This would be one of the harder panels to prepare for. Do you cover best practices of being a manager? Anecdotal evidence of things that have worked well for you?

This presentation gave a good overview of some pros/cons of moving to management, some challenges they had and best practices. Overall, I liked it as an overview. I was expecting more examples of "unexpected" things. But many of the things discussed worked whether one is a leader in the organization or a manager. For instance, asking for feedback. Everyone should be asking for feedback from peers/managers. It helps anyone get better! And get a mentor or support system!! Again, I think mentorship is a great best practice for anyone. I was happy they reinforced that.

Diane Curtis Official GHC 2007 Blogger You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum You can find me at http://dianecu.spaces.live.com

How can we leverage HCI and design curriculum to broaden participation in computing? The panel started with two questions they hope to answer. This is the one I'm most looking forward to hearing the answer for. :-)

Interesting notes:

• Significantly more women join the program if there is an HCI concentration. This is a great hook, even if they don't end up in the concentration.
• HCI is compelling b/c it's collaborative, project based and not based on individual contributions. Often this is true even with the very first HCI course.
• Recommended Scratch for K-12 after-school learning.
• Girls use social networking sites more than boys. There was an age range there, but I missed it. :-/

And then I left b/c I wasn't feeling well. Ugh. So the question still remains…

  Diane Curtis Official GHC 2007 Blogger You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum You can find me at http://dianecu.spaces.live.com

I selected this session because I like Jane Prey (Microsoft Research.) JANE IS AWESOME.

Jane noted that when she sees a proposal, she literally copies and pastes the bullets and answers each of the questions in that order. How much easier does that make it for the readers? Having previously reviewed proposals, I love this idea. Her one take away was to read the solicitation. Good advice. :-)

Carla Romero from CRA gave a great list of places to get funding from CRA-W. She was followed by Jane Daniels from the Claire Boothe Luce Program, which is the largest private source of support for women in the sciences and engineering with grants of more than $7 million annually. Unfortunately, their program doesn't fund outreach programs. Her ideas for funding included institutional support, alumni, donations, admissions, and local school districts. Jan Cuny rounded out the presentation with information about programs funded by NSF. Her best suggestion: have a broad base for your funding. Don't just come to NSF – get funding from Microsoft, Google, your institution, etc.

One great resource that came out of this for me: NCWIT has seed funding available as part of the NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund. From their site:

The NCWIT Academic Alliance Seed Fund provides members of NCWIT's Academic Alliance with start-up funds (up to $15,000 per project) to develop and implement initiatives for recruiting and retaining women in computing and information technology. Initial funding for the Seed Fund was provided by Microsoft Research. The deadline for the next proposal round is November 1, 2007.

Diane Curtis Official GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at http://dianecu.spaces.live.com.

Wow, it's way more fun to listen to this panel than to be on it! ;-) Last year, Hilary and I, along with two women from Pixar and Google, presented a panel with a similar title. I was curious about how this panel would differ, so selected this session.

One of the main differences I've noticed is that this year's panel has a bunch of women with PhDs. (Only one from our panel was working on a PhD.) I like diversity of backgrounds and companies for the panel. The main takeaway for this panel for me (both this year and last) is that mentorship can be extremely helpful for helping with career growth. I can see how each of these women would have a TON to share with a mentee in the audience. I was very happy to see MentorNet is here today. I highly recommend finding a mentor at any point in your career. (Well, up to the point where I am. I can hardly recommend for after that since I haven't lived it, but it seems to make sense there too. ;-) As a side note, I do have mentors and really value that interaction.)

Diane Curtis Official GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at http://dianecu.spaces.live.com.

My first official blogging session!

My first session is by a former Microsoft Research woman. Overall, the speaker is dynamic and entertaining.

Some thoughts:

• Women make 80% of household decisions.
• I hate going shopping. I love Amazon. (LOVE AMAZON!!) I wish I could browse Amazon and purchase as easily on my mobile phone. Apparently this is not necessarily true for women (not wanting to go to the store.)
• In the study, some people brought a shopping buddy rather than shopping alone. If I had a shopping buddy, I might shop more. That being said, I could see Erin and I shopping at Amazon side by side on the couch.
• Their target audience said "they love to shop" or "are off the charts!" I now officially can say I don't fit their target. They also asked how you learned to shop. I'll blame Mom for my shopping habits.

I think mostly guys read my blog, but maybe there are more women reading for Grace Hopper. What are your shopping habits? The speaker definitely reinforced some stereotypes – guys shop less and are focused, while women shop more and buy more than planned.Diane Curtis  Official GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at http://dianecu.spaces.live.com. Diane Curtis Official GHC 2007 Blogger.

I just arrived at my hotel! I'm staying next door to the Hilton b/c it was booked when I registered. Am definitely loving the hotel. One improvement from last year – this hotel is awesome! Comfortable bed, right across from Disney Marketplace. I have no complaints.

A better person would head over to the Hilton, register, check out Disney Marketplace or go to the pool. I have decided to get food and do some work from my hotel room. While this is pretty lame, I've been traveling a lot and am feeling behind. I think I'll have a much better conference experience if I can do some catch up tonight and not have to worry about things tomorrow. Also, since I woke up at 5AM, I'll probably be in bed shortly anyway. ;-)

 Diane Curtis Official GHC 2007 Blogger. You may comment on this blog by visiting the GHC Forum. You can find me at http://dianecu.spaces.live.com.