GHC 2013 Day 1

Today I spent the entire day with females. I don't think this rare phenomenon has occurred since I was a pre-teen. Certainly not since university. Not to say that I'm not extremely appreciative of my wonderful male friends, but it was so refreshing to hang out with only women for once. And fantastic, brilliant women at that. As a woman in Computer Science, it's easy to get used to always being around men. I can honestly say that I'm usually even more comfortable with men because that's simply my typical environment. It was definitely a treat to be reminded today of how nice it can be to be surrounded by women.

Aside from the pleasant "culture shock", as I will call it, so many other great things went on at the convention centre today. I was extremely impressed by variety of topics covered. From gender equality and women empowerment to leadership/research/publishing skills to straight up academic content, especially in the poster session. The poster session was actually a great academic networking opportunity. It was easy to find people that were interested in and working on things similar to myself, and I did make some awesome connections during the session. 

The career fair was amazing. I learned about so many interesting companies that I didn't know existed, and visited big name companies that everyone knows exists (Google, Facebook...). And let's be honest, the swag was pretty fantastic (see for yourself in Bridgette's post which she will be posting later tonight).

Looking forward to another exciting day tomorrow!