Women In Leadership and Technology

It all comes down to being the wrong sex?

2008-01-09T15:51:00.000-08:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erica-jong/tears-fears_b_80679.html

Erica Jong quite plainly says what we're all thinking and HATING. When do we get credit for just doing the job right or having the right credentials regardless of our sex. HRC at least has us looking in the mirror once again and asking ourselves if we'll ever achieve anything that allows us to put gender aside. In North America we achieve much success as women but it is always nagging to feel our sex is holding us back.

What's your take?

Where in the world is Elisabeth!

2007-12-13T05:34:00.000-08:00

Well ladies. I apologize for my absence. It seems that the last 5 months have spiralled from the normal long days to a slightly ridiculous 24 hours, 7 days a week. I almost forgot where I lived! I have had only enough time to try and help with the disaster in Mexico last month and for some local fundraising. I have at least 10 topics to cover with you and as early as next week I should have them all posted.

I do have a big request for those of you out there that can empathize with the "no time for me" scenario. WPC 2008 is not so far off in terms of scheduling sessions. I'd love to see us repeat our session but with a new twist: "Technology Secrets of the Busy Woman Executive: how to stay productive and sane."

I can see a lot of interaction and a few key speakers (and your participation, of course, is vital to making this an exciting session). Email me at evanderveldt@conamex.com if you want this session and if you want to participate! We will be heard!

What we could use more of

2007-10-08T12:29:00.000-07:00

As I look at what our industry needs to do to encourage more women into the IT industry it was clear that some firms are taking steps to ensure that they create sustainable employment in their own, but focused on women! CN Canada's largest railway company has established a set of scholarships for women as shown below at my sons' college (Dawson). So the rail industry is encouraging women specifically in non-traditional fields. Maybe they know what we know, but the difference is they are doing something about it at the college level, before women can turn their back on it.

CN Scholarships for Women
$600 CN Scholarships for Women in the following tech programs:
Analytical Chemistry
Civil Engineering
Mec Tech
Electronics

Something for us to take a closer look at. What do you think? Do you know or have you helped establish this kind of funding at your local college. Tell us more!

Put a woman in the boardroom = better corporate financials! Who would have thought?!

2007-10-04T17:38:00.000-07:00

On the heels of SMB Nation, I took obvious delight in finding this article :-). Read with pleasure and hold your head high ladies. Our "new worth" is more than the Fortune 500's could have ever guessed. Go women in the boardroom!!

http://finance.sympatico.msn.ca/investing/stocks/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5518518

1 step forward, 10 steps back

2007-10-04T17:35:00.000-07:00

This was just posted to yahoo news tonight. I am puttign it here so that we don't forget the world is not always in agreement with the way we live, our values and our choices. Sombre, but reality has to be faced and we then have to make our own decision as to how we will help those women around us move forward.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20071004/wl_mcclatchy/20071004bcusiraqwomen_attn_national_foreign_editors_ytop

Yes Virginia, there is a Glass Ceiling

2007-10-03T06:54:00.001-07:00

I hadn't landed back home more than a few hours from SMB Nation, when I picked up the morning's paper and read the title "For some women, maternal wall meets glass ceiling". I was actually glad to see this come up at a time where half of us are saying this is not an issue and half are saying that they have first hand proof of that very thing. Many of the women interviewed had taken breaks only to find that their positions had been "modified" AND often they weren't welcome back to the same position (usually a management or upper mid-management one) or there was a position at a lower "ranking". So then there is no surprise to look at the figures Eileen Brown's group put together and give great thought and credibility to the fact that over 75% of women had no plans to take a break.

What in heaven's name is going on here?

So does this mean there is a glass ceiling for child bearing women only. No but perhaps it is the more prevalent one and its worth asking how we can't come to accept this as a possibility. As an independent business person I can't make any comment here but I can tell you it was certainly interesting to see how people treated you. In most cases I was all of a sudden less "credible" and this certainly was the case with people who didn't know me and I ended up taking no time off whatsoever. Foolish, but it was clear to clients and staff I was trying to prove a point. I was no less competent and my business was not taking a hit form my ability to give birth. Today I see that as a mistake and I certainly wasn't doing myself any favors.

What we need to ask ourselves is are we also treating our pregnant coworkers differently as their workload is offloaded and jealous of their pending break. Are we not keeping an eye and ear out for their jobs and ensuring that we not only protect our females counterparts but also don't inadvertently try to take their jobs from them while they're absent. And why don't we stand up when we see that glass ceiling coming down on their heads. That could be our daughters, if not ourselves, next.

In this day of mobile workforces why should this be an issue?

Something to think about.

SMB Nation - WIL&T Luncheon

2007-10-03T06:52:00.000-07:00

It didn't take more than 30 minutes before the SBSC Diva was blogging about our session. It was surprising and yet there was a lot to be said about trying to implore information to a group of partners (90% male) and most 1-2 man firms.

That being said, it was refreshing to hear about the way so many women "fell" into technology. So many smart women who, like Karen Lay-Brew wanted to go into medicine, only to be sidetracked because her father had suggested taking 8 years to get a medical degree would hamper becoming a mother. Now raising twins, Karen is a gem in this industry, someone who not only has brought innovation but also gives back by supporting associations like the Asia Pacific women's organization and our WIL&T initiative. She has done her own share of research on this subject and makes for an excellent panellist which showed on stage last week.

