“I love that it’s all women, it feels supportive and open.”
“It’s very different from other ‘geek’ type events that are heavily male dominant. I appreciate that.”
“The ladies in attendance were all so easy to talk to — very laid back event, in spite of the amount of people!”
These are just a snippets of the feedback rolling in about She Geeks Out, a Boston event series that started with a small table of women in 2008 and has grown to a regularly sold-out monthly meetup with an average of 100 attendees. Anyone and everyone from tech enthusiasts to entrepreneurs to students and other business professionals are invited. The only requirement? Being female (and yes, trans ladies are more than welcome).
Building a community
It all started seven years ago, when Brandeis grad and founder of the eco-friendly beauty site Kind Eye Rachel Murray, went on a quest.
“I thought to myself: I would like to know a group of women who are geeks like myself,” she told BostInno.
"I thought to myself: I would like to know a group of women who are geeks like myself."
A little digging on the Internet led her to discover a group in London called the Girl Geek Dinners, and she decided to try and open a chapter in Boston. While a handful of ladies came out for the meetups, Murray says the series never quite took off. That is, until June 2013, when VMware’s Felicia Jadczak got involved after catching wind of the San Francisco chapter of Girl Geek Dinners through a colleague. With that, VMware became a sponsor, hosting the next event at their office. While the duo feared this meetup would have a dismal turnout due to the cold, rainy weather that night—to their surprise, at least 80 people came out.
“We had to kick people out at the end of the night,” says Jadczak.
Jadczak, a BU alum, has been with VMware for five years as a program manager. Part of her role includes running a grassroots program specifically for female entrepreneurs, offering them resources, support and mentorship opportunities that can help them thrive. Clearly, She Geeks Out was right in her wheelhouse. It’s a series that allows local women to learn from one another — in particular, their geeky pursuits. And to boot, proceeds support local organizations focused on girls in STEM, such as Science Club for Girls.
The duo claims that after the June 2013 event held in the VMware office, they had no definite plans to make this a recurring thing. But attendees were hungry for more. Eventually, the duo began receiving an increasing influx of emails from companies that were interested in sponsoring—and it snowballed from there.
Flash forward to today: 2,000 people are on the mailing list, and around 100 are coming out to the monthly events, which very often sell out. (In fact: Their August event at Bolt in Downtown Crossing sold out in less than two days.) The cofounders estimate that half the women who come out are repeat attendees. And there’s been no problem whatsoever finding locations for these gatherings, either: Already, they’re booked up with sponsors through April 2016.
After a year and a half, it became clear to the cofounders that the name no longer accurately reflected what that group had evolved to become. So, In April of this year, they ditched the name and re-launched as She Geeks Out, a separate organization with fresh branding.
Expanding and diversifying
By now, the team has fine-tuned the format for these meetups, which typically fall on the last Tuesday of each month. The first hour is casual networking with appetizers and drinks. Attendees range from women in their early 20s to their 60s, but the duo says most are in their late 20s to early 30s. Not all are necessarily in tech, either: They’re just interested in learning new things and meeting new people. And their nametags now prominently display precisely what it is that they “geek out” about. And unlike other networking events, which can feel awkward, cliquey and intimidating, these meetups are designed to feel as chill as possible.
Following the networking session, between one and three speakers will lead the core discussion for the night. Some recent meetups have featured Diane Hessan at Localytics, who spoke about her career path, another event at Yesware during which the director of talent discussed how she balances her job with a mega popular pug-themed Instagram account, and a talk from one of the Boston Roller Derby Dames. The aim is to continually strike a balanced mix of technical talks, personal journeys, and Q&As.
“We found it’s the winning formula,” added Jadczak. “There’s variety since the speakers come from different companies, and so the audience is kept entertained the entire time.”
They also raffle off prizes from ThinkGeek.com—a portion that Murray says has become a highlight for attendees.
Finally, there’s a recruiting aspect. Everyone gets a nametag with a colored dot indicating “who’s hiring” and “who’s looking.” This helps the companies sponsoring the events to find potential candidates, while also helping professional who attend to find job openings. Jadczak says at least two people approach her at each event to let her know they reaped a job lead from She Geeks Out.
The upcoming She Geeks Out event at Bolt, which will include talks from FitBit Senior QA designer Kathy Gavini, and CLEAR Design Lab founder Kat Ely, is going to be their largest to date—with up to 130 people.
A pivotal moment for the organization came in late spring, when She Geeks Out launched its membership program. Those who sign up (it’s $125 for the whole year) get first access to the regular monthly events and bypass the ticket fees. They also get discounted access to other new events coming down the pipeline, and exclusive access to members-only events. Moreover, members are privy to discounts at a slew of local companies, including two free classes at FlyWheel, 30 percent off workshops and classes General Assembly, half off Zipcar annual memberships and $500 off tuition for the Startup Institute full-time program. Corporate event sponsors, meanwhile, can extend individual memberships for up to eight employees.
The ladies behind the series have a lot up their sleeves for the coming year, too. Like a mid-September screening of “GTFO”—a documentary about women in gaming, a day-long summit for next June, speed recruiting events for members and sponsors and meetups specifically focused on highlighting female entrepreneurs’ success stories. They’re also working on creating a directory database for recruiters that members can then opt into for job opportunities.
But however She Geeks Out continues to evolve, there’s one key goal the founding duo is adhering to:
“Boston has this bad rap for being an unfriendly town, and we’ve done whatever we can to make the events feel like a welcoming community,” says Murray.
Event photo via She Geeks Out.
