Maastricht Geekette of the Month: Marisa Enhuber

Meet, Marisa Enhuber, Masters Degree Student in Arts and Heritage: Management, Policy and Education in Maastricht.

What is your name, age, location? 

I am Marisa, 24 and I currently live in Maastricht, Netherlands. 

What's your background? 

I am doing my Master’s in Arts and Heritage: Management, Policy and Education in Maastricht. Originally I am from Munich and I did my Bachelor’s studies in International Culture and Business Studies in a small town called Passau in the East of Bavaria. After my Master’s is complete this summer, I plan on moving to London! 

What inspired you to become a founder/engineer/designer (fill in position)? 

I organised a meeting with the Google Art Project team for one of our study trips to Berlin. This experience really opened my eyes. I was immediately captivated by the vast opportunities arising at the intersection of arts and technology. Art experience can really be enhanced by the implementation of digital technologies within galleries or museums! I feel digital technology will revolutionise arts marketing. This is why I decided to specialise in this field and learning how to code so I can contribute to the revolution.

Please walk me through your day, what do you do?  

Since I am still studying at the moment, my day consists of getting up really early to catch a good seat in the library where I struggle to finish my thesis on social media use in the arts :-) I am exploring which social media marketing strategies can be applied to art producers (artists, galleries, museums) and how social media affects art distribution within the contemporary art market. My hypothesis is that although social media increases mutual engagement and participation between art organisations and their audience, the fact that social media publishes filtered news and over-information makes the audience lazy. The result is that the position of gatekeepers and opinion leaders is reinforced in times of "social networking 2.0". That’s at least my theory and I am going to try and prove it. 

From time to time I volunteer at a women-led start up, where we organise talks and workshop within the creative scene of Maastricht. I love that I meet so many interesting people there, it is really inspiring for a young women to see how others make their way as well.

Can you see yourself in ten years doing the same thing you do now? 

If I decide to do a PhD - maybe :-) But for the moment I am trying to secure my  dream job in London, as digital product manager at Tate or a start up like Hype App/ Creative Partner Networks. I would love to plan artsy events and think of smart marketing campaigns to get these events to the audience or to develop online community portals such as the Tate’s Collective. But for that, I need to develop my coding skills further - which I hope to do during the next year either through teaching myself or an internship. 

What is the best advice you ever received? 

What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year? 

To spend my Master’s year abroad in the Netherlands was the best decision I’ve ever made. I've not only learned so much about myself but I also found an area in which I am really interested in (arts and technology). This area excites me so much that I want to pursue a career in this field. I have learned that if you reach out, you’ll receive. 

And what are your plans for the future?

1) Finish my thesis

2) Move to London

3) Get a job in the arts sector

If you could do one thing differently, what would it be?

Get up at 6 am - carpe diem!

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?  

“Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible'!” - Audrey Hepburn 

Portugal Geekette of the Month: Sara Bianchi

Meet Sara Bianchi, Communications Manager at Real Games

What is your name, age, location?

My name is Sara Bianchi, I'm 25 years old and I live in Oporto, Portugal.

What's your background? 

I started "working" with computers when I was four and programming HTML and PHP when I was eight. I did a lot of programming for around 10 years as a hobby. When I fell in love with interactive advertising I went onto study Technology of Multimedia Communication. While I was studying, I started working as a freelancer doing digital marketing. I continue to work as freelancer but now I’m also the Communications Manager at Real Games, a software company in Porto. This summer I will finally begin designing and managing interactive advertising projects and augmented reality apps! 

What inspired you to become a Communications Manager? 

Being the typical cliché geekette (always connected, anime addicted, gamer and geeky jokes), most of the people I know thought that I would program my whole life.  I soon began to understand that programming wasn't enough for me and that I needed to also use my communication skills while being surrounded by technology. That's when interactive advertising started booming and big brands began to do amazing campaigns when I realized this was the job that I wanted. 

Please walk me through your day, what do you do at your company? 

I'll walk you through my day in general, considering I work with multiple companies!

