What a fantastic conference this has been. Unlike many other conferences I've attended, I seem to have no downtime. I'm constantly networking, attending sessions, blogging... and this year, fighting an uncooperative dying laptop. The energy here is fantastic, the balance of technical talks with "soft skills" is perfect. I only wish we all had more time together, that the sessions were longer, and the breaks were longer (for more networking). Of course, that would only be possible if the conference itself were longer... but a woman can dream, can't she?
I staffed the Sun booth yesterday morning, fielding all sorts of questions on OpenSolaris, Solaris Security, types of jobs we do at Sun, opportunities for students and just general questions about what Sun does. I enjoy what I do here, so getting an opportunity to talk about it was a true pleasure. If I missed any of you at the booth, please send me an email or drop me a comment here.
While here, I got to meet so many students, I think I even met all of the students and faculty from Purdue as well. I really enjoy hearing about the new research and areas of focus. The conference is only 50% students, though, so I also met so many inspiring career women.
Tonight Sun hosted a small private reception for the Sun employees and some outstanding women we all met throughout the conference. It was great to talk more in depth with these women, but again it seemed we just did not have enough time as we all rushed off for dinner provided by Google and Microsoft. Yum!
In addition to healthy, delicious food and cute t-shirts (Microsoft's t-shirts being made from bamboo and organic cotton - yay, Microsoft!) we again had DANCING! Imagine hundreds of women (and about 5 men) line dancing. Truly a site to behold. Unfortunately, I didn't bring the cable for my camera, but hopefully photos will be uploaded soon. It was quite a site to see!
Now I'm tired and need to start sorting through my stuff to see what I can fit in my suitcase. All the giveaways in the bag this year were really good, and anything folks didn't want someone has been collecting to give to charity.
Until next year :-)
Valerie Fenwick
Posts
Sorry to hear about your laptop, but good to read that you've had another great GHC, again.
ReplyDeleteI've kept in touch with a lady who used to be rather senior at Sun, and I know she enjoyed your postings last year; I've sent her your blog details again (along with the conference dates), and while I haven't heard back from her yet, I hope she's enjoyed your postings, this time.
Hey Valerie! I'm helping set up the GHC blog for this year, and we're trying to show only GHC09 tagged posts on the blog roll now. I was curious whether there was a feed to just your GHC09 posts (I know there aren't any yet, but when you start those I'm sure you'd love to see them on the main blog). That seems to be the only way to filter the blogs. Thanks!
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