Event write-up: September GGDCPT

On Wednesday 7 September we hosted our fourth Girl Geek Dinner Cape Town at the gorgeous Savoy Cabbage restaurant.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed to make this an extra special event:
- Suhaifa Naidoo from Realm Digital for organising (once again) some amazing goodie bags
- Our gorgeous, smart and inspirational guest speaker, Rapelang Rabana
- Gadget reviewer, Mandy Watson
- Venue scout, Alexandra Fraser; photographer, Elodie Kleynhans; and sound engineer, Justin Alvey
- Our sponsors: Chef Sam Cakes, TEP, Ster Kinekor, New Holland Publishing and Van Wealth Portfolio Management

Event photos available here.
Please diarise Thursday 3 November 2011 for our next event.

Below is an event review by the gorgeous Robyn Hobson:

12 Sep 2011

Spring Girl Geek Dinner

I checked out the Spring Girl Geek Dinner in Cape Town last week. It was my first time at this increasingly popular event and yes, everyone dresses like they’re French Royalty, looks like Kirsten Dunst and has a fancy butler to hold their Macbook. The dinner is basically a meet up for all the fabulously geeky girls in Cape Town and this one was held at the Savoy Cabbage.

Hats off to Mariska for organising this. It was painfully obvious that a woman had organised this event. Sorry guys, but like pregnancy, you just can’t beat us on this one. The attention to detail, the planning, the execution and the pretty things we were given were all appreciated.

The goodie bags rocked my socks and the cupcakes from Chef Sam were amazing. They honestly tasted as good as they looked. In fact, a lot of convo was dedicated to how we could nick the extra ones.

We were stoked to see that Rapelang Rabana was the key speaker. I heard her speak at NetProphet and find her an incredibly inspirational woman. I was glad to get the chance to meet her. She’s down to earth and just awesome really. Girl Crush alert.

I took two key points  away from her talk:

1. You can’t outsource your competitive advantage and expect it to work out

2. Don’t mess around. Make a decision.

It was really cool to meet up with old friends and meet some new ones. I know that sounds swiss-cheddar-cheesey, but it really is true.

So keep an eye out for the next one. I’d recommend GGDCPT to any geeky girl who wants to do a bit of networking, find a bit of inspiration and have a few laughs with some really awesome woman.

Plus you may even get a cupcake… or two.

*image sourced here

Invitation: Girl Geek Dinners 7 September 2011

You are kindly invited to our Spring Girl Geek Dinner Cape Town event taking place on Wednesday 7 September 2011.

Event Details

Date and time: Wednesday 7 September 2011 | 19h00 for 19h30. Venue: Savoy Cabbage, 101 Hout Street, Cape Town. Guest Speaker: Rapelang Rabana, CEO of Yeigo Communications and Global Head of Research and Development of Telfree. Cost: R165 for a three-course dinner and goodie bag. (Drinks for your own account). Mandy Watson will be sharing her thoughts on some cool gadgets and a lucky draw will take place on the night. Please note only 75 places available.

Guest Speaker

Rapelang Rabana Rapelang Rabana is CEO of Yeigo Communications and Head of Research and Development of Telfree. She epitomises the new global generation of ingenious business intellectuals, who are able to influence how the future world works. Rapelang was selected as an Endeavour ‘high-impact’ Entrepreneur in 2007 and in 2010, Rapelang was the youngest Grand Juror selected among industry experts across the world, for the United Nations’ World Summit Awards for M-Content.

Venue

Enjoy creative contemporary cooking in a visually exciting venue. With its historic Table Mountain stone and old brick that dates back to the 18th Century. The look of Savoy Cabbage Restaurant Cape Town would not be out of place in New York or London and neither would the quality of the whole dining experience. The menu alters daily, using the freshest local produce and combines unusual flavours to excite the palate of the discerning diner.

RSVP

Please RSVP here. If you need to get in touch with the event organisers, please e-mail us. Due to the limited number of seats available, we would like you to note that only proof of payment secures your seat.

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Save the date: 7 September

Dear geeky girls and boys
Our next Girl Geek Dinners Cape Town event will be taking place on Wednesday 7 September 2011. Please diarise this date.

Please send us suggestions for goodies, speakers, ideas, networking here.
Looking forward to seeing you there!

Invitation: Girl Geek Dinner Cape Town 7 July 2011

It’s time for our bi-monthly get together in Cape Town, and this event promises to provide ample opportunity for geeky fun & networking!

Register here

Date & time: Thursday 7 July 2011, 18h30 for 19h00 – please arrive on time!

Venue: The Victoria & Alfred Hotel, Conference Centre, V&A Waterfront
View location map

Parking is for your own account. Underground parking is at ULUNDI across the road from the Forum.
2 – 3 Hours – R16.00
3 – 4 Hours – R21.00
4 – 5 Hours – R32.00

Cost: R150 per person, including welcome drink, dinner and table wine (& cool goodie bags!). There will be a cash bar if you want anything else to drink.

Important:
- We will take no cash at the door – EFT to be done immediately on booking.  We will ONLY take 100 bookings, and your proof of payment will secure your seat.
- Please register your dietary requirements during the registration process – these cannot be changed later.