What were the challenges with this kind of a session:

Demographics vs Research: Our audience was 90-95% male and closer to firms of a size that are not employing women because they run the firms either alone or with 1 partner. That means they aren't either considering growing or they have not put that on the radar yet. The research was very much focused towards larger (say minimum 25 or more employee firms and upwards. In reality the women (and a few men) polled were Microsoft industry people, but many probably belonging to, I suspect, much larger firms). It is irrelevant, however, in the fact that women are being ignored as a source of industry workers. Sustainability is the issue. We did adjust our presentation entirely from WPC in Denver but the facts are the facts. We did implore on them to think of this in terms of partnering. That was a connection they could more easily make!

Reality Check vs I'll Be Just Fine, Thank You: The audience has probably still not fully felt the extent to which they will be stretched to the limit as more small and medium businesses are getting curious about technology such as Sharepoint, Groove, Performance Point Server, Mobile 6 and that just a very few of Microsoft's new tools! So what happens when someone wants the server, the MOSS, Groove, Mobile 6, Vista and a .net solution to handle their very specific shipping and billing processes. First when the audience was polled, they didn't see any issues around this. I suspect the first thing they will realize as demand spirals upward, and it will, is that they are going to desperately start looking for help and if the decrease in skilled workers which equals less skilled partner to partner with sets in more and more, well, they just might lose precious business opportunities left, right and center, to larger firms who have the resources, well planned out, and have, at minimum, created relationships with partners/resources, women included, who they can count on to allow them to meet market demand. Now this is a point that they saw hitting them in the pocket book and they listened up.

Times "they are a changing"!: Did our audience notice the trend toward more and more women administrators who are making the final decision on the technology their firms will adopt, are female. While right now these women have very little choice of whether they have to listen to a jargon pumping, techno speaking male (a published and acknowledged tendency) or a female, who takes out the jargon and replaces it with explanations in terms of solutions and the way in which they will change and promote productivity and still be a very economically sound investment well then as more women consultants are taking to the road and competing with men, the more you will see them succeed and create a competitive situation. Even men, who would be otherwise too shy to ask for an explanation of techno geek, will gravitate to this way of selling. Products (tools) and potential solutions are getting more complex, but only if you don't have someone to guide you properly. That's where women come in. And they do it AFTER listening to the client's pain points.

How did this all turn out?

From Beatrice Mulzer of SMB Nation (and a panellist):

We had positive feedback from males and females alike, the session was well received and the data presented spurred many discussions!

I personally felt that I would have done a better job of positioning this if I knew my audience in advance a little better (you know the joke about ASSUME (ing) anything), BUT it is clear that perhaps we do , with many things, have to start at the top with making the awareness of this issue and let it trickle down as the relevant issues start to hit our partners where it counts, .....in the pocket book.

Kudos to all our panellists! Andrea, Sharon, Karen and Beatrice.

So what do you think we can do to affect the SMB market and pave the way for the future women in our industry?

SMB Nation and the woman behind it.

2007-09-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

Beatrice Mulzer

Vice President, SMB Nation beatricem@smbnation.com

It is not enough to be a #1 rated trainer and an MCSE. For Beatrice Mulzer its all about making the SBSC community stand up and be counted, but also be accountable. From the classroom to the editing room this is one absolutely no nonsense IT professional, that exemplifies the type of "techie" that makes for an ideal model for young women everywhere. In one week, at SMB Nation, she will grace us with her presence and impart some invaluable insight into her own challenges in a still very male dominated arena.

BIOGRAPHY:

Beatrice is a SMB Technology Consultant, Technology Trainer and speaker.

As a trainer she currently develops and delivers Hands-on-Lab training on Microsoft products globally, conducts live training web casts and develops technical training courses on DVD.

Beatrice has been a contributing editor at Reseller Advocate Magazine and has also written for Certification Magazine and Microsoft Certified Professional Magazine.

Beatrice holds the MCSE and MCT titles and co-authored two technical books on Small Business Server and recently published her anticipated business book “Making it Big in Small Business 2006: Top 15 SMB Consultants share strategies and lessons learned”

2007
Microsoft/HP workshop tour 30 cities EMEA covering Windows Mobility (sales & technical installation), Vista, 2007 Office system, Technology Assessment Toolkit and 70-282 exam cram.
(Mobility course developed with Mark Grady, Microsoft UK). Executive Editor SMB Partner Community Magazine. Co-author Microsoft Small Business Specialist Primer: Your Certification Path to Success! ISBN 0-977-949-6-0 (release date fall 2007).

2006
Author Making IT Big in Small Business 2006, ISBN 0-9770949-2-8. Microsoft/HP workshop tour 30 cities EMEA covering Windows Small Business Server 2003, remote access, security, certificates and 70-282 exam cram. SMBNation/Qlogic SAN tour. SMB Nation fall conference 70-282 exam cram. Web casts on 70-282. Web cast on ISA server 2000. Executive Editor SMB Partner Community Magazine.

2005
Co-author of the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Primer & 70-282 Exam Preparation Guide ISBN 0-974858-03. Contributing Editor for Reseller Advocate Magazine. Designed and developed learning video for Keystone Learning System on Windows Small Business Server 2003 installation and configuration. Developed and delivered hands-on training (Asentus/Microsoft HOL) for Small Business Server and Windows Business Desktop Deployment.

2004
Co-author Advanced Windows Small Business Server 2003 Best Practices ISBN 0-974858-07-2. Developed and delivered hands-on training (Asentus/Microsoft HOL) for Windows Small Business Server 2003. Developed and delivered training for Windows Branch Office Server.

