The Girls Who Code Inaugrual Gala was at the New York Stock Exchange was on October 22, 2012. It was in support of young women who are New York City’s future entrepreneurs and engineers, they unveiled the apps they built during the Girls Who Code program.  The evening began the Social Investor Presentation where the Girls took over the NYSE Boardroom to pitch their creative technology and ability to change the future.  The pitches were then followed by a networking reception and demos on the NYSE Trading Floor. Ladyada and pt stopped in and took some photos, it was PACKED! This was the first time any of the Adafruit team has visited the NYSE Trading Floor! Congrats to all the young women who are heading in to engineering because of this program!

Photos!

WHO WE ARE
Girls Who Code is a new organization working to educate, inspire and equip 13- to 17-year-old girls with the skills and resources to pursue opportunities in technology and engineering.

WHAT WE DO
Together with leading educators, engineers, and entrepreneurs, Girls Who Code has developed a new model for computer science education, pairing intensive instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch mentorship led by the industry’s top female developers and entrepreneurs.

WHY WE DO IT
Today, just 3.6% of Fortune 500 companies are led by women, and less than 10% of venture capital-backed companies have female founders. Yet females use the internet 17% more than their male counterparts and represent the fastest growing demographic online and on mobile, creating more than two-thirds of content on social networking sites. Technology companies with more women on their management teams have a 34% higher return on investment, and companies with women on technical teams increases teams’ problem-solving ability and creativity.

The numbers speak for themselves. By 2018, there will be 1.4 million computer science-related job openings, yet U.S. universities are expected to produce enough computer science graduates to fill just 29% of these jobs. And while 57% of bachelor’s degrees are obtained by women, less than 14% of computer science degrees are awarded to women.

Host Committee – Master Gardeners
Jack Dorsey, Founder, Twitter, Square
Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post
Chris Hughes, Co-founder, Facebook
Beth Comstock, CMO, General Electric
Alexis Maybank, Founder, Gilt Groupe
Marisa Ricciardi, SVP Global Marketing, NYSE Euronext
Gina Bianchini, Founder, Ning, Mightybell
Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist
Hope Taitz, Board Member, Athene, Apollo Residential Mortgage REIT
David Hirsch, Metamorphic Ventures
Sunny Bates, Sunny Bates Associates
Evan Korth, Founder, hackNY
Andrew Rasiej, Personal Democracy Media
Kelly Hoey, Founder, Women Innovate Mobile
Greg Gunn, Founder, City Light Capital
Rachel Haot (Sterne), Chief Digital Officer, NYC
Nihal Mehta, Founder, Local Response
Steve Martocci, Founder, GroupMe
Caroline Ghosn & Amanda Pouchot, Founders, LevoLeague
Susan McPherson, SVP, Fenton
Jessica Lawrence, Managing Director, New York Tech Meetup
Kathryn Minshew & Alex Cavoulacos, Co-founders, The Daily Muse
Rachel Sklar, Founder, Change the Ratio & TheLi.st

Sponsors – Cultivators
NYSE Euronext
Twitter
Google
General Electric
AppNexus
AT&T
eBay
Goldman Sachs
D. E. Shaw
Raptor Capital
Global Grind
Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP

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