Leeds Girl Geeks 2011

On Tuesday we headed out to see our very own Shang Ting Peng present at Leeds Girl Geek Dinner, which was this time held at Harvey Nichols. Shang Ting spoke about her amazing England Observing Diary project and a little bit about what life is like as a member of Team Hebe.

To quote the organisers:

"We have an amazing evening planned and, to coincide with International Women's Day, our keynote speakers will be bringing global perspectives and stories, from Iran and China, to Leeds.

We're also super excited to be hosting GGD at one of the city's hottest venues, Harvey Nichols' Espresso Bar in the Victoria Quarter. Along with our previous venues - Living Room, The Loft & City Inn - Harvey Nichols will help us maintain our reputation for finding the most stylish backdrops for our guests and speakers"

Our Shang Ting talked about her upcoming bookWhile Sanaz spoke about Iranian culture and gender trangressionHere each member of our team talks about their feelings and thoughts on the event: 

STACEY:

"Girl Geeks was a great event. It was so nice to see so many female professionals together discussing careers, aspirations and upcoming projects. 

Shang Ting was the first to speak and she blew us away. She was so casual and entertaining yet all the information she gave us about herself and her projects was so impressive and influential. I was very proud of my friend and colleague and not only for the content of the presentation but also the fact that doing a presentation in another language means she had two jobs, one, delivering a great presentation and two, actually saying what she wanted to say in another language in front of lots of people. Shang Ting had no problem with either! She is very modest about her fanpage and book but she should be so so proud. Not only does she have a book deal at such a young age, but she also is out, doing what she wants to do and sharing her travels with everyone in Taiwan. And another important thing to remember is that she is putting Leeds on the map on an international level.

There was definitely a huge contrast between the two presentations. The second presentation by Shanaz Raji was about a subject you could tell she felt deeply about. As a person who does not know too much about Iranian culture, I definitely came away with some new knowledge. It is nice always to see someone with real passion about a subject, whether past or present.

I enjoyed catching up with some other girl geeks such as Sam Ward, Becky Freeman, Steph Noble and Christine Morris. It's a great way to mix with all different kinds of career women and compare experiences and achievements."

SIMON:

"Attending a Girl Geeks dinner on International Women's Day and listening someone talk about gender transgression... Is that irony? Who even cares if it is, listening to someone from Team Hebe rocking the crowd in Harvey Nichols was sensational. Shang Ting had me cracking up every second (for all the right reasons) and hearing her Fanpage numbers, and the way she sees her place in our team, really puts Hebe into perspective: Idea factories are made up of ideas people. "

Even the boy geeks cameMARCUS:

It was an inspiring event, a great initiative that shows that you don't need to spend big and do massive pretentious events in order to get people involved in the community and to connect with each other. Felt like there were a great mix of people there and I had a great chat with some people that I probably wouldn't have met without this event! Big thanks to the speakers as well, I hope I get to go to a few more of these kind of gathering soon again!

Shang Ting talked about the Hebe BlogAnd what it is like working for Hebe MediaLEE:

''I thought it was an interesting evening. Shang Ting did a really cool presentation and the numbers on her Facebook page are impressive. To have 10,000,000 views in a month shows that if you do something interesting and with genuine motives you can achieve amazing things. It took me back to our days in IED where Shang Ting would often give entertaining presentations backed up with serious data. I loved how she spoke about Hebe too because that is exactly the type of spirit and feeling we are trying to create here, so I guess it shows we are doing some things right.''

The second presentation from Sanaz was a totally different style and subject matter. She was passionate about an emotive subject and it was perhaps a reminder that on International Women's Day there is still work to be done in many countries and cultures."

And we will leave the final word to SHANG TING:

I felt honoured to have the chance to speak in front of many important people in the city. It was very pleasant to look over to the crowd and see everyone giving me encouraging nods during the speech. Hopefully I have fully expressed myself by putting a thoughtful plan towards an little idea, it can grow into great possibilities. And most importantly, I hope everyone there had a good time the night. Thank you again for Imran and LSX gang for giving me this great experience.