2003
Delivered hands-on training (Asentus/Microsoft HOL) for Windows Small Business Server 2003.

2000-2002
Delivered 2000 MCSE MOC at Brevard Community College.

2000-2005
Owner of Intellisys USA, a consulting business serving the three A’s (attorneys, architects & accountants), providing strategic technology solutions.

Star Profile of the Week - Andrea Russell- Microsoft

2007-09-21T03:58:00.000-07:00

ANDREA RUSSELL

WW Small Business Partner Audience Manager, Microsoft Corporation

Andrea Russell is the WW Global Leader of the Microsoft Small Business Specialist Community. Her current professional responsibilities include building a highly engaged small business partner community and helping them serve the millions of small business customers around the world. In her 7-years at Microsoft she is proud to have been associated with a balance of the customer, partner and product experience which she believes has contributed to her professional diversification and understanding of leadership. Prior to Microsoft, Andrea’s relevant experience ranged from starting her own marketing research company, a brief “cup of coffee” with a DOT.com, and an international role with GE Capital IT Solutions where she is certified as a Sig Sigma Green Belt.

Andrea’s personal interests include her family, travel, exploring the Northwest and a passion for her hometown (Minneapolis) sports teams. She is humbled to be involved with WILT and believes leadership to be embodied in a quote from the late great co-author of The Leader’s Voice, Boyd Clarke who said “Leadership is a love affair with an idea, and an act of faith in people.”

Introducing the Chair of WIL&T Wendy Callaghan

2007-09-19T14:54:00.000-07:00

Today Wendy finally could breathe long enough to send me her profile and photo. Here's hoping she can join us at SMB Nation in just 11 days!

Wendy Callaghan is the Director of Product Management-IT for Nexient Learning Inc. She has held key senior leadership roles in the learning services industry for over 10 years. Recently, Wendy was an elected member to the Microsoft Worldwide Advisory Council for Learning Solutions; helping to shape Microsoft's customer and partner readiness strategy. She has been instrumental in helping to launch innovative learning solutions to help customers leverage their technology and improve employee performance. Wendy is also the co-founder and current Board Member, for multiple technology user groups, to foster communities for specialized technology professionals. Her ultimate passion is to help individuals reach their full potential, in both their personal and professional lives.

QUOTE from Wendy:

“Women in Leadership & Technology is a new community that is being launched to embrace a world filled with amazing women. We want to be a forum for inspiration; sharing our life experiences and learning from one another. Our initiative will be shaped by our collective global voice. We will unify to share, inspire and collaborate. I am both excited and honored to be helping to move this vision forward and truly look forward to the many rewards we will all cherish.”

Speaking of amazing I think one would agree Wendy is one herself. I had the great pleasure of working with her for WPC in Denver and we also work together on the Canadian executive of IAMCP, as international board and chair and in this initiative. Her passion is evident and she will make a great contribution to WIL&T.

"You're child is not well. Please come get him/her right now".

2007-09-16T07:11:00.000-07:00

So who grabs the car keys and runs? Mom or dad? If your in the middle of a major presentation what do you do? What is your boss like? What if you are your own boss? The dilemma is all the same, just in varying degrees. The debate is far more critical now in an age where women business owners and execs are increasing in numbers not seen in 20 years. But it also has to be taken into account when you're the boss and your business may be just you and no one around to pick up the pieces while you're sitting in a clinic or the hospital for several hours to several days.

One of the reasons that women are having trouble in positions of escalating leadership is that men still see, and we ourselves, just expect that females are the "primary" caregivers and therefore should a more serious illness arise then giving "Jane" a really important client project requiring potential trips outside the city or further, is probably not going to happen.

From experience (and mine are 15, 17 and 19) even though my husband and I are often in the same meeting or seminar or presentation when the cell starts vibrating to the point of embarrassment (and it isn't my husband's that's sounding off) its obvious that the rest of the world also sees us as the first point of contact, and off I go. But frankly that's because my position allows me that flexibility and we have employees. But this is still not a good thing. I sometimes wonder what the guys I work with think.

Right or wrong, where and how do we adjust not only school records, but attitudes, so that we can comfortably expect that we can be equally responsible with our mates or ex-mates for sick children and in some cases elder parents. It just isn't reasonable to burden one spouse over the other when our positions are of equal or greater business significance.

That becomes much more strained when the mother is the parental custodian and she owns her own business or sits on the board of a major corporation. This is where innovation and technology (a kudo for our industry) just might save the day. Here's a few ways you can accomplish this in the case of a short or long term absence from the office:

Are you using Mobile 6 with Exchange? A "cannot live without" for me. I am never out of touch with my email. I am as current as my laptop hooked up at the office and with mobile Word and Excel I can still handle certain documents while sitting in the emergency room.
Does your company use collaboration software? Having access to everything via a secure portal like WSS of better yet MOSS Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server ensures you can not only access work on and update but also immediately have that work land in the hands of those that need it without doing anything more than checking it back in when you're done.
Need to start up a workspace for a quick and secure discussion on a client file with document sharing? Hello Groove. Part of the Office 2007 family this little gem also has the additional benefit of document synchronization with MOSS.
Need to hold a small meeting? How about using Live Meeting or Windows Meeting Space (part of Vista). In both cases you can have live interaction with participants and what I love about WMS in particular is the whiteboard. You make changes and then WMS pushes out a new copy to all participants.

