vending machine business, Snack Like a Local, with snacks such as brownies by Better Together Baking, Uncle Henry’s pretzels and Joe’s Chips. She will transition to the vending world allowing her to play with tech in her free time. She is currently working on building her first Android app.