I started working at Real Games one year ago and I’m responsible for the communication projects. I work with Digital Marketing and Website Management; I’m responsible for marketing material such as promotional videos, catalogs, etc. and I do a lot of copywriting as well. I also help prepare and attend international exhibitions. It was Real Games that introduced me to Home Automation so now I’m a bit of on enthusiast and even got to talk about it at a Portugal Girl Geek Dinner event. After Real Games, I go to work on some projects in tourism and technology areas, helping clients with their websites, apps, social media, etc. I normally have to go out for dinner or to a specific night event and do live tracking of what's happening for my clients. Between all of that, I’m now helping organize an awesome Geeky party that's going to happen pretty soon in Porto!

Can you see yourself in ten years doing the same thing you do now? 

I'm pretty sure that what i'll be doing in 10 years will be very different. Amazing things are being done everywhere around the world and I think Portuguese brands are finally ready to start embracing interactive campaigns as a way of communication. Real interaction is the future and at the rate technology is evolving, I know that in 10 years I'll probably be working with concepts for brand communications that are completely social and even personal.

What is the best advice you ever received? 

I was once told to enjoy the small victories. The little moments. And every day if I have even the smallest victory in my life, I celebrate. A dinner with friends, a cup of coffee on a terrace or even a simple Crash Bandicoot victory dance.

What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year? 

Things change. All the time. The past year I embraced my biggest challenge: the need to constantly adapt. That's when i started to use Pascal as my avatar everywhere. It’s my representation of adaptability.

And what are your plans for the future?

If everything goes well this summer I’ll be splitting my time between Real Games, my clients and awesome interactive campaigns around Portugal. Sometimes people tend to try to lecture me about the amount of hours I put in but somedays, it just doesn't feel like work at all. When you're passionate about what you do it's more like playing around than anything else. And I’ll keep doing that!

If you could do one thing differently, what would it be?

If there's anything I could have improved on, it's time management. And that's something i think i'll always have to keep learning as projects are always different from each other, so it requires careful planning. 

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes?  

It really saddens me to see so many amazing and intelligent women not being able to work in the field they chose. My advice to our gifted geekettes is not be afraid of taking risks. Nothing is given anymore, it has to be fought for. So get your own personal projects, invest time in yourself, keep learning, and don’t stop working in your field. When you're losing hope do a sprint project on your own. Nothing is more motivating than our own passion.

Berlin Geekette of the Month: Anna Kress

Meet Anna Kress, Co-Founder & CTO of Fairnopoly. 

What is your name, age, location? 

My name is Anna Kress, I'm 35 years old, and I live in Berlin, Germany.

What's your background?

I studied Computer Science, and after graduation I worked as a researcher for Fraunhofer Germany and Fraunhofer Portugal, Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization. My working areas were Mobile and Web applications, later with a focus on ICT for socio-economic development in developing countries. I was always more interested in applying ICT in a social context than in technology for the sake of technology.

In 2012, I discovered the social entrepreneurship movement in Berlin, which has gained quite a momentum in the last years. Fairnopoly was one of the mentee projects in the Social Impact Lab, an incubator for social enterprises, and that's how we met. Since December 2012, I have joined as a Co-founder and the CTO. It was my second attempt to found a company, the first one didn't work out. At the end I'm quite happy with this failed attempt because it opened up other opportunities of which Fairnopoly is the latest and the greatest one.

What inspired you to become a founder? 

The inspiration came mainly from the wish to create a working environment that I could identify with, where I could apply and grow my skills, and last but not least where I could contribute in some way to what I think should change in the world and make it a better place.

Please walk me through your day, what do you do at Fairnopoly? 

Fairnopoly is an online marketplace where both commercial and private sellers can list any kind of new or used products. What makes us different is our philosophy. We want to put social values first. Fairnopoly is organized as a co-operative which we consider to be a more controllable and transparent company form. We promote Fair Trade, sustainable and organic products. And we donate to Transparency International to contribute to the fight against corruption.

As one of the three managers of Fairnopoly, I take care of the strategical planning with a focus on IT and take care of all kinds of daily issues like hiring of technical staff or partner contracts. I oversee the product development, that is, the marketplace software. I do not program anymore, but I coordinate with the rest of the team and our users regarding feature requests, specify and prioritize them, and oversee the implementation with our great tech crew. My favorite aspect of the job at the moment is UI/UX design. 

Can you see yourself in ten years doing the same thing you do now?

Yes and no. Of course I hope that Fairnopoly will be a successful company, and I will play my role in that. But I have tried out different directions during my professional career, and I hope my curiousity will lead me to some new challenges, also regarding the fact that the IT sector is changing very fast. But maybe I will also decide at some point to leave IT and do something completely different.