There is a lot more to these tools but we'll let you do your own review. As a Microsoft partner this is gold at your feet and you need to take a look at it as a way to keep continuity, your sanity and your job or your clients.

Embracing these tools and using them to show your peers, bosses, clients and employees that you can remain as effective as ever while attending to personal issues will go a long way to alleviating some of the "primary care guilt syndrome".

However there is still the debate over just how much is fair. It is a personal matter, but as long as attitudes exist as to your ability to be a leader, then talking with everyone involved in your situation becomes a critical hurdle to jump, but as you have seen with the tools mentioned earlier you can be mobile and still on the ball.

What can we do to help our female peers. First be aware of those who work around you that this issue is one that we can all help others deal with. Being flexible is helpful but moreover letting our male peers know that they can make a big difference by changing their attitudes and that stepping up to the plate for their mate is a major step in the right direction. Chat up your coworkers and tell them what tools you use to manage this issue. Make sure HR has this on their To Do list to review.

As always, bringing it out in the open in your office, is a great way to get the discussion and solutions, rolling.

Cricket and Women In IT

2007-09-10T19:26:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070910/lf_nm/microsoft_cricket_dc

You really have to read this article to the very end to catch the wonderful story that's in this post. In harnessing diversity at Microsoft, it is clear that there are, thanks to their devotion to this way of thinking, more women in IT at Microsoft and to the delight of the largest minority at Microsoft, more women from Indian backgrounds. And these same women are jmping on a sport, cricket, which has always been very much a male dominated sport (as soccer was at one time in North America). What a pleasant surprise that was for my reading pleasure today.

Kudos to Microsoft.

Enjoy.

Female Gamers on the increase

2007-09-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

Not only are we the market segment that marketers are increasingly paying attention to (like they have a choice?) in the auto, home renovation we are now on the radar of the big gaming companies like Nintendo. Getting the female audience into video games, especially the console version, has been the holy grail for tech publishers, but there seems to be signs that they are final hitting the right genre to lure the numbers that make developing more games much more profitable.

Recent numbers from the Electronic Software Association (How many women board members do they have? Hmm I wonder.) state that 38 per cent of game players are women or girls . Harris Interactive found that tween girls spend up to 10 hours a week as opposed to 16 for their male counterparts. Well I guess that's a good thing especially in light of a prior post highlighting the lack of sleep among tech induced "zombie" teens.

The interesting stat is that not only are more females coming online but older ones as well. The issue??? Female players tend to be casual, interested in easy-to-pick-up social games but not willing to fork over $30 to $50 for more "tough guy games". The lure is in getting girls to obsess over games the way they obsess over boy bands or shows like Hana Montanna.

So where does that leave you and I. Well as IT leaders and specialists there is a golden opportunity to either approach these companies as "experts" (being female) or developing games based on our knowledge of our likes and dislikes in online playing. If you're going to tap a market then you want to do so with people who can talk the talk and walk the walk with the market they are trying to attract. So ladies there's another drum beating out there and since you have the knowledge, then here's another place where you could become "queen" of the hive. If you're looking for a challenging environment gaming certainly, as a product/market segment has many different areas from market research to story development, project management and sales/marketing. Here's where our youth can certainly get hooked on being part of the IT industry while having some fun to boot.

It's certainly something we should keep our eyes on in the coming few years.

Star Profile of the Week - Karen Lay Brew- Microsoft

2007-09-05T11:51:00.000-07:00

Karen, who founded the Women in IT movement at Microsoft, graced us with her presence, when we came to her at the very last moment to replace the moderator for WPC in Denver ,that had become ill at the last moment. Karen not only stepped up to the job, with no preparation time, she added her own experience in making a memorable event for us all. I met Karen literally an hour before the session and as with people like Margo Day there was a wonderful friendliness about her. That in part is one of the traits of a true leader, someone who never makes you fell any less important than themselves, even if they're positioned much higher up the ladder than you are. In essence what benefit is it to make people feel any less important than you. If one is to make a team then the team must respect the leader, but a true leader is one that brings forth the best in each member and lets them shine. I suspect this is much of what has put Margo and Karen where they are today.

Karen was brilliant in her role as moderator. She had scripted questions to follow, but she found a way to enhance the topics she had to pull answers from us for and delivered her own perspectives adding to a varied set of opinions. In the end Karen made an even more important contribution by keeping the lines of communication open with IAMCP and our attendees. She has also agreed to grace us with her presence, this time as a panelist at SMB Nation October 1, 2007. I certainly look forward to her valuable input and I hope if you are not in attendance you will catch the video later which we will post when it's made available.

To learn a little more about this week's star WIL&T Profile of the Week read on below:

Karen Lay-Brew, VP Sales, Marketing, Services Group (SMSG) Solutions Delivery (SD) is responsible for driving business value and improvement of business processes, systems and tools that support Microsoft worldwide sales and marketing, operations, licensing & pricing programs, and services business. Karen joined Microsoft in January 2006 after working at large multi-national corporations in different parts of the world. This included 20 years of leadership experience in IT, Shared Business Services, Operational Excellence, Six Sigma and Change Management. Karen is very active in diversity initiatives at Microsoft, having set up the Women in IT organization, and serving as the Executive sponsor of the Microsoft Asia Professional Society.

