Snippets from Grace Hopper Celebration 2010

I just came back from my first Grace Hopper in Atlanta. I've had a blast! There are so many things that I would like to mention about this conference that I don't know where to start... This year's conference had 2100 participants. Yep, there is no misspelling there, you got it: 2100. I counted them myself :P

I remember the first day surrounded by so many people - (almost) all women for a BIG change -  made me think of the Microsoft TechEd conferences that I attended during my undergrad. That is the last time I saw so many technical people in the same place. I couldn't stop to think about what it takes to organize such an event. My respect and admiration for the organizers has no limit!

I left the conference energized, inspired, humbled and empowered. Everybody that I talked to says the same thing about the event. I want to make it last! I decided to write - for weeks to come - about my experiences that made this GHC so special to me. My goal is to recreate some of the atmosphere there for me to remember, and for the ones that didn't attend to make them think about attending. I've been thinking about attending for 3 years now and I'm really happy that I finally made it! I would like to thank Google that sponsored my trip this year,  ACM for supporting my poster presentation and to all that donated money for the GHC scholarships.

For tons of pictures from the event, check out this amazing collection.

And now... let's get started: Snippets from GHC2010 - Part 1: Anita Borg.