Kriselle Laran

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The first session I attended for the week happened on Saturday morning at 9:30am, and I'm super glad I woke up early to get there. Titled "Tech by Superwomen, Mentors and Mentees FTW," Cathryn Posey (@catpoetry on Twitter) found some fantastic women in the tech space to speak to the audience about mentors hip pane opportunities for women in a seemingly predominantly male industry. Her panel of superwomen included Ekaterina Walter of Intel (@ekaterina), Leslie Bradshaw of Jess3, Margot Bloomstein (@mbloomstein) of Appropriate, Inc., and author Nilofer Merchant. The panel of women spoke about the need to position and network based on skill and expertise, and not allow gender to be a defining or limiting factor.

Serendipitous to the panel discussion was a young blogger in attendance -- a young girl only 12 years old from North Dakota. It was amazing and inspiring to the other people in attendance to see that women in the industry now truly are helping pave the way for future generations to succeed.

Another key point in the discussion came up when a gentleman posed a question to the panelists: As an engineer who has mentored many male engineers in the past, how should he treat his newest mentee, who happens to be female? The answer: not differently at all.

Special thanks to @socialwendy

for taking this cute pic of me and Cathryn!

Panel summary:

"From the New York Times to Glamour Magazine, a universal question continues to percolate - why are women underrepresented in the tech industry? Explore the role mentorship plays in building a stronger and more inclusive community, while expanding opportunities for women to ascend to leadership roles. Panel discussion will examine the impact of women mentoring women, the positive results of enriching this community and the importance of empowering such partnerships. This panel will also look at the role men can and should play to open more doors for women in the industry. Engage, contribute and participate as a mentor or mentee! Help build a stronger, more inclusive tech community."

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Day 1 of SXSW just now, and hoping that I really did mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of Geek PR about to come my way. If I learned anything from last year, it's that while SXSW is fun, it is a. Lot. of freaking work. It's non stop game face from the moment I wake up to the moment I succumb to sleep. Even deciding when to go back to the hotel room can be a PR/marketing decision because every moment I'm not on the streets of Austin connecting and reconnecting I'm possibly missing potential opportunities. Not that I'm entirely here purely for business connections. Some of it can be personal too. I remember last year, I met someone that I could easily call a fantastic networking connection, but instead of talking business we took the opportunity over drinks to learn more about each other and the work that we do without the pressure of feeling like we were making a pitch. That's probably what I like best about SXSW. Conferences in general are great places to network, but SxSW is in its own class when it comes to opportunity. On the way over here, courtesy of Southwest Airlines (yes, I went to South by Southwest on Southwest), I quickly came to the realization that every single person on the plane was headed to Austin for SXSW. Now, really, when else does that happen?

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Did I miss something? When did Groupon start providing credit/debit card processing services?

I brought my son to get some ice cream the other night, when the girl behind the counter pulled out a big ol' iPhone to process my debit card. 

At first, I figured the store finally started using Square. I know the owners pretty well and had talked about Square with them a few times. Then, I noticed that she didn't have the little dongle...the whole phone was covered with a swiper -- like the credit card processing phones they use at the Apple Store.

That's when the girl told me that Groupon gave it to them. Apparently, Groupon is letting them use the new service, along with a phone to do the processing on, for one whole year to try it out. The fees are super low -- similar to that of Square. She even showed me the app on the phone that had the Groupon icon, with a dollar sign in the background. 

I tried Googling the new service, but didn't find anything about it. I couldn't even easily find anything on the Groupon site.

Did someone already talk about this? When did this happen? 

I think it's a positive move. Hopefully Groupon can start operating in lighter shades of red with this new way of earning revenue.

I should have taken a picture of the phone and app, but I think I was in too much shock to think of it.

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Pinterest is going to do to Twitter what Facebook did to MySpace. 

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I know it's crossed your mind. If you know that I founded Peninsula Oktoberfest, I'm sure you've thought to yourself (or said to others), "Why the heck did Kriselle want to throw an Oktoberfest?"

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September 2 has finally arrived, and with it comes the end of shameless self-promotion time to vote on panel submissions for SXSW. I must have voted for at least a dozen different panels...with over 4500 submissions to the SXSW Interactive 2012 festival, there truly were many fantastic ideas that I cannot wait to hear about in person next March in Austin.

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More organizations seem to be realizing the need for better opportunities for students to become tech proficient. Today, I discovered the 21st Century Youth Project which is an after school program offered for free as a way for students to be able to supplement their learning activities and be mentored by some of Chicago's many entrepreneurs and tech enthusiasts. As described on its Facebook page, the 21st Century Youth Project "is a free after-school program that teaches, & prepares students with next generation skills to write, design, create, and market applications for mobile platforms."

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I'm currently loving the new promotion that Apple sent my way this afternoon, persuading people to turn in their old iPads. Apparently, you can turn in your iPad and it will be donated to a teacher from a school district in need of better educational tools. The donation is tax-deductible, and gives you an opportunity to gift yourself with a new iPad (which is quite likely Apple's ultimate goal).

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