Technology and Teenage Night Owls

2007-08-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's 11:51p.m. and my middle teen, Kyle, has just celebrated his 17th birthday. This morning I thoughtfully (or so I thought) handed him a new Ipod shuffle and a good headset for the gym so he could leave his LG Fusic phone with MP3 and video etc. etc. safe at home. While he loaded his gift with his favorite music he had on his laptop he dropped downstairs to play Jade Empire on his (actually MY. See next blog on female gamers) Xbox and then back to his room, check email, talk to friends on IM, and before he knows it it's now 1:20 a.m. Out goes the lights but not the "connectivity". Within seconds soemone is calling him or texting him on the phone. 2:10a.m., off it goes again.

What has the tech industry, that you and I as parents helped develop, done to our teens. We've actually messed with their circadian rhythm. By virtue of their developmental cycle teens have dealt with this problem as far back as anyone can remember but now we've made staying connected so simple and addictive (just look at the popularity of World of Warcraft, Facebook, and Live Messenger) that we're throwing the internal clock toward later sleep times. The 24/7 connectivity further exasperates the issue.

It is clear we as parents have to take control of the situation and the article at:
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6894556

goes into great detail what changes you can easily make to modify the sleep ritual and further details the light and melatonin therapies that can be used to reprogram your teens body clock.

As technology leaders, perhaps it is profound that we are fiercely protective of our children but yet we have developed and marketed that which now deprives them of their precious and essential sleep (in fact a teen should get 9,5 hours a night). Certainly they have no problem sleeping almost 14 hours on a weekend morning but it doesn't make up for the huge block of hours missing from their daily requirements and does nothing to help restore their proper circadian rhythm.

So where does that leave us. Well the suggestions are there and as parents common sense seems to be the order of the day, but I'd like someone to tell me how much luck I'm going to have removing cell phones and laptops from my 14 year old daughter, the birthday boy and my, in one week, 19 year old son. I can quite accurately predict the outcome: gregarious laughter as my boys, who can bench press more than I care to think about, play "toss the mommy" while reminding me I am in no position to negotiate, or declaring how hilarious it is watch me while I'm trying to be serious/mad at them.

My husband had the right idea decades ago: just reprogram them (he's a coder of course)!

So ladies, it looks like the future of our teens may be up to us! According to recent research we control the market so let's start making the changes necessary to protect our own sanity!

UK DIGI GIRLZ Camp- 200 attendees!!!! Way to go Microsoft UK

2007-08-29T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is directly "from the desk" of Eileen Brown and her team who held the Digi Girlz Camp experience just 2 short months ago. I encourage you all to look to this for ideas for your own camp. I am amazed at the growing interest in this program. Please let Microsoft know you appreciate this endeavor by posting your comments here. Read on for another inspiring story:

On Friday 22nd June, 200 girls aged between 13 – 15 came to Microsoft campus in the UK for a day of fun and education ). I will be honest, the idea of organising a day for 200 school girls was slightly daunting but what a day! The girls were so much fun and really inspiring - it was refreshing to spend time with a group of young people who really embraced the opportunity to visit the Microsoft Campus, and I am under no illusions that we achieved our goal for the day. Our objectives were to:

Help to redress the gender imbalance in the IT industry by reaching out to 200 x girls between the age of 12 to 15 and encourage them to think differently about a career in IT. This includes IT services, marketing and sales.

We had Katie Ledger from the BBC as master of ceremonies, the systems magician from innocent drinks, demos from Windows Live, Popfly, robots, the first Lego league, XBOX 360, Zune and Movie Maker demonstrations. We offered and organised trips round the Microsoft Technology Centre where 80 girls were shown the latest in Technology. There was a workshop activity in the afternoon in conjunction with Computer Clubs 4 Girls (CC4G) using movie maker to create a 2 minute promotional video for the XBOX 360 or the Creative Zen, and a shoutathon to decide the winners (who won Digital cameras or Creative Zen V+ players)

This event was an experiment in the UK and I realise that we faced a certain amount of ambiguity regarding the organisation and planning, however, it was an overwhelming success and that is thanks to the enthusiasm and commitment of 70 volunteers who had given up their day – a number of very excited girls commented on how much they enjoyed the day and they were blown away by the prizes.

Courtesy of and written by:

Eileen Brown l Manager, IT Pro Evangelist team l Developer & Platform Group l Microsoft UK.

WIL&T FEATURE PROFILE Margo Day - Microsoft

2007-08-27T19:41:00.000-07:00

As promised we are starting a weekly feature to highlight amazing women leaders. Our first, Margo Day, was a panelist at the WIL&T session at WPC in Denver. Talk about unpretentious and thoughtful. Even in a meeting months before meeting her in person it was obvious how sincere and passionate she is about helping women advance by looking for avenues that will produce gains not just here in North America but on a global basis. She has some solid ideas and I hope she will continue to work with the WILT IAMCP committee to advance these efforts. I am proud to have met Margo and those she has mentored and will mentor will undoubtedly come to understand what an easy going and brilliant individual she is. Her is a perfect example of "working your way" to the top.

Here is our first WIL&T Woman of the Week:

Margo L. Day
Regional Vice President, U.S. SMS&P Group
Microsoft Corporation

Margo Day is the Vice President for Small and Midmarket Solutions and Partners in the West Region for Microsoft Corporation. Margo is responsible for the marketing and sale of Microsoft products and services to small and medium-sized business customers in the Western United States. In addition, she is responsible for ensuring the overall health of the Microsoft partner ecosystem, as well as deepening the managed partner relationships, in the region.

