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My Top 3 Ahas from the NASA Space App Challenge

April 12, 2015 / / 1 Comment

I loved spending the last 2 days at the NASA Space App Challenge.

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The first day I was at the Women of Data with 75 amazing women ranging in age from 13 to 75.   Each was incredible — and I learned so much from each one.   Saturday was the first day of the Hackathon ,and while IBM was engaged in over 70 of the hacks and the virtual hack with IBM Bluemix, I was at the NYC hack today with 3 astronauts, the NASA CTO, and Beth from NASA who runs the Innovation Program.  I had so many AHA moments but I thought I’d pick out my top 3 and share with all of you!

1.   Community Matters.

Yesterday I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes by Brian Solis:  “Community is much more than belonging to something; it’s about doing something together that makes belonging matter.”   As we were chatting yesterday after a session, our circle of “girls” kept growing and growing.  I loved the community that formed as we were all united in a common goal!

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2.  Hacks Give Confidence

Today I met amazing people who have gained tremendous confidence through hacking.   Olivia who “borrowed” an XML book from her brother, and then googled Ruby to learn language, Tae who attends Leigh University who could hardly sit still for a chat cause he wanted to go and code, and Katie who is a great combo of theater and code !!

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3.   NASA’s Data Gift not only helps NASA, but all of us!  Open source and crowdsoucing has a MAJOR impact!

During this Space Apps Challenge, NASA opened up new APIs and 200 data sources.   They did this not for their own gain, but for helping space, earth, and entrepreneurs.     Their own astronauts are committed to the collaborative economy — authentically !

This era of the collaborative economy is going to change the world.  And that’s what I witnessed today — a world changing event!

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What I learned from the Women of the Cloud Get Together at IBM Interconnect!

March 3, 2015 / / 0 Comments

With over 1000 women joining us for the Women in the Cloud event at IBM Interconnect, we heard Ted Talks from:

  • Lisa Seacat DeLuca – IBM’s Most Prolific Woman Inventor
  • Maria Winans – IBM’s VP of Marketing
  • Marie Wieck – IBM’s GM of Software
  • Laurie McCabe – CEO / Founder SMB Group
  • Frances West – IBM’s Executvie for Accessibility
  • me!
  • all the women FullSizeRender

Here’s my Top 10.5 Top Aways!

  1. Learn how to say No!   Not every opportunity is a good one so don’t say yes to everything.   Pick and choose those with the highest Return on Investment or Most Joy!
  2. You Can have it ALL but you have to define what your ALL is.    What brings you joy and excitement should be your bar, not what others desire.
  3. Exercise!   Almost all of the TED talks valued working out to de stress and stay healthy!
  4. Prioritize yourself.  The analogy I used was on a flight and in life, put your safety mask on first.  Then you can help others.  Sometimes it is ok to make you a priority.
  5. Have a support structure.   All of us need help and so when your daughter comes home with that last minute tea and you have a big presentation, have a support team who can sub in when needed.  You’ll need a strong support network for your personal life to meet the challenges of integrating work and life. Ask help of those around you – friends, family, and neighbors
  6. Take risks. Stretch opportunities, coaching and placement in roles outside of your “comfort zone” is critical to building leadership attributes
  7. Have fun.    Many examples of where women excel more when they loved what they were doing.   Do what brings you joy!
  8. Move from “can it be done” to “how can I get it done”.   Attitude and tone is really important but for your teams and you!
  9. Believe in yourself.   Make sure you have confidence in you and your abilities and those crazy ideas.
  10. Give yourself permission. Don’t feel guiltly about decisions  Make a decision and stand behind it. As one executive put it, “Don’t spend your time feeling guilty afterwards because you may be putting unnecessary pressure on yourself.”

10.5  Get a massage weekly!

say no