RVANews

Women ETC brings national speakers and mixed feelings to Richmond

Wren Lanier — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 11:04:53 +0000

Over the last few weeks, I've lost track of the number of people who've asked me if I'll be attending the upcoming Women ETC conference at the Greater Richmond Convention Center. Organized by RichTech's Women in Technology Forum, Women ETC targets women who work in technology or technology-centric businesses, and aims "to provide professional development, education, and collaboration amongst its participants...by bringing premier speakers from across the nation." It's our very own women in tech conference and, yes, I'll be there, mixed feelings and all.

I'm proud to be a woman with a career in technology. I'm a fan of technology conferences, and I want to find new and better ways to attract women into our industry. But I have trouble with the idea that women need our own conferences to talk about geeky things; it seems to imply that we can't hang with the guys at "regular" conferences--which isn't true at all, or that technology conferences organized by men shouldn't have to be inclusive to women and our interests--also not true. Newsflash: women in technology care about the same things men in technology do, and you don't have to dumb anything down for us--although you wouldn't know it from looking at the planned topics for Women ETC.

The schedule reads like a technology conference created by the editors of Cosmopolitan magazine, with breakout sessions that include "Emerging Technology Trends that you Need to Know," "How to Protect Yourself: Next Generation Cyber Security," and "So you want to start your own business?"

This is a typical, tried-and-true editorial slant for media targeted to women: the world is a scary place and you lack the knowledge you need to dress yourself, please your man in bed, or be successful in your technology career. It's condescending, it plays on women's insecurities, and frankly, it pisses me off. We're better than this--the speakers, the organizers, and Richmond women who work in technology. I'm already an effective technologist, thank you very much, and Women ETC should be offering content that affirms that instead of content that assumes I'm behind the curve.

But the speaker list is promising. In addition to Arianna Huffington's keynote presentation, Women ETC will also feature a plenary from former Under Secretary of Energy Dr. Kristina Johnson, as well as talks from accomplished startup veterans like Liz Crawford, the CTO of Birchbox. With tracks devoted to Education, Technology, and Careers, it's clear the organizers are trying to reach a very broad audience, and the chance to see Huffington in particular is sure to appeal to many people--including, of course, men.

Which raises an interesting question: can men attend Women ETC too? I don't see why not. While the conference may be "aimed at" women, there's no reason to assume that men are banned from the premises. Anyone with $100 and a desire to hear Arianna Huffington share her wisdom on "The Brave New World of New Media" should plan to attend--and to stick around for the entire day.

Because when you get down to it, this is an extremely accomplished lineup of speakers coming to Richmond, not just for a conference for women, but for a conference, period. I applaud RichTech for the effort they've put into creating this event, though I hope to see them expand the content and the audience in future years. There's no reason to confine such talented businesswomen to low-level topics like "How to keep your technical skills current when technology keeps changing," or to limit their audience to women.

Women in technology have lots of wisdom and experience to share with everyone, not just each other. The sooner we embrace that, the sooner we'll belong to an industry that our sisters and daughters will be thrilled to join.

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Vote for RVA’s most promising start-up

Wren Lanier — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 13:38:28 +0000

Next month, the Greater Richmond Chamber of Commerce's i.e. initiative will award $10,000 plus office space, mentoring, and other goodies to one lucky Richmond start-up. To help narrow the field of entries, you can now vote¹ for your favorite start-up ideas until 11pm on Thursday, June 7th (one vote per day).

With almost 150 entries to choose from, sorting through all of those companies can pose a serious challenge to both your schedule and your attention span.

But lo, gentle reader! We've done the hard work for you. What follows is a brief selection of the most innovative business ideas submitted to the i.e. rva competition, most of which did not receive nearly as many votes as they deserved in the previous, scrubbed round of voting. These aren't the only good ideas--far from it--but in a crowded field they stood out as uniquely creative and positioned for success.

Spread the wealth of your votes around to some of these great startups in Richmond.