Margo recently served as vice president of the U.S. Partner Group, where she was responsible for developing the U.S. partner strategy, management, and program execution for over 200,000 partners, including System Integrators, ISVs, the reseller channel (VARs, Direct Marketers, Outbound, Distributors), System Builders, Learning Solutions partners and Small Business Specialists.

Margo joined Microsoft in 2001. Prior to that, she was the Executive Vice President of Strategy and General Manager of North America at SoftQuad Software, Ltd., a company engaged in XML ebusiness solutions. Preceding that, she was Vice President and Managing Director of Go2Net, where she was responsible for the HyperMart Business Unit, a leading small business e-commerce solutions-hosting community with more than one million members. Before moving to Go2Net, Margo spent seven years at Lotus Development Corporation, where she held increasingly senior roles, including Senior Director for North American SMB Sales and Field Marketing, Director of Enterprise Sales, and Director of U.S. Business Partner Sales. Her experience also includes three years at Microrim as Director of Channel Sales and four years as General Manager of a Software City franchise. Margo brings more than 22 years of technology management expertise in business development, partnership development, sales and marketing.

Digi Girlz - Microsoft's IT camp for girls

2007-08-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.microsoft.com/about/diversity/programs/camps.mspx Digi Girlz web site

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/aug07/08-15digigirlz.mspx?rss_fdn=Top+Stories Hot off the press August 15, 2007

Microsoft was a natural to lead this initiative as part of their overall program for "Diversity and Inclusion" and have been doing so since 2000. The new site is a welcome addition and the content includes expected features such as photos and an explanation of the program but an unexpected find was a few pod casts and surprisingly they offer the camp in a one day and multi day format. This is a great way to reach as many girls as possible.

I happen to know for a fact that the listed camps on this site aren't the only ones taking place. In fact in a blog coming later tonight I will post information on the Digi Girlz camp run in the UK with the participation of none other than Eileen Brown. I also know Canada has hosted one out of Mississauga and I am hoping to track down camps in other regions of the world (if you know o one please contact me).

All in all their approach is on IT only (well its what they do best!!) but I loved their methodology of allowing girls to actually shadow a high profile employee for a day, meet with younger IT staff AND interns which gives them people they can truly relate to.

The most moving testimonial to the human compassion of women in IT and lessons that were learned by all was the story of Laurie Logan who had suffered a debilitating heart attack and had to relearn the most basic things in life. After starting her own amazing she attended the camp and not only did she learn how much Microsoft goes out of their way to create accessibility for everyone, she also had a profound affect on other camp attendees and ended up testing Vista speech software that turned into free software to help her in her mandate to assist others through her publication. In fact I was so busy at WPC I didn't have the opportunity to attend anything that featured Allison Watson BUT I am positive I saw Allison with Laurie at WPC or it was definitely mentioned in one of her presentations. Talk about making people with disabilities feel special. But I'm not surprised. Don't forget, its women leading the way.... Microsoft women
and they DO CARE!

Thought for the day: They can build the international spacestation

2007-08-21T12:20:00.000-07:00

But someone can't create a biodegradable chip (have to protect our environment) to tell us when to change a diaper? You know why. Because men don't change them often enough for it to be a national crisis (yet)

A good idea gone (really) bad - IBM Girls' Camp

2007-08-21T08:09:00.001-07:00

http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=44749

Another article in as many days confirms what everyone seems to know now about the lack of females in the IT sector, especially graduating ones. So what did IBM do? They tried an "IT camp" for teens. The link above is a not very positive review about the methodology used and I can understand why. What does smashing a nitrogen dipped flower have to do with becoming the next Allison Watson or Eileen Brown unless its meant to show how they can capture that image, fine tune it in Picture It 9.0 express or capture it on a Mobile 6 enabled phone and drop it instantly into a livespace site. Something about intriguing them into entering the IT field seems horribly misguided, albeit a valiant effort. But let's reveiw the article (linked to from the one above, describing the event in more detail:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2172907,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594

Now the story comes across in a completely different light and revealed, in wonderful detail, that this camp was, in fact, very well thought out. What the women at IBM did was show these girls that science and technology are intertwined and that by opening their minds and walking away from their IM's for a few minutes, may provide them with a life altering pereception of what we as IT people already know, IT can be a mesmerizing and rewarding opportunity. But they went one step further. They opened them up to experiencing business challenges, working with models, as teams, trying to deal with building safe bridges while under tight budget constraints. Note: they covered marketing, architecture, project management, programming, design and engineering in that one week. So??? They allowed for any number of potential career opportunities to take hold. As one girl realized she wasn't so big on the technical side but showed signs of marketing savvy. Very smart.

What I paticularly appreciated was that they knew from their research that "girls want to make a difference for humanity". Accept it or not we are by nature nurturing rather than taking the "projectiles and blowing things up just because scenario". Given the state of our planet that counterbalance is probably more important than ever. When given the opportunity, most of the girls picked the nitrogen dipped flower over dipping the balloon, and then chose not to smash it into a million pieces.

In the end, realistically, they realize that one week of camp is not going to change the girl's lives and therefore the staff actually goes one step further by keeping in touch with the girls via email during the school year, in the hopes of keeping that initial spark going.

This leads me to an even more important point at the beginning of the "real"article, the event was billed as EX.I.T.E. (Exploring Interests in Technology and Engineering). So the reviewer lead us astray from a very important piece of information. This was not just about IT.

