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

I moved to Montreal back in 1999 to work with a graphics card manufacturer and this you could say was my first foray into the world of technology

The reality of coming out of university with a degree from the then economically disadvantaged province of New Brunswick helped in my decision to leave home to start a new life. New Brunswick had since realized that branching out and attracting top-level companies through a trained, tech-savvy bilingual workforce could guarantee that its youth wouldn’t have to leave home for greener pastures.

Election time is on its way and a group of business, marketing and technology professionals have decided to put pressure on Premier Jean Charest to develop a digital strategy for the province of Quebec. Backed by statistics from the Canadian Internet Project, and those from an Index of e-commerce statistics in Quebec which show that Quebec is lagging behind the rest of Canada with regards to several leading indicators such as a lower level of technology adoption by francophones, low levels of online purchases from Quebec-based vendors and the fact that many Quebec small-medium businesses don’t even have a website to make themselves locally and globally competitive among other statistics.

The key pillars which this proposed Digital Plan for Quebec has focused upon are as follows:

1. Eliminate the barriers to entry for Quebec citizens to allow full access to digital services in order to perform online transactions.

2. Encourage Internet adoption amongst Quebec businesses, especially small to medium organizations.

3. Offer technology training for Quebec youth.

4. Start laying pipe for high speed internet for all communities in Quebec, Reinforce internet safety and a perception that digital transactions are a viable means for purchasing goods. Allow for digital governance and citizen participation with politicians and guarantee the rights of expression for the community at large.

For the link to the full letter (in French), please visit this site and do help to evolve this plan by lending your voice to the wiki http://www.unplannumeriquepourlequebec.com

Now more than ever, we as Quebec citizens can influence the accountability of our political leaders. We just need to get involved.