Intel Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner #42

 I was one of the lucky lottery winners that got to attend the Intel-sponsored Girl Geek dinner at the Intel Museum in Santa Clara. It's an amazing place, and if you can't visit in person, there are on-line exhibits for you to enjoy.

Intel is a Valley legend and the entire history of the company (and tech!) is encapsulated in the museum exhibits. 

No tech museum would be complete without a specimen of the first, the original IBM PC! Age disclosure: my first work PC was the version with a hard disk drive - things had moved along a bit by the time I graduated.

 There was an extended demo center with AIO/Gaming, Perceptual Computing, Cloud Video Encoding, Intel- powered phones/tablets, and  Ultrabooks. Organizers from GAINS (Girls Achieving in Non-Traditional Subjects - a Santa Clara School District program to support girls in pursuing tech careers) were there with a very informative display.  It was all interspersed with buffet and treat tables.

Intel's event catering was amazing - above, a candy station spelling out the company name in lucite candy containers.

Cake Pops in Intel Blue continued the company theme.

The panel topic was  “Pushing Boundaries in Technology” in our local communities and around the world. The speakers were all amazing senior women from several different areas of the company: Research Labs, Channel Marketing; Quality Assurance; Human Resources and Manufacturing. Message of the day: push through your fear and take risks. Women's careers are like a jungle gym, not a ladder (ref. Sheryl Sandberg).

Of course, there was the requisite goody bag, which I'm going to use as a makeup bag!

If you live in the Bay Area and work in Tech, I really encourage you to attend these dinners - this is a great opportunity to network and meet other women in Tech - in fact, I made a new friend that night - she works for a start-up in Palo Alto.

Jamilla