— ∮∮∮ —

Cyclestay

Bike racks with built-in smart locks to make biking less risky and more attractive. These guys have already been profiled in Richmond BizSense and Work It! Richmond; their idea solves a real problem at an affordable price point with huge benefits for colleges and communities. Anything we can do to make biking more appealing is awesome. Read more »

TwiceEast

Rain harvesting systems and environmentally-friendly landscaping. Perfectly poised to capitalize on growing interest in sustainable, environmentally-friendly homes, TwiceEast provides products and services we should all be using. Read more »

And the categories are...

There's a ton of start-ups participating in this competition, and you'll be surprised at the range of creativity represented. Take a second (or an hour) to browse around the offerings, presented here by category:

Be aware, sometimes the categorization is...unexpected.

Natural Organic Process Enterprises (NOPE)

Collecting and composting organic waste. Their service benefits the environment while providing value and cost-savings to customers, a win-win. Read more »

Justinstyle

Better, more stylish uniforms for nurses. I wish they'd included a photo of this new uniform, but anything we can do to make nurses happier at their jobs seems like a good idea to me. A large, growing market means there's plenty of potential here. Read more »

KAYAK Richmond

Rental kayaks on the river and guided kayak tours. What a great way for Richmond residents and visitors to experience the river. They’d lower the barrier to entry for people curious about kayaking, getting more city residents involved in healthy outdoor recreation. Read more »

Vet Home Care LLC

Veterinary care that makes house calls. This is a service that more and more people will want as our population continues to age and as more people start working from home. Seriously, why is this not more common? He even speaks Spanish--huge business potential here. Read more »

Service Dog 411

Provides help and guidance navigating the process of obtaining a service dog. Again, as our population ages and our health care system grows more complex, boutique services like this, which help people navigate the complexities of the system, will provide tremendous value. Read more »

— ∮∮∮ —

Footnotes

Editor’s note: Late last week a surging wave of Richmonders cast a million (seriously, not an exaggeration!) votes for these start-ups, and the poor i.e.* web server promptly crashed under the crush of the tide. The unresponsive voting page gypped a couple dozen companies out of the chance to garner votes. So i.e. has deleted all of the previous votes and opened up this new voting period. You can read their thoughts about the process here. ↩

Good things come from knowing what you’re worth

Wren Lanier — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 11:00:33 +0000

Two months before I graduated from VCU in the spring of 2001, I landed every English major’s wildest dream: a job.

It was an entry-level marketing position with a local printing company. There was no exposed brick, no lofty ceilings with ductwork soaring above rows of iMacs, but they were willing to pay me money if I showed up every day, and that sounded great at a time when the word recession was turning up more often on the morning news.

“How much do you want to make?” my future boss asked me over the phone.

“Uh, I don’t know,” I replied, terrified.

If I ask for too much they won’t give me a job, I thought. But how much is too much?

— ∮∮∮ —

I didn’t realize it, but my inability to negotiate my salary would hurt my earning potential for years to come. Like many young women fresh out of college, when the person on the phone offered me an amount I accepted it without hesitation. It’s a common mistake that no one had ever warned me about.

I grew up knowing about the wage gap. I’d heard the statistics, like how in 2000 a woman made only $0.73 cents for every dollar a man made, but knowing the data didn’t make it seem real to me. The wage gap, I’d been taught, was due to sexism--that made it an issue for activism, not something that was happening on my own pay stubs.

And activism was something that I understood. When I was 16, I saw Gloria Steinem speak at a local university. During an open Q&A session I asked her a question that I naively hoped would inspire a modern renaissance in the women’s-rights movement. “What should I do, as a young woman, to advance the cause of women’s rights?”

Steinem’s response was not what I expected.

“Patronize women-owned businesses,” she told me. “Dentists, doctors, lawyers, accountants. Support women business owners, because many people still discriminate against female professionals.”

I left the auditorium nonplussed. Support women-owned businesses? Really? That’s it? What about taking to the streets? What about tearing down the patriarchy? I wanted to kick over the dominant paradigm, but Steinem wanted to talk about money. My rebellious sixteen-year-old heart was unsatisfied.

Looking back, I’m still disappointed by the advice that she gave me, but for different reasons. In the 16 years since I posed that question, I've realized that it’s not discrimination against women-owned businesses that undermines women’s earning power today; it's our inability to claim and defend our own monetary value. What could I do, as a young woman, to advance the cause of women's rights? If I could travel back in time, I'd give my 16 year old self the most important piece of career advice anyone ever gave me: make them pay you what you're worth.