What was the matter with the first guy? Never mind. Shame on me for almost letting this obviously erroneous (in my view) take on this event almost jade the people who count on a sound review of events in our global community. 50 lashes with a wet noodle for me.

Oh and by the way this was a link on the second article and is the one I referred to in an earlier posting that talks about Microsoft's Eileen Brown and the hugely successful Tech ED WILT luncheon. If you missed it earlier then click below. It is well worth the read:
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2153718,00.asp

LESSON: Do your own research and ALWAYS dig a little further. READ between the lines and then see if there are more articles related to the original. Luckily the first one lead to the second. Had I not clicked on that link I would have propogated one man's poorly conceived view of this camp. As a matter of fact its one reason the internet's information highway has to be driven with caution by us all.

Tech Ed 2007 WILT NEW VIDEO - Better viewing

2007-08-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

http://captussolutions.com/virtualteched/WIT-Tech-500K.wmv

Eileen has given me this new link for you to better view their jaw dropping session at Tech Ed 2007.

Seeing is believing.

Efficiency - How Microsoft's Female Executives Get The Job Done

2007-08-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

I saw firsthand recently how efficient the Microsoft machine was recently at WPC in Denver. I had the pleasure of either working with or being on a panel with some of Microsoft's top female brass. They are smart, classy and above all extremely personable. But what I noticed was that they were not alone. In a demanding position such as theirs it would make sense that they are sought after all the time for a myriad of issues both menial and extremely critical. This does not even touch on the extensive travel, speaking engagements and other meetings many of these key people do on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Given the deluge of email that must build up hourly it simply would not make sense to expect them to handle this all on their own and be effective leaders. So what was once just the bastion of male executives has become the standard for female executives at Microsoft, an executive assistant. These women and men (yes I received a call from him so I can vouch for this) are even more important today than in any other time. In one way its ironic because the IT revolution was supposed to make life easier to manage. It has except it also has given people more ways to reach you, perhaps a little too easily and therefore the other edge of the sword is that everyone and his brother can ping you to their heart's content. So to balance this all out the EA's have become as integral to these women as having a PDA.

The end result? They are able to be effective and people do get listened to and issues are dealt with because someone can filter the important from the less so and ensure what really needs their attention that particular day gets it. I also think that allows them to remain very focused on business issues that affect us all. That doesn't mean there is an iron curtain in the way. And by the way I have received emails back from these people directly and very promptly because I treat their time with the utmost respect and only contacted them on something I knew was of relative interest to them and that they believed in. Okay confession time: One time I did get angry with a "stupid" run around issue that was inexcusable to me and lo and behold I fired off an email: issue was corrected in two hours (after 3 weeks of pleading and begging).

Lesson: As women we often are so used to multitasking that we forget that to be as effective as leaders we should take a tip for our male counterparts and from Microsoft's women leaders and work at "layering" our accessibility. If we work in a smaller environment that can be hard but I actually found that by using tools like Microsoft Groove, the people and projects that are critical to me are positioned so that I am alerted the minute anything comes up and needs my attention and I then check my email when I see fit. This is the quickest and most inexpensive but extremely effective tool I use. Sharepoint Server is the next tool I would put into the mix for firms with a larger office and tasks that need controlling but more on that another time. What else do I do. I have and am still learning to use outside services for certain functions that are just eating up my productivity. I have taken shirts (mine)to the cleaner for pressing cleaning and to closing my computer in the evening for a few hours (okay that's going to take a long time to learn). I also keep my pocket pc with me and that allows me to be anywhere and still be in touch without lugging around a laptop. I see many women with them but not nearly enough. It's an investment you will never regret. I don't rush back to the office after lunch or a meeting. I can reposition meetings and update appts. and documents but more importantly I can be mobile the entire day and never be out of range to deal with the people who are dependent on me.

If you happen to be in a larger environment, sit down with your boss and start looking at what you do, how you do it and how much of your time is deal with interruptions that would be best filtered out of your day. If making certain goals and deadlines is critical to your job then this makes even more sense to review. When you can dissect your day and find another 15-25% of your time that can be gained by using other human resources for certain tasks then you also stand a better chance of becoming the leader you always aspired to.

The Channel's Most Powerful Women

2007-08-14T11:36:00.000-07:00

The August 2007 edition of Var Business magazine highlights 50 top executives in the IT industry. The group includes Microsoft's Allison Watson, which should come as no surprise especially given the work she has again accomplished in the last 12 months. I wish it would have been the cover story but suffice to say it tells us that the industry is at least realizing that women are a great asset here and we ought to take note of this rather large contingent and make sure that word gets around. "Lead by example" is a saying that may inspire more women to take up the challenge and pursue this path of excellence. I was struck by the text under one Angie Wong, CEO of OJO Technology, "and still managed to raise twin boys". Silly sexist statement but then again there is a truth to be told. While many men don't have to balance work and responsibilities to children, and then some still can't "hack it" under pressure, who then better to rise to the challenges of this industry than someone who can correct a major marketing problem and explain the Pythagorean theorem to their teen without batting a mascara laden eyelash.

Facebook for WIL&T hosted by Eileen Brown

2007-08-13T15:53:00.000-07:00

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=3233790416

Eileen started this group out of the UK. I hooked into it today. I like their idea of the Geek Dinner. Now there's a novel concept for women!

This is an open group so no invite needed.

