I can’t begin to explain how much starting this group has helped me to break out of my comfort zone and I hope has done the same for many of the speakers.

But I was always just able to give the group (and community) 75%. I’m the kind of gal that doesn’t just have one full plate – but a whole cupboard full and while juggling planning the events, finding speakers, promotion and all of the community work that comes with being the gal to contact (ie: helping folks promote their cool events, lending a hand to gals looking for work…), I was also taking French classes, studying and teaching Buddhism, blogging about Buddhism, doing social media campaigns for non-profits, raising wild pugdogs and maintaining a boyfriend who morphed into a fiance and now a husband. Yeah… I’m sure I missed some things in that list.

I’ve decided that it’s time to hand over the keys to the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners group to change things up a bit – both for me and the group.

Your new navigator is Alexandra Dao and you are in exceptional hands. Alex is a born organizer and community cultivator. She comes from startup culture and loves her some internet memes. She is a geek. A girl geek. Huzzah!!! She’s full of great ideas, boundless energy and is just freaking frakking nice. I look forward to what she’ll bring to the group and like a Mama Grizzly, I’ll be around to lend a hand if she needs it.

Georgiana Laudi will be helping Alex out and has already provided me with support on several events in the past. Gia gets social media, goes to a zillion local events and is a huge asset to the group.

Me? Well I have a few other projects cooking up but I’m really looking forward to having the time to meet you. Let’s have a girl geek tea sometime and catch up.

I’ve been taking French classes for a few months now and find that one of the best (and most enjoyable) ways for me to develop better comprehension is to watch television programs, episodes of webseries or movies. As a big film fan, it’s a great way to augment my vocabulary as well as get a taste of Francophone culture.

I got to thinking that I’ve been asking many folks for suggestions on what to watch so now I’d like to ask you to help me by posting links, trailers or You Tube clips on your blog of Francophone videos that you recommend.

_________________________________________________________________________

J’ai pris des cours de français pendant quelques mois maintenant et de trouver que l’un des meilleurs (et plus agréable) des moyens de me développer une meilleure compréhension consiste à regarder des émissions télévisées, des épisodes de webséries ou des films. C’est un excellent moyen d’augmenter mon vocabulaire ainsi que d’obtenir un avant- goût de la culture francophone.

Je suis arrivée à penser que je demande beaucoup de gens pour obtenir des suggestions sur ce qu’il faut regarder alors maintenant je voudrais vous demander de m’aider en affichant des liens ou des “clips”  de You Tube sur votre blog francophone de vidéos que vous recommandez.

Sometimes you need a does of truthiness. I’ve read a few blog posts over the past day that made me pleased to see the gospel of truthiness being spread.

The first post was from Blaise Grimes-Viort on the topic of “Why Community Management is Still Misunderstood” and is a must read for anyone thinking of hiring for this position or those who are considering this as part of their career path. It’s funny because later that evening, I read a post titled “Your First Marketing Hire” which comes from a startup-oriented CFO which I weighed in a bit on and then was met this morning again with Blaise’s post on “Your Community Manager is not a glorified marketeer: Value trust” which further demonstrates:

A) Businesses don’t really understand the role of the Community Manager

B) Some businesses want a Community Manager/Marketing hybrid

C) Some Community Managers can or want to do both

D) Some Community Managers can’t or don’t want to do both

All in all, I think that there’s some level of truthiness that has to occur. Businesses have to be honest with themselves and determine if they are looking for a marketer, social media expert or community manager and those who practice these disciplines need to be honest as to what kind of results they can deliver.

I’ve been brutally honest before with one previous position where I had said point blank, “You don’t need a Community Manager” when their needs were obviously more towards advertising sales and management. I’d prefer to be let go from a job than to try to deliver an expectation that is little more than a pipe dream.

The second bit of truthiness comes from a blog post by Rachel Happe on The Community Roundtable’s blog titled “Avoiding the Community Clique” and takes me into Glee territory (yes I watch it, don’t be a hater).

Rachel speaks of the problem of exclusion that can come about in a community when it’s members have their own shared stories and experiences, leading to newbies feeling like outsiders. Much the same feeling as a slushie facial in a high school hallway, as depicted to the left.

The post speaks to many techniques that can be used to help communities ‘keep it real’ and many of these I would encourage my fellow members of the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners to adopt in extending the pleasures of our group to those who have recently joined in. With the more manageable events, I do my best to welcome everyone to the events and to speak to each person who makes it out. As I drone on about all the time, I was a teenage outcast so I know all too well how it feels to be left out and the MTL GGD group is my way to make sure that everyone feels like they have a place at the table.

A very wise dude tweeted this about a week ago and I made sure to save this advice. Very applicable to community participation. Try it.

Semantics aside, what I appreciated was seeing so many folks in the audience who were interested in hearing our thoughts, sharing their own and asking questions. It struck me that not enough outreach has been done with my franco-girlo-geeko community here in Montreal and I’m looking into ways to change this (including ramping up my French classes).

I left the session and had an inspiring chat with one of the volunteers at the event who came up to me and said that he thinks that what I’m doing with the Montreal Girl Geeks is awesome. It left me tearing up because after some of the knocks I have taken in my life as the underdog, the goofy geek with glasses -  his shared story of not feeling like he fit in made me feel that I had found my people at this event.

I was thrilled to see an event as the Festival de Geek as it featured such a diversity of information, booths and interests. A heartfelt thanks goes out to the organizers, volunteers and exhibitors and sponsors for bringing the community together.