— ∮∮∮ —

So what was I worth, at age 22, with a college degree and the skills to build websites? I had no freaking clue, though at the time I figured it couldn't be very much. This depressed sense of wage entitlement combined with a fear of negotiating are two of the primary reasons women accept less pay than we deserve. Despite all of the time and effort girls put into school--effort that has lead to an astounding level of achievement, including higher college graduation rates and GPAs than those earned by young men--few of us are ever taught how much our talents and skills are worth in the open marketplace.

Instead, years of jumping through hoops in the education system teaches girls that hard work is rewarded with well-deserved success. Study hard for a test? Get an A. Write the best essay? Win the scholarship. Get the highest grades? Become valedictorian. Why should we expect life after college to be any different? Of all the ways our education system is failing its graduates, this seems to me one of the most insidious. Even as women's success in higher education has surpassed that of men on almost every measurable metric, young women's average earnings have failed to reach parity (PDF).

A recent Reddit post from a hiring manager about how men and women negotiate their salaries brings the problem into high relief:

Usually we start around $45k for an entry level position. 50% to 60% of the women I interview simply take this offer. It's insane, I already know I can get authorization for more if you simply refuse. Inversely, almost 90% of the men I interview immediately ask for more upon getting the offer...At the end, most of the women I hire make between 45k and 50k, whereas the men make between 60k and 70k. Even more crazy, they ask for raises far less often, so the disparity only grows.

Ladies, I have news for you: if you didn’t negotiate your current salary, you’re probably getting screwed.

— ∮∮∮ —

So, how do you know if you’re making less than you should? Research. Internet salary surveys are a good place to start, but conversations with friends and former co-workers (discussing salaries with current co-workers can get tricky) are even more insightful. Too often, we let anxiety about how it’s “impolite” to talk about money hold us back from understanding our own situation. If your friends don’t want to share exact figures, ballpark ranges should be enough to tell you if you’re earning a salary below market value. Don’t limit yourself to your girl friends either; be sure to talk to your guy friends about how much they’re making.

Once you have a better understanding of what the market is offering, then you can decide whether it’s time to ask for a raise. If you’re terrified of appearing pushy, ungrateful, or of losing your nerve when you ask your boss for money, there are books that will teach you how to play to your own strengths and negotiate in a way that’s natural for you (see suggested reading).

It took many years, and quite a few career ups and downs, before I realized that negotiating my salary is as much a part of my job as the projects and assignments I’m given. I understand now that business owners respect you more, not less, for knowing your value and pushing for what you’re worth. Negotiating is a part of their job, and most of them actually enjoy it. You might not like the back and forth of negotiation, but that short period of discomfort is way better than spending years earning a smaller paycheck because you didn't speak up.

Once we start recognizing our own value, we can close the wage gap one woman at a time.

— ∮∮∮ —

Richmond Holiday Traditions: A Must-See, Don’t-Miss Guide

Wren Lanier — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:42:36 +0000

As you can see, there's a ton to do in Richmond during the holidays. So much, in fact, it can be quite overwhelming. For those of you unsure of where to start, here's a little sampler of events that are sure to give you an authentic look at our town's diverse holiday happenings.

The Bizarre Bazaar

December 3 through 6, Richmond Raceway Complex
Tickets: $6.50 adults, $1.00 children

If your idea of holiday heaven is a rack of appliqued sweatshirts decorated with puffy glitter paint, then we're sure you've already bought your ticket for this year's Bizarre Bazaar. More than 500 exhibitors from around the country converge on Richmond each year for this wildly popular sale of homespun crafts and oddball items that only a grandmother could love. (And hey, you gotta buy your grandmother something.)

Or if you're looking for handmade gifts that aren't doilies and apple butter, check out these indie arts and crafts fairs around town...

Bizarre Market
November 27 throug December 24
Chop Suey Books, Carytown
Handmade Holiday
December 12
Visual Arts Center of Richmond
Back Alley Art Show
December 12
Between Ellwood and Cary St behind 17 S. Sheppard St.

