How New Media is shaping our image- speaking at the Girls in Tech Event

UPDATE: Since many of you expressed interest in seeing the Girls in Tech event, we will now be having a live stream! Join us at 7:00-9:00 PM Pacific on the GITSC Justin.TV channel. Special thanks to Justin, Evan, Danielle and Will at Justin.TV who are making this possible. Irina, Kiki, Sarah, Eileen, Mary and I hope you all tune in Friday night!

Being a woman in the tech and production field hasn't always been easy. Both industries are predominantly created by men for the consumption of...men. While studying at UC Berkeley, I was always intrigued by the role of women in traditional media and wrote my final research paper on the Representations of Women in Video Games. When I was researching this topic, I found much of what I expected;depictions of powerless women in video games and gamer media. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the attitude of males towards women in video games and how well they responded to empowered/strong female characters.

I still continue to think about how women are portrayed in this digital age and in new media. I was asked to moderate a panel for July's Girls in Tech Developer event but was not able to contribute. Instead, I pitched this idea of female representations in our 2.0 world to my friend and managing director of Girls in Tech-Santa Cruz, Seana Norvell. She thought it was a great idea and we began immediately organizing an event around female representations in the online video realm. I reached out to my fellow females in new media, and luckily, it is a topic that resonated with my peers.We've gathered quite the list of new media women and I am proud to be sharing a panel with them. Joining me on August 28 will be the intelligent Irina Slutsky, (Geek Entertainment TV), savvy Sarah Austin, (Pop17), eloquent Eileen Rivera (Revision3.com), and the dazzling Dr. Kiki Sanford (This Week in Science). The panel will be moderated by Mary Duan, Reporter for the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal. Our event will be at NextSpace Santa Cruz, and you can purchase a ticket to hear us speak. I am sure it will be an unforgettable event and a great place to hear some of new media's finest share their thoughts. Besides the panel, we would also love to hear your questions, so please tweet at Girls in Tech Santa Cruz (GITSantaCruz) with any queries you have for any of us.

I look forward to seeing you there and receiving your questions. Viva Girls in Tech!