Speaker: The special guest speaker, Mardia van der Walt-Korsten, is the MD of T-Systems South Africa. She is flying in from Johannesburg especially to speak to us about:

“Being a women leading in a tech environment – the challenges, highlights and lessons learnt”

Mardia van der Walt-Korsten, born in 1963, completed her education with a Masters in Clinical Psychology at the end of 1987. Mardia began her career working as a Clinical Research Assistant for Hoechst UK in London.

Moving back to South Africa, Mardia helped develop the HR function for M-Net and Multichoice and was key in creating a Learning Centre at M-Net, developing an M-Net/Multichoice Nursery School. In 1998, Mardia joined T-Systems where she helped build the company from a staff count of 210 to a total of 934 employees at the end of 2001. Mardia was instrumental in implementing the necessary transformation processes, with specific emphasis on integration of new employees. In 2005 Mardia was appointed as the acting CEO for T-Systems in SA, the first woman to ever hold this position, and then officially as Managing Director for T-Systems a year later.

By the beginning of 2010, Mardia had lead T-Systems South Africa to be the biggest ICT Outsourcer in South Africa, with over 2700 employees and some of South Africa’s premium outsourcing contracts, the Old Mutual Group, Transnet, Eskom, Sasol, ACSA, Mercedes-Benz and DWAE being a few examples.

In 2008 Mardia was awarded both the Nedbank Businesswoman of the Year Award, as well as the IT Web ICT Personality of the Year Award, and in 2009 she was the awarded the SITA ICT Legend Award for her contribution to ICT Development.

Register here

Girl Geek Dinners: Another successful event

This post was originally written by Suhaifa Naidoo and published in Realm Digital’s blog.

A bunch of fabulously geeky girls got together last night for the second Girl Geek Dinner. The dinner, which was held at La Mouette in Sea Point, was organised and hosted by Mariska Du Preez. We were treated to a 6-course tasting menu and everything was simply delicious!

Steve Vosloo and Mandy J Watson were the evening’s guest speakers and shared their knowledge with us. Steve’s talk was very “pro-women”, and spoke about the economic sense it made for a company to have women in senior positions. Of course this didn’t surprise us women. He also spoke about empowering women through mobile. In some Middle Eastern countries, women get better tariff rates, and 41% of women who own mobile phones find better job opportunities! That made my jaw drop…literally! Mandy, a true geek girl, spoke about the Nintendo 3DS and brought some along to show the crowd. I was never a big gamer, but after seeing this amazing toy, I might have to go out and get one.

It was also an awesome opportunity to spend time with Sue Levy, Christine da Silva, Naazneen Parkar, Stacey Rumble, Shawn Graaf and Alexandra Fraser!

An event is not an event without goodie bags! A big thank you to Chef Sam, IT Web, Liqui Fruit and Verlaque Foods for the goodie bag sponsorship. Check out the biscuits with the Girl Geek logo that Chef Sam made:

Invitation: Girl Geek Dinners Cape Town 4 May 2011

You are kindly invited to our second Girl Geek Dinner Cape Town event taking place on Wednesday 4 May.

Event Details

Date and time: Wednesday 4 May 2011 | 19h00 for 19h30 Venue: La Mouette, 78 Regent Road, Sea Point Guest Speaker: Steve Vosloo, evangelist for all things mobile at the mLab. Cost: R150 for a two-course dinner and goodie bag (Drinks for your own account) Mandy Watson will be sharing her thoughts on some cool gadgets. Please note only 50 places available.

Renowned London chef, Henry Vigar has opened his first venture in Cape Town’s colourful and lively Seapoint area. La Mouette is a modern French restaurant with a Mediterranean flair exhibiting his culinary skills obtained though years of training in the south of France and working in various UK based Michelin starred kitchens.

Guest Speaker

Steve Vosloo Steve is currently the Mobile Impact Evangelist at the mLab Southern Africa, advocating for mobile innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. Before that he was the Fellow for 21st century learning at the Shuttleworth Foundation, and also a Digital Vision research fellow at Stanford University. Steve has a Masters in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town.

RSVP

Please RSVP here. If you need to get in touch with the event organisers, please e-mail us. Due to the limited number of seats available, we would like you to note that proof of payment secures your seat.

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Our first event… on International Women’s Day

We were very fortunate to have our (SA) first ever Girl Geek Dinner on Tuesday 8 March 2011 coincide with International Women’s Day.

The event was attended by 50 of Cape Town’s most stylish geek girls, and a handful of brave men. Suhaifa Naidoo wrote an overview of the night – read her blog here.

No event can be held without the support of some great people, and we want to thank the following people:
- Irene Kim (photographer), who captured the event: See pics
- Elodie Kleynhans (videotographer), who made a stunning Women’s Day video for us
- Jacques van Niekerk (guest speaker), who shared his passion for working in his dream job
- Mandy J Watson (gadget reviewer), who shared some of her favourite geek gadgets with us
- Woodlands Eatery (venue) for stunning food and drinks
- Suhaifa Naidoo (goodie bag organiser), who did a stunning review of the event
- Exclus1ves and Nomu (goodie bag items) for sponsoring vouchers and goodies

Easy links:
- Suhaifa’s review
- Jacques’ talk
- Photos of the event
- Video of the event

Be sure to sign up for our mailing list. The next Girl Geek Dinner event will take place on Wednesday 4 May 2011. Please diarise!