Tea with Santa

Friday, December 4, 2pm
$38.00 for members, $45.00 for non-members

For those of you with kidlets waiting anxiously for Santa Claus to arrive, this is your chance to "enjoy a variety of seasonal beverages and light snacks while singing along with Santa and the Singing Elf in an intimate setting." Savor a brief respite from the holiday madness while someone else entertains your bundle of joy (Santa storytime!) and Santa's helpers serve you cookies and eggnog. Oh, and your kid will make joyful memories that he or she will treasure for years to come. We promise.

Tickets must be purchased in advance right here.

James Center's Grand Illumination

Friday, December 4, 6pm to 9pm
1200 East Cary Street
Free

This year marks the 25th Anniversary of the James Center's Grand Illumination, Richmond's traditional kick-off to the holiday season. Be there to count down to the lighting of the downtown office buildings and frolic amongst the twinkling reindeer of East Cary Street. (Plan to leave your office early enough for some happy hour action before the lights go up. Because we expect - nay, demand! - some serious frolicking, including suggestive photos with Rudolph.)

The River District is going all out once again to welcome even the most die-hard suburbanites to downtown, including free horse and carriage rides starting at 13th and E. Cary Streets in Shockoe Slip at 6pm, free glow necklaces for children, $2 canal boat rides at the Turning Basin on the Canal Walk at 6pm, an open house at Main Street Station (1500 E. Main St.) with giant art cards on display from Richmond Public Schools at 5pm, a Holiday Market at the 17th Street Farmers’ Market at 5pm, and the popular Capital Square Tree Lighting and Governor’s Executive Mansion Open House at 5pm.

Lewis Ginter GardenFest of Lights

November 27 through January 11
Nightly 5pm to 10pm (except December 24 & 25)
$10 adults; $9 seniors age 55+; $6 children (ages 3 - 12); free for children under age 3. Discounts for Garden Members.

One of Richmond's most popular holiday traditions, the GardenFest of lights features more than half a million lights arrayed throughout the garden. This year's theme, Wings of Wonder, features lights and decorations related to butterflies, dragonflies, bees and other insects. Year after year, Lewis Ginter outdoes itself with over-the-top displays and gorgeous decorations. It's worth a little walk in the cold, trust us. (It will also make you feel deeply ashamed of that one strand of lights you still have hung on your porch from last July.)

Some highlights: The North Wing of the Conservatory will house the massive 19-foot tall holiday tree decorated in silver and gold ornaments, along with a train display featuring a frozen landscape of crystal-encrusted hand-crafted cars winding through a glistening miniature village of snow- and ice-coverd cottages. The Children's Garden will include a bonfire with the chance to make s'mores. (S’more fixings available for purchase in the Children’s Garden, along with hot drinks and cookies.)

Find more information here.

Tacky Lights Tour

$0 - $bigtime

As you may or may not be aware, Richmond is famous for its many egregious displays of tacky holiday lights. Seriously -- it was on NPR. And Bravo. And about a thousand newspapers. Didn't your mother send you a clipping?

Plenty of local companies offer private paid tours, including James River Bus Lines and Richmond Limousine. But if you're not lucky enough to have a rich friend to spring for a private car and a bucket of champagne, you can do like the rest of us and drive around with some friends gawping at as many houses as you can find and trying to convince your brother-in-law that there really was an X-rated display with Santa and three elves at that last house back there. A list of stops to include on your tour is available on the Richmond Wiki, along with an Interactive Map and a complete list of tour providers.

Tired of the same old tacky lights tour? Looking to reduce your carbon footprint while taking in gobs of tasteless splendor? Segway of Richmond offers a daily Christmas Lights Tour, December 1 through 30, 6:30 to 8pm. $50 per person. Call (804) 343-1850 to make reservations.

14th Annual Hamaganza!

Friday, December 11, Poe's Pub, 9pm
Saturday, December 12, Capital Ale House (downtown), 9pm
Bring a canned or preserved ham, a $10 donation or equivalent foodstuffs for the Central Virginia Foodbank

Dirtwoman, Manoli Loupassi, Richmond Varietease and hams for the hamless -- what more can you ask for in a Richmond holiday tradition? The 14th annual Hamaganza Extravaganza promises to deliver a year's worth of raunch and debauchery for the low, low price of one canned ham. And possibly some bail money, if things get really good.

