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.

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 blog in 3 differnt locations plus I added a guest gig with Frames per Second magazine to do a bit of Fantasia Film Festival coverage. Considering I let my Twitter fixation get in the way of my true love of blogging, I have a lot of apologizing to do to you, dear reader. Oh. And a lot to catch you up on.

I started a new job a few months back which gives me a good taste of community, and in particular a women’s-oriented community. I’m learning so much about the ‘average Canadian gal’ as opposed to the ‘not-so average Canadian tech gals’ which I am used to socializing with. I’m gaining some great insights on how moms-who-aren’t-mommybloggers use social networks and online websites and it’s helping me to open my eyes to how much outreach needs to be done in speaking with this audience. Most of my social media ‘mavens/ divas/goddesses’ or whatever they are calling themselves, already get it.

Stay tuned to see what this all goes. I’m still working to figure it out myself but I’m happy to watch how the community I’m now a part of is using the internet to connect and share with one another.

I’m getting married. Most of my career has been spent in the project management space. So you’d think I’d have a handle on planning, timelines and generally having my shit together. No.

Eloping is a word that I don’t say as a threat.. but as a soothing mantra.

I bought a kick @$$ ring from a talented local designer – Rachel from Brazen Design.

Isn’t it lovely?

Yet again, my love for Etsy artisans has been realized so pop on over there and pick yourself up a little treat from a local seller.

Truth be told, Etsy is also another site that keeps me from blogging so please don’t blame me if you forsake your blog for nonstop digital window shopping.

Girl Geek Dinners stuff has gone on hiatus for the summer. I need a well-deserved break while I ramp up in my relatively new job and get hitched, so our little group with a big soul will need to put on it’s lovely one-piece swimsuit and sit in a chaise lounge while momma balances life, love, career and chunky rings.

Thanks to the talented and giggily Anile Prakash for her non-BabaWawa interview style and her skills with the beautiful and omni-directional Snowball microphone.

I know I’ve been a late bloomer when it comes to confidence, but partially because I’m not so comfortable in the spotlight. I’ve always used my quick wit and snappy comebacks to save me in social situations where I felt awkward and much of my decision to start the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners group was to force myself to become more social as well as give back to the community.

I won’t bore you with the psycho-social reasons why I was so socially inept. Maybe I was more comfortable chilling in the womb, alone with the amniotic fluid rather than gurgling with the other babies in their cribs. Hard to say.

Fast-forward to now and although I get a little wonky in new situations, I feel much more grounded and comfortable in my skin. These certainly are better days .

Today I almost fell off of my chair when I saw that I was mentioned on a list of ‘Underground Web Celebs Made In Quebec” by NVI, a local web development and digital marketing company. Believe me, I often felt that the same (although well-deserving) people have been mentioned in the context of “Top Web Stars”/ “Social Media SuperHeros” and so on.

Not to take away from these folks who do kick ass work, but it feels awesome when you’re a not expecting to be recognized for your efforts. I’m honored to be named with people on the list who I think are doing amazing things in the MTL tech space such as: Sean Power, Katheline Jean-Pierre, and Heri Rakotomalala among others.

Well it only seems fitting to ‘pay it forward’ and mention some of the people who inspire me, make me laugh, cause me to think and inhabit this Quebec digital microcosm along with me. This list is by no means exhaustive but just a sampling of those folks who rock my world whether by Tweet, by blogpost or by being either personally or digitally connected to me

Aleece Germano – Web consultant, Project Manager, eCommerce specialist, musician and philanthropist, Aleece is cultured, wayyyyy smart and gave one of the most professional talks ever given in the history of MTL Girl Geek Dinners. She is nice to the nth degree and involved in many organizations and events such as hosting an annual clothing swap, promoting events at Montreal’s coworking space Station C and launching a a legal campaign to help Mile End dépanneur owner Tammey Lau.

Jackie Ng – Web Marketing / Social Media Consultant at Jacoutofthebox. Jackie was so quick to lend a hand when she heard about the Montreal Girl Geek Dinner group and although we’ve yet to meet, her tweets inspire and educate me as she’s always sharing links that are well selected and relevant which demonstrates to me that she ‘gets it’.

Peter Bailey- Consultant with Flow Ventures, Peter is one of the most polite and friendly people I’ve ever met in my life and certainly provides the best career advice I’ve even been privy to. A strong supporter of local tech events, Peter always has a smile on his face and an awesome attitude towards life.

Tamu Townsend-Tamu seems to know every single person on this planet and when I mention her name, they always seem to get the hugest smile on their face as they speak so positively of her from either working with her, buying comics from her or meeting her at various Montreal events. Tamu’s dedication to raising awareness for bone marrow & stem cell donor registration inspires me to no end. She’s also one of the coolest sci-fi, animation fans and comic book girl geeks I’ve ever met.

Rommil Santiago- User Experience and Web Design Expert. Rommil possesses a wealth of knowledge about the web and was someone I did an interview with a million years ago for a ‘design a thon’ that he threw. He was one of the first people I knew of in Montreal to host an event with the primary goal to give back.

Martine Pagé- Screenwriter, reporter and overall wordguru, Martine is one of the first bloggers I followed back in back in the ‘early days’ and can be credited with being part of the inspiration for me starting the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners group. She’s a strong advocate for women on the web and in technology, creative thinking and has the best hairstyle/haircolor this side of Mile-End.

Shout out to my old CloudRaker peeps like: Aran Rasmussen, Antoine Girard, Stephanie Troeth, Stefan Dukaczewski, Stephane Caron, Yanick Proulx, Anile Prakash and Twist Image folks like: JF Fortier and Matt Fogel. These are smart, smart people that I’ve worked with. If we ever started a web design shop, this town would fall to its feet.

I should really write a list like this more often. It feels awesome to share such positivity and realizing that I could go on and on is really a good sign

Isabelle Lopez gave a phenomenal talk at the most recent PodCamp Montreal event on “The Self, The Identity and the Internet” which evolved into a group discussion on how comfortable (or uncomfortable) we are with our identity and existence on the internet. Her blog is certainly worth following for her take on social media and society.

Zen Habits keeps me grounded. (that could have developed into a haiku but I stopped it early).

Josyan MacGregor is my new partner in crime in presenting the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners and has a blog focused around marketing and new media written by a girl with a heart of gold. Check her out.

BoingBoing... Sigh. I love this site so much that I gave my fiance a BoingBoing hoodie from GamaGo as his engagement present.

Gwen Bell is my homegirl. I found out about her through the Buddhist Geek circles and she’s since inspired me through her awesome posts and her energy which seems to just project right thorough the computer!

Tara Hunt is just one of the most insightful gals out there and a true hero. It is also awesome that she is a recent pugowner (I’ve been with my little feller for 7 years and he rocks)

I’ll continue to post about blogs that I find special, endearing or otherwise remarkable.