Kas Neteler Talks She’s Geeky!

She’s Geeky is an unConference for women in STEM. It’s place for women to discuss passions, careers, lives, in a supportive environment. There have been 17 conferences since 2007 in many major cities. I was thrilled to get to talk to Kas Neteler, the multi-talented executive producer of She’s Geeky. Let’s find out about the organization, what it does, and how you can get involved as a civic geek!

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Geek As Citizen: Science Awareness

Scientist Scope Technology Science

Neil deGrasse Tyson gives me hope. And not just that a relatively nerdy guy can become an intellectual sex symbol (according CERTAIN people in my twitter feed). It’s that we can make paying attention and knowing science cool again. Because we need to, and the remade Cosmos is a great start.

It seems as of late science isn’t cool.

  • Of course there’s climate change, where apparently 97% of scientists agreeing about it leaves room for controversy, especially if fat donations and speaking gigs can be wedged into that room.
  • There’s the disgusting anti-vaccination crusade that means we get measles back to kill our kids. There’s a nice story of leaving the anti-vaxx movement here or you can just stew in anger over the body count site whose URL mocks Jenny Mc Carthy.
  • Abstinence only education doesn’t work, though people still seem to think talking about it will convince people it does. Having been a teenager and remembering it, and looking at the numbers, I’m pretty sure it doesn’t.

We probably need to clone Neil deGrasse Tyson (Ok, you folks on Twitter, calm down, you know who you are). But baring the possibility of using dark technology to create an Army of Tysons* it’s up to us to enhance science awareness.

It’d kind of be par for the course.

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Make It So: More Specific Career Panels

Awhile ago I spoke at Con-Volution, a new convention in the Bay Area (we are blessed with cons out here) that was very practically focused. It had a lot of panels examining things in depth, talking specific skills, and getting pretty deep into doing things. I of course took my usual career roadshow there becaus I’m me. You know me.

It also got me thinking. In depth panels? Skill-building workshops? People with career interests. Career Panels?  Hmmm . . .

Right now there’s a lot of separate skillsets you need to do your job search and career building properly. There’s also specific things you have to do to get your career going that are also separate skillsets – making a good resume, for instance. Conventions, which often have “effectively doing stuff” events could have workshops and panels that address these various elements and skillsets. Not just a resume panel here or a website workshop there – instead have as many as possible that cover all aspects of careers.

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