Featuring burlesque dancers, juggling, trannies, and rock 'n roll -- along with a laundry list of local B-list celebs that includes Melissa Chase, Loupassi, Bill Pantale, CBS 6's Mark Holmburg and everyone's favorite 450lb transvestite -- Hamaganza will fill you with cheap beer and the warmth of the holidays and leave you with an uncomfortable burning sensation when you pee. Really, it makes you wonder why we don't do this more often.

(Photo courtesy of John Murden)

Richmond Zombie Walk 2009: Dead on Arrival (and going strong!)

Wren Lanier — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:45:09 +0000

Head's up, RVA: on October 24th, a hoard of groaning, shuffling undead will converge on Carytown in search of tasty brains and mayhem.

If you've never encountered the Zombie Walk, you're missing one of Richmond's best home-grown Halloween events: hundreds of people dressed up in their scariest, funniest, and most ironic undead costumes, dragging their rotting limbs past fancy shops and restaurants to the delight of shoppers and onlookers.

There are Zombie Girl Scouts, Zombie Housewives, Zombie Policemen, even Zombie Pets toddling along at the end of blood-stained leashes. Last year, Zombie Sarah Palin lurched by, still smiling, while Jesus glided along peacefully a few minutes later. They didn't seem to be together.

Organizers Anthony Menez and Josh Bishop, who took over the event in 2006, have seen the undead legions grow from 80-90 the first year to close to 200 at recent walks. In 2007, they began using the Zombie Walk as a way to raise money for the American Cancer Society.

"The majority of our participants are poor college kids looking to do something fun for free or on the cheap," says Menez. "We never expected to raise much, but since we started collecting for the American Cancer Society we've managed to collect close to $600."

Menez decided to collect donations when his father-in-law, Edgar Smith, was diagnosed with mesothelioma. The yearly donation is made in his memory.

Now in its 5th year, the Richmond Zombie Walk has graduated from upstart flash-mob to an organized tradition complete with workshops and a worthy charitable cause. But it wasn't always so easy to be a zombie in Richmond.

"When the word got around town that we were going to mob Short Pump Towne Center before the first event in 2005, the mall's security freaked and the local police showed up at our pre-walk meet up spot to threaten us with arrest if we showed up there," Menez says.

The walk was moved to Carytown later that day, where it has continued every year since. "We've actually had a very positive reaction from the shops there. Since that first event, crowds gather in Carytown just to see the Zombie Walk. That means more foot traffic for the local businesses – it's always felt like an unspoken partnership."

And while some years the walk has continued down to VCU and other locations, this year it will stay in Carytown for logistical reasons. "We lose attendance with each new location, and there is some confusion with our out-of-town undead," explains Menez. "Plus, it's exhausting to lumber around just after a few blocks."

With the recent release of Zombieland, it seems like pop culture may have reached a saturation point with the undead, but Menez isn't worried. "I remember after every Halloween season since 2005 hearing people exclaim that 'zombies are played out'. They hold on to that through the holidays, spring and into the summer. But when the autumn season rolls around they always want to be a part of the monster horde again. Monsters never die."

For folks interested in joining, there's still time to coordinate your best undead ensemble. Michael Jackson, Farah Fawcett, and Patrick Swayze are all likely to be popular zombies this year, which leaves plenty of room for creativity if you can think beyond the cover of People magazine.

Zombie Doug Wilder, anyone?

More information about the event can be found at richmondzombiewalk.com. Or try these:

(And be sure to tune in next week for our gory, gruesome photo coverage of Zombie Walk 2009.)

Opening the box on Pandora (now with video!)

Wren Lanier — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:00:38 +0000

For most people, discovering Pandora Radio is like discovering a third arm you never knew you needed: life-changing, addictive, and impossible to live without. It knows me! It knows what I like before I do! Peering inside your head to discern your unique musical tastes, Pandora provides a steady diet of old favorites and new flames via the streaming glory of the Interwebs.

