When (much) younger I used to always prefer to hire woman as analysts designers and programmers – their logic was logical and they always got on with delivering the output, whereas a real geek guy wanted to tweak one little routine to death because it was interesting. Thank Gaia my daughter (one of them) continues the family tradition of geekiness.

Go well, live long, prosper and have happy daze

“Each of them had the same complaint: EVERYONE thinks I’m in PR!”

;)

My point was that you suggested that in order to run women friendly events we should somehow locate and sneak into a woman-dominated event and try to work out what the women like about it.

I suggest that’s a rather unfeasible approach. Women are always telling us that they are the better communicators. Would it not be a lot easier if you just told us?

I’ve repeatedly found that when looking for something in Dick Smith, if there is a female staff member then she will be a very good bet for being clued up about what they’ve got and what it can do — as opposed to most of the guys they employ. I’ve found this in at least the Porirua, Johnsonville and Vivian St stores over a period of a few years.

This seems positive to me, though maybe it could be construed as meaning that a woman has to be twice as good to get hired.

On the other hand it may be the case that when I make the same assumption and mistake with a male they try to bullshit their way through.

I’m sure all geek guys would love to see more women at our events, but how would we achieve that? If there is something we can do better, then please don’t keep it a secret. Enlighten us rather than just complaining about it.

Let’s face it, the chances of most of us finding ourselves at a women-dominated tech event are pretty slim.

The picture I have in my head is like a tupperware party with iPhones. How close am I? ;)

I concur, we need a more relaxed atmosphere sometimes. Sometimes intensity works, sometimes you just want to sit back and chat about interesting stuff!