Helping Girls Innovate! #1
from SJ Mercury News 6/02/13 enhanced by Peter/CXO Wiz4biz
Eager to learn, the youngsters had gathered at Saturday’s Girls Innovate! conference in Redwood City, to find out more about what it means to be an entrepreneur and a leader.
Youngest Entrepreneur. 11-year-old Taylor Keith already knew a little bit about innovation. Her mother, Pamela, founded the Burlingame-based “CuisineStyle” catering company, and when it launched its own product line last year, the gluten-free cheese puffs carried a name given by daughter Taylor called “Party Puffs”.
The “Empowering Girls for Entrepreneurship” conference was all about opening the eyes of girls ages 10 to 18 to the possibilities in life if they follow their dreams. Mother Pamela Keith said: “This is so important because it’s inspiring for girls to hear stories from other women who have founded and run companies,”
This is the Second Event held by Girls Innovate! It drew about 300 mothers and daughters to the Silicon Valley incubator nestGSV, which co-hosted the forum with its women-focused tech community, nestHER, and a law firm .
Girls Innovate! is a Grass-Roots organization started by East Bay attorney Uyen Le Kry and has blossomed quickly. The first forum was a small affair held in late March or 2013. But the 75 slots for mothers & daughters filled up so quickly, that Kry felt there was a real thirst for a group that could mainstream the idea of entrepreneurship in the minds of girls. So just a few months later (on Saturday 01 June, Girls Innovate! held this much bigger conference. Indeed, Saturday’s event had the feeling of a growing movement.
Individual Panels of the Conference planted seeds that these girls could be part of the Silicon Valley’s next generation of Visionaries as discussion topics included building apps, how to handle money, & understanding the mindset of innovators. The event featured some high-profile figures, starting with keynote speaker Judy Estrin, a technology executive who sits on the board of the Walt Disney Co. and is the author of “Closing the Innovation Gap.”
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