It’s no surprise then that its users are passionate, even as they multiply exponentially thanks to the power of blogs and Twitter streams. Last night at VCU’s Grace Street Theater, Pandora founder Tim Westergren tapped into that enthusiasm when he hosted a Listener Meetup for Richmond’s Pandora users, cheerfully explaining the company’s history, vision, and taking questions from the audience of about 100 local fans.

While Pandora Radio has been around for almost 4 years, Westergren launched the engine that powers Pandora, the Music Genome Project, in 2000. This is the brain behind the beauty, a complex set of algorithms that offers terrifyingly accurate musical suggestions based on the stuff you already like. I once tried to guess how Pandora measured and rated the qualities of each song in its database in order to provide these recommendations; my theory involved Alistair Crowley’s influence on modern mathematics and a complex race of super computers destined to destroy all life as we know it. Alas, the truth as explained by Westergren is even more shocking: each song in Pandora’s database is reviewed by one of 60 trained professional musicians and scored on 400 (!!!) different musical attributes.

That’s right: before the computers and the code take over, every song gets a listen from a human being. And that human touch, more than anything else, has been the foundation for Pandora’s vision. When asked if Pandora would ever offer users lists of trending bands or top songs, Westergren answered frankly, “We have kind of an allergy to ‘Top’ lists of any kind. We think that’s part of the problem.” With broadcast radio limited to a very few artists, he sees Pandora as a way to give more bands exposure to a wider audience. “We don’t want to take popularity and perpetuate it.” (Applause, cheers, I think I heard a w00t!)

Westergren’s own history as a “working musician” includes years on the road touring with bands as well as experience composing film scores. He described his frustration at a system that made it impossible for most acts to earn a decent living. “Our goal is to create a musician’s middle class,” he says. “We’re interested in not only what we can do for listeners, but also for musicians.” When asked about offering artists information about how Pandora users were responding to their music, Westergren replied that those features were in the works. Bands would be able to see which of their songs had been “thumbed up” or “thumbed down,” and know where they were getting the most listens “so you can point your van in that direction.”

Which, hopefully, would include Richmond. Audience members were enthusiastic about any Pandora features that would let their favorite acts know they had fans in the River City, which is often overlooked on east coast tours that include nearby Charlottesville or Washington, DC. For his part, Westergren is ready to do more than help artists get radio listeners. “Would you sign up for opt-in emails about bands Pandora thinks you’d like that are playing here in Richmond?” he asked. Hands shot up around the theater. “Yesssss!!!”

That kind of enthusiasm revealed the confidence at Pandora, which now has almost 30 million users. Yet just a year and a half ago, the company was on the verge of collapse after updates to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act tripled performance royalties owed by internet radio stations and made Pandora’s business model virtually unfeasible. Westergren gratefully described the impact of the grassroots effort Pandora users (then just 4 million) launched on Congress to save the service, including 400,000 faxes and constant phone calls to representatives. “They were overwhelmed,” he said. “They couldn’t use their phones!” The result was the Internet Radio Equality Act, designed to overturn the higher fees and make it possible for internet radio to compete against broadcast and satellite radio stations. Westergren says that internet content companies, including Pandora, are concluding negotiations that will bring performance royalty fees back “to a more reasonable level.”

So for now, your favorite genie-in-a-WiFi -bottle is safe and sound and more popular than ever, adding 65,000 new users every day, most of them on mobile devices like the iPhone and the BlackBerry. And while they aren’t profitable yet, Westergren says that’s about to change too. “We can see profitability on the horizon,” he said. “We’re on a pretty good path.”

See Jolie O'Dell's (of ReadWriteWeb) interview with Tim below (Thanks, Jolie!)

Video Interview with Pandora Founder Tim Westergren from ReadWriteWeb on Vimeo.

RVANews

Women ETC brings national speakers and mixed feelings to Richmond

Vote for RVA’s most promising start-up

And the categories are...

Footnotes

Good things come from knowing what you’re worth

Suggested reading

Richmond Holiday Traditions: A Must-See, Don’t-Miss Guide

Tacky Lights Tour

14th Annual Hamaganza!

Richmond Zombie Walk 2009: Dead on Arrival (and going strong!)

Opening the box on Pandora (now with video!)