Oh and to the whole question of “Where the @#$% are the Girl Geeks?” – I came out of pre-internet society, but I still found a way to find like-minded folks to be inspired by – even living in small town New Brunswick. I joined groups, I created groups, I had pen pals who wrote zines (yes, I’m old) and traded cassette and video tapes with them. Life wasn’t as easy as it is now kids. Chances are that if you’re a pagan, Buffy fan over the age of 50 who prefers Star Wars to Star Trek, there’s a group out there for you to be a part of. Connect with folks- online and offline and chances are you’ll find someone who’s just as interested in your passions as you are and from this, a community will grow.

Where the girls are. MTL Girl Geek Dinner. Photo by Simon Law

I’m part of a panel discussion on this topic at the Montreal Geek Festival this weekend and I can’t really guarantee I have any answers to this question.

I know they’re out there and I’m stoked when I meet them.

I was so pleased to hear that Montreal tech reporter (and all-around great guy) Roberto Rocha is embarking on a new adventure and taking to the road. He and his fiancee Bianca are taking a year to travel around the globe, reporting on whatever comes their way. They’ve created a site called Mojotrotters (mo=mobile / jo= journalist) in which they explain :

Our goal, as trained journalists, is to bring places to life through the lens of our experience, using words, videos, sounds, and photos.

Sounds like a dream huh? Roberto announced this new adventure today and was met with a flurry of tweets telling him how lucky he was to have this opportunity. It’s interesting to read his philosophy on how anyone can do this if they just make the necessary sacrifices. It really is that simple. By assigning priority to the goal, you can make it happen. All of that self-doubt that creeps in can really be eliminated just by planning and setting your eye on the prize.

Look at travelhacker Chris Guillebeau and his quest to visit every country in the world by April 7, 2013. As of this date he’s at 122 of 192 countries and is offering up details via his blog as a way for readers to learn tips and techniques for becoming travelhackers themselves.

You up for jumping in feet-first and making travel your #1 priority? I’d love to hear your stories. I’m charged by these empowering tales as I embark on my armchair adventure of goal-setting and life mapping here in freezing cold Montreal.

With 2009 coming to a close, I wanted to write a post to look back to in December 2010 and see if I’ve held myself to my philosophy.

2009 was really a year of transition and instability for many people – myself included. I’ve bounced around quite a bit from job to job which is a profile that I never thought I’d have, but has helped me to be exposed to many different work environments and structures. There’s so much value in this and I look back at these experiences as a means to help me to better evaluate what I’m looking for in my career choices.

In January, I’m going to actively dedicate time to finding the career path that I should be on. Entering this phase of introspection is filling me with anticipation as I’m not quite sure where it will take me. I have a head full of ideas, lots of goals and a new found sense of  purpose.

Whew! It’s feels scary but exhilirating to have such an openness to what comes along.

Quebec web personalities unite to provide help to those in need.

Now in its second year, La Guignolée des médias numériques et médias sociaux is ramping up to collect funds for numerous local charities. A group of local social media personalities have collaborated to develop a website where people could easily donate money to help others during this time of need.

The following charities will benefit from the money raised from this holiday campaign:

Please help to promote the Guignolée des médias numériques et médias sociaux by publishing their banner on your blog(s) and online profiles. Encourage your friends to do the same! Display a banner on your blog

Great job goes out to the organizers! Thanks for this initiative

You can re-live the event by checking out this presentation by Sébastien Paquet that speaks to identity, weirdness and transparancy of that weirdness. As someone who considers themself kind of weird, I appreciate his take on how to find others that share your interests to help to build a community.

Celebrant Lea Meneghel from My Dream Wedding made the planning of our ceremony easy and could very well have written the book “Wedding Ceremonies for Dummies”. We had read a feature about this Montreal-based business and noted their focus on inclusiveness as well was their flexibility and openness.

Rachel at Brazen Design is a mistress of bling and put her blood, sweat and tears into our custom designed rings. They really weren’t the easiest of designs to complete so we value and appreciate all of her hard work at creating rings that are so very special to us. Beyond the rings, her attention to keeping us posted on our fitting times and adjustments shows how customer-centric Rachel is and that this girl truly knows how to satisfy her customers. These rings warrant fist bumps…

The team at Terrafolia Flowers were able to create arrangements that not only matched our “purple, goth-punk, they’re finally getting married, we’re not the traditional type” attitude but that caused much conversation with our guests.

Black calla lillies are my new favourite flower thanks to Terrafolia Flowers- it’s a flower that is beautiful, mysterious and moody and looks like it should be wearing a long gown and smoking a cigarette from a long glam cigarette holder. Their service was supreme and the fact that they are truly floral artisans really did show through.

My non-traditional, non-white wedding dress was from a shop based out of Ontario by the name of Gloomth.

To fit my frame, there were some adjustments that needed to be made and Taeden was a pro at seeing this through. Her clothing is so well made and her designs are creative, innovative and have a gothic fairytale feel to them. It was the perfect outfit and each time I wear this dress in the future, I’ll think of this magical day spent with friends and family.

We ordered our invites from Botanical Paperworks who make well-designed eco-friendly paper products containing seeds allowing them to be planted after the event.

It’s interesting that the design we chose bears a resemblance to a special social bird but we didn’t stick to 140 characters for our invite copy!

So back to the inital post that kicked off this flurry of writing on a topic that I thought I’d never be writing  in such detail. Weddings truly are a grand expression of community. It’s easy to lose sight of this when you’re neck deep in the planning, but when you look back on the results, it’s well worth it. I’ve made some lifelong business contacts who I will now shop from for life and will recommend to others wholeheartedly, without hesitation.

Sheesh. I make weddings sound so romantic huh!