Tech Ed 2007 and Eileen Brown

2007-08-13T14:36:00.000-07:00

Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/eileen_brown/
Blog: http://blogs.technet.com/Industry_Insiders/

Eileen Brown came to my attention as the moderator of the very successful WIL&T luncheon at Tech Ed 2007. I contacted her to get help in pulling together as many resources for our own WIL&T session at WPC 2007 including our group on the WPC site. Eileen, whose own story is just unbelievable in its roots, pulled together a great amount of research which she shares along with the panelists, in a video at Tech Ed and sent this to me as well a few broadcast links she has done.

Eileen is typical of what we need in this global community, someone who readily gives what she has so carefully taken her own time putting together and without a thought happily shares with everyone in order to give us a window into what we need to look at. Below I have put these resources links for your own previewing. What I learned confirmed what I believed to be true. BUT what I really found amazing was the stories of the panelists, one of whom I met at WPC, Lisa Coleman. Again here is someone who wants to help spread the message and does so gladly and with no hesitation.

Eileen has let me know in no uncertain terms that she believes in this initiative and we look forward to having her input as we forge ahead.

Take an hour and listen to this session. Unfortunately we don't have the best video feed (looking into getting it for our WIL&T web site), but just sit back and listen. A picture is worth a thousand words but in this case cranking up your speakers will be worth a whole lot more.

Tech Ed 2007
http://www.virtualteched.com/Videos/WIT-Tech-100K.wmv

Radio podcast
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/04/2007_25_fri.shtml

Thank you Eileen. You're a real motivation to techies everywhere!

SMB Nation WILT

2007-08-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

I am excited to announce we have received and accepted an invitation to speak again on the WILT mission on Monday October 1, 2007 at SMB Nation (on Microsoft's campus). Our session will be during the lunch hour and I hope any of you that are planning to once again attend SMB Nation will make sure to join us for this event. If you need details on the conference you will find them at:
http://www.smbnation.com/

A huge thank you to Beatrice Mulzer who was quick on the mark to get us in before this opportunity slipped us by.

The IT Attraction Factor

2007-08-12T07:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I read an article about the petroleum industry in British Columbia, Canada and their plight to get skilled workers in an environment that much like the tech industry is realizing an increasingly unmanageable shortage. As with many other situations they figured if they threw more money at the workers the problems would disappear. And as such people are finally waking up to the fact that this is not working. Why? It's more simple than you'd think. These people were not connecting with the community, the "workplace" was lacking in providing current and prospective workers with a social environment that not only gave them the connectivity they desired to keep them they were not clear at all on what it was that motivated them in the first place , and in the short term they were and are leaving or not even attracted to the positions in an way whatsoever. Even heaping on more money wasn't having any positive impact.

The IT industry is looking down the same rabbit hole. A shortage of over 3 million IT workers is looming in the next few years and as a partner in an IT firm we see the shortage and how it is affecting business opportunities and growth all over. This in turn slows down the adoption of new technology and increasing productivity. Worse I see the pillaging that goes on of skilled workers in our industry. It's accepted but its of no benefit to the consumer nor partners in the long run.

The sadder issue is that in the IT industry the last thing you need is skilled workers and in some cases leaders leaving the pack to move onto something more satisfying. Interestingly and disheartening is the number of women leaving our industry is on the increase again, enough to have articles popping up everywhere trying to decipher the problem and offering up nothing in the way of solutions. Most of these are being written by men who were frankly not even aware of the issue, but were curious enough to tackle the topic. Thank you. Your curiosity is a valid support of our mission.

In an industry that is developing technology to make our lives easier, to increase productivity, to keep us connected and with possibilities for any number of careers in so many business segments even beyond IT firms themselves, women are waving the white flag and disappearing and we can't seem to attract new ones in any significant numbers, nor do we really have solid recruitment programs in place. Actually the bigger picture tells us we haven't got the courses out there either to fill the large numbers required to satisfy our employer hungry market with specifically skilled IT people, based on rising demands from buyers of this technology.

So with all these issues where do we begin? First let's identify and pinpoint the real problems and put some careful thought as to who and what we need to address. That's where the WIL&T group comes in. Working with industry leaders at Microsoft who see the picture much in the same vein way we do and who are as affected by the results as their partners, we will start to look at current research and with partner and employee participants from all over the globe and from every IT sector, we can develop a plan to help the industry take corrective measures to remedy the tide of departures and display the wonderful opportunities the industry gives to females of all ages. Moreover we can change the way we work and find ways to take advantage of technology to give us what technology has always meant to provide us with , time to be ourselves.

Rising Stars and CIO Top 50

2007-08-08T15:38:00.001-07:00

It certainly came as no surprise to read that our own Lora Gernon is a rising star according to Channel Web Network:

http://www.crn.com/womeninthechannel/;jsessionid=KL4E4OABBUIJKQSNDLPSKH0CJUNN2JVN

Lora is no wall flower. Her style is forward and thoughtful and she is certainly reason to celebrate and highlight her as a leading female in a very tough tech industry.

Click on all the links to get an eye opening perspective on our female leaders. The timing tells us that we are making waves but we still could use more Lora's to make a dent in the upper decks!

CONGRATULATIONS LORA!!

The Motto!

2007-08-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Every group needs a motto and for me this says it all:

TECHNOLOGY HAS NO LIMITS....................NEITHER DO YOU!

So what are we waiting for? We aren't! We're already here to support, guide, mentor, push. You name it and we'll do it, all in the name of helping all women step up. But we will do it thoughtfully and with good planning,.................. and we won't be afraid to ask for directions