It’s nearly two weeks into the new year and so much has happened already.
Since my Stemette early December post, and subsequent personal blog on New Year resolutions, the outpouring of help and donations has been, at times overwhelming.
The first Stemette Supporters
Lopa Patel MBE has been an excellent help in suggesting women who could help out. Sonia Meggie has been a brilliant support in connecting me with her network. Baroness Susan Greenfield has responded before most. Male sympathisers like Patrick Hussey, Raph Mokades and Rob Johnson have been extremely generous. I’m struggling to keep the Stemette supporters page up to date. The @stemettes Twitter account has been used to broadcast most of the supporters.
Date for your diary – Stemettes Launch
On Friday, I got confirmation that Google Campus London had a space for us to use for the Launch event on 12th February and that’s blown me away too.
So with support pouring in and people asking ‘What can we do for you I think it would be wise for me to provide an update on what is required:
Opportunities with the Stemettes
- Team of event volunteers – running an event isn’t easy, but like most things, the more you do it, the better it gets. Impact10 has agreed to help out for the first few, but I’ll need a few ‘crew’ members to help on the event days. Registrations, live-tweeting, speaker liaison, refreshments, AV/slides, photography, feedback… The list goes on.
- ‘Core’ team of Stemettes – running the Stemettes currently sits on my shoulders, but I have strengths and weaknesses. Case in point: Writing – I’d rather not have to throw together press releases or guest articles when there are wonderful people out there who have a passion for writing. There’s a need for someone to do budgeting and apply for the various funding pots identified (before the sponsorship starts flooding in). Lastly, legal/health and safety/paperwork (as we’re dealing with kids) needs to be handled by someone less allergic to paperwork than me.
- Venues! – I’d like to avoid running any of the events in a bar. I know that many companies have auditoriums/large spaces that hold 100+ people. The donation of one of these, in a central, easily accessible place, is more than you could imagine. The Forward Internet Group (owners of Uswitch and the guys behind Makers Academy who are teaching people to code in 10 weeks) have been excellent in promising their biggest space to us – follow their example!
- Experts – running Hackathons and Exhibitions takes a special kind of planning that I’m conscious of but would appreciate a second opinion on. If you’ve ever run either or know someone who has – please ask them to get in touch. Enough said.
That’s it for now
Continue to tell your friends, to tell their friends, and to spread the word about the Stemettes. Our target audience is females at the undergraduate level and below – my first foray into ‘technology’ was at the age of 4, and kids these days have access at an even younger age – let’s make those interactions count for a better future of females in STEM.