What is the best advice you ever received?

I think what influences me most is not one single piece of advice, but more certain people which I admire, for example outstanding influential women like Simone de Beauvoir, Hannah Arendt or Susan Sontag. I also had the chance to meet and work with some incredible women from Afghanistan through the Women's Annex Foundation, who are all successful IT entrepreneurs in their home countries. 

What is the most important thing you’ve learned in the last year?

I guess it was more optimism and a bit more relaxed way towards risk taking and failure. Without this, we cannot build anything really new.

And what are your plans for the future?

At the moment, it is to make Fairnopoly an economically successful company. We also plan to expand to other countries.

If you could do one thing differently, what would it be?

I should have paid more attention to my personal well-being in the earlier days. It is important to allow oneself to take enough time off a project like Fairnopoly for recovery, in order to maintain sustainable motivation and energy. 

Any advice for your local/global Geekettes? 

Don't let yourself be restricted by people who say that your plans will not work out (or choose trusted advisors very carefully). Well, sometimes they will not work out, but I think that often we are way too pessimistic, which stops us from even trying in the first place. 

London Geekette of the Month: Danielle Nanton

Meet Danielle Nanton, Founder & Editor of Tech City Blog. 

What's your background?

I was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada on the west-coast of North America and very close to the US and Canadian border. I studied English and History at University and the first job after my undergrad at University was working for a web-hosting and domain-name registration organisation where I was the only person in my cohort without a Computer Science education to pass my probation. It was a steep learning curve where I learned and honed my technical skills. I then went on to the University of Windsor (Canada) which is literally five minutes across a bridge from Detroit, where I studied to qualify as a teacher. Once I qualified as a teacher, I came to the UK and worked as a teacher for a year and decided that I wished to transfer the skills that I had learned, into a corporate role, so I attended night classes in order to obtain my Associate Membership to the CIPD (the professional HR organisation in the UK). I then went on to work in HR-related finance roles which has resulted in my current role as a Cost Controller. 

What inspired you to start your tech city blog?

I have been very lucky to have a number of mentors. One, the director of Innovative Solutions at a large Advertising organisation which is headed in Canary Wharf, met with me over lunch and suggested that I get involved with the London Tech Scene, and learn as much as I could and create connections and potential collaborations. This is something that I have been attempting to do ever since. Another mentor who owns her own company suggested that I write about this journey as there may be some people who would be interested, so I started to write about my journey as well as learn/teach myself/ and undertake research and then write about my findings both for myself and others in the blog. 

What's the most exciting thing you have learnt whilst writing your blog?

Everyone can learn from each other and the blog has allowed me to take some topics that I have heard about superficially and really research them until I understood them more. For example, I have written one entry on accelerators and incubators in London and another entry on the Worshipful Livery Companies of London. These are two subjects that I did not know much about, but once I started writing about them, I was forced to research until I did learn and thereby learned about the subject matter. 

Tell us a little bit about Women 2.0.

I am the Team Lead & Speaker Coordinator for the London Group of Women 2.0. Women 2.0 is partnered with Google for Entrepreneurs and creates an inclusive community for anyone working, innovating, or investing in technology. 

Which tech organisations are your excited about at the moment and why?

Women 2.0 (which I have described above), Apps for Good (which teaches students technology/entrepreneurship/start-up skills in schools through engaging with tech professionals; the students build an app and then engage in pitching competitions), Stemmettes (which encourages students to get involved with STEM careers) and, of course, Geekettes.

What achievement are you most proud of?

Meeting and being introduced to the Queen at Buckingham Palace during a conference on Youth, Education and the Commonwealth.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received?

"If you're on a path that's beaten, it's not your path."

“Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned.”

What are your plans for the future?

To allow myself to be open to serendipitous opportunity. To connect, collaborate and empower.

Any advice for the Geekettes of London?

London is a really exciting place to be a Geekette, there is so much opportunity to learn! Go out and do things and make connections. I would suggest the Tech London Scene which exists in all over London and some places to start would be attending a Women 2.0 event (our next event is on May 1st), getting involved in Apps for Good, going to Google Campus, and meeting other like-minded people as well as people who will complement your skill-set.