There have been many times we thought about giving up or were accused of having jumped the shark, but still they keep on coming: Brussels Girl Geek Dinners. The twenty-third (!) edition will be on Wednesday 6 January at 6:30PM at the Mirano (Leuvensesteenweg 38, 1210 Brussels).
What girl geek dinners are about is pretty clear: they are events for females who class themselves as girly and geeky. The events have a technical focus and are light hearted and fun. Some of the events are rather girly (especially the ones where we mess around with chocolate, make-up, or pretty party dresses), others are rather geeky (like 3D printing, or Designing & Developing for Mobile). But after 2,5 years of organising them, the most important aspect to me is still that the events are not only light hearted and fun but also open and free.
Open to me, means that everyone who would like to come, should be able to do so. BGGD events are quickly booked full, but to be honest we usually get all the reserves in. And yes we do have "females only" events - it's called Brussels Girl Geek Dinner after all. I'm not sure if it's politically correct to say so but I don't care: the events are definitely more lighthearted when the boys are not around.
Free is the hardest part. I don't feel guilty about not always having a goodie bag for the ladies, but I insist on keeping the Brussels Girl Geek Dinners free for the girl geeks. We're very fortunate to have lots of people helping out and nobody is getting paid (not even the speakers). But if a cool location always works with e.g. a catering service, someone has to pick up the bill. And lately the fail rate of finding someone to cover the catering costs has gone up to over 50%.
I'm not sure what to do about that.
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