Ready steady go

Inspired by @mindblob and by the fact that I’ll be presenting at the wawest conference , I decided that it’s time to get back to this blog.

I haven’t been doing nothing in the meantime. Not at all. I was here, moderating a huge mobile battle,  here, learning about how to get married web 2.0 style, here, challenged to think about how to change the world, and here, enjoying a warm summer night with the best tweeps ever . I haven’t stopped learning or enjoying my life either (taking my first sailing lessons, waw!) . I HAVE stopped blogging, though. For quite some time.

The reason : there is a new man in my life. Alexander. 10 months old at the moment. So here he is, staring at the sea with my other man.

I cherish our moments together. I love to watch my son grow up. Bottom line .. Important things first. Of course.

Having more or less found this difficult-to-find-balance-between-work-and-family, here I am … back to blog.

Ready steady Go

Lynn Langit wants more women in IT

At yesterday’s Girl Geek Dinner in Antwerp, organiser Clo managed to welcome Lynn Langit, a Developer Evangelist for Microsoft.

Lynn told about the Digigirlz programme, which introduces young girls between 12 and 17 years old to technology.

 

Rediscovering my two loves at DNA 2009

What does it feel like to rediscover two loves in one day? I can tell you: great. And it didn’t stop there…

Those two loves?

Preparing to be ‘a journalist for a day’

Actually, it’s ‘journalist for two days’. Frank from Frankwatching (one of the leading Dutch marketing blogs, with over 20.000 subscribers alone (RSS, newsletter, Twitter)) has asked me to report about the DNA event in Brussels for his blog.

Couldn’t and didn’t want to say no, so I took a two day leave at work. For quite a few years already, I have been attending conferences like DNA from a visitor’s perspective. But now it’s time to go the journalist way. Again, because in a far away past  – not that far but it surely feels like that- I used to be a journalist, not the project manager I am today. Curious whether I’ll be able to undust my reporting skills fast enough. But I’m also convinced it will work out just fine.

Blog winter nap … is over

I have had quite a winter nap when it comes to this blog. However, here I am again.

To let you know that I’ve been asked by Frank from Frankwatching to cover the Digital News Affairs event in Brussels for his blog. To be honest, I am honoured and thrilled at the same time. It means a lot to me to get the trust of such a blog authority.

 

My last post about Barcamp Ghent

My last post about Barcamp Ghent indeed. Cause I can keep on writing about it. I wasn’t able to attend the presentation of Bart Dewaele from Netlash: “10 tips for starting entrepreneurs”. But I could catch up a bit thanks to his slides:

Stop motion video of Barcamp Gent

Filip Bunkens made a so-called ‘stop motion film’ of Barcamp Gent, turning 9 hours of picture taking (from one fixed place, namely the central gathering hall) into a 3 minute video. The result is amazing.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

How to get your girl to be more of a geek

A question of Steffest (as a comment on this article of mine), which resulted in a presentation at Barcamp Ghent. “How to get your girl to be more of a geek”.

I came up with seven tips. And if you want your boy to be more of a geek, please read the tips as well, they’re unisex 😉 .

Some findings of my presentation:

• I was pleased that quite a lot of people had shown up
• I was even more pleased that they shared their experiences (“I got my wife on Twitter” “I made my girl friend use GCalendar” …)
• I was pleasantly surprised that people spontaneously applauded each time somebody told a success story. Almost seemed a gathering of AA like that 🙂
• I was most pleased by the fact that apart from being inspired by Steffest, Steffest also got inspired by me. Resulting in a presentation of his wonderful Tweetshirt, with which he has great plans. If you can help out with the hardware, please contact him: “It’s a concept, but it’s a concept I want to take further so I gues I’m on the lookout for hardware partners or other interested partners to get this thing to a finished wearable product.”

PS Thanks everybody for filling out the polls in the previous post!

How to turn your girl/boyfriend into a geek? Please fill out the polls

It went like this: I wrote an article about the book ‘A Girl’s Guide to Dating a Geek’. Which made Steffest say:

“If you ever find a book like “How to get your girl to be more of a Geek”
DO let me know!
I’ve been trying for over a decade to do just that and have made no progress whatsoever …
Not giving up though !!”

So there we are: Barcamp Ghent coming up next weekend and Steffest did not forget. Can’t escape so I’ll have to give a presentation concerning the topic. That’s why I have already questioned some people. Not about how to date a geek, but about how to make a geek. I believe that Facebook (as opposed to eg Twitter or Flickr), is the easiest platform to start with and therefore a possible first step to geekiness. Therefore I would like you to answer the followig poll:

When you are a geek who turned his or her partner into a geek as well, please let me know how that went. What did your partner fall for? How did you start? How long did it take to use which tools? Is Twitter a bridge too far? Do you have to be born a geek and will some partners never turn geeky? One mailaddress: dorienaertsATgmail.com or the comments above this article. Thanks!

Cute audiocubes and unforgettable stories at GirlGeekDinner 9

GirlGeekDinner 9 was about music and technology. With among others the cute audiocubes by percussa and a dj set by boskabout. Waw 🙂 .

I finally met the wonderful Tantieris, stumbled upon the funny and witty Tante Annie and had a great time chatting with the other ladies (and boys). My sacoche -or man at my side- for this edition was the inspiring Polle, whose marketing blog I immediately added to my blogroll.

Quite some unforgettable stories at the Girl Geek Dinner as well. Girl Geek x almost drove her car in the canal when coming to the dinner because she blindly followed her gps. And that was only the beginning of her story, which included a stop in a kebab store and a worrying phone call to her husband beacuse she got lost (despite or because of the gps?). Luckily she finally got there 🙂 . Have to admit I kind of recognize that. I have often driven my car in one way streets in the wrong direction just because my gps told me so. Leading to dangerous situations 🙂 .Girl Geek y told about how she almost got locked into a big store because she didn’t think the personnel was in a rush when announcing that the shop was about to close. Made us plan a big party during closing hours. But shhht, that’s still a secret 😉 .

audiocubes by percussa

PS. Big thanks to Clo (organisation), Bert Schiettecatte (presentation) and Boskabout (music). And to Sensoa, Fanta, Chupa chups, Guitar Hero, Apple, Jan Leenders, Fa and PlugMedia for the goodie bag. And to Giovani Oosters for the yammie coconuts and CreativeClass for the great location.