http://govfunding.eventbrite.com/

Women-owned firms account for 40% of all privately held businesses in the US, according to the National Association of Women Business Owners. Yet how many small and start-up business owners are taking advntage of government-backed financing and funding and programs to finance their business? What options are the best fit for your business? Join Melissa Fischer of the Small Business Adminstration and Julie Lenzer Kirk, co-founder of the Path Forward Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, home of the ACTiVATE programfor this soup to nuts webinar on Demystifying Government Funding for Business on April 30th at 2:00 PM EDT .

You’ll learn:

* various options for government funding;
* tips for further exploration of SBA-backed loans;
* state and federal government grants;
* and more.

When: April 30th at 2:00 PM EDT.

Cost: $10

Sponsored By: National Center for Women in Technology, ACTiVATE Program, Path Forward International, Women Who Tech, Small Business Adminstration and NTEN.
http://govfunding.eventbrite.com/

It’s a really sensitive issue – not only for women but also for their employers. First, let’s look at women. If a colleague of a female employee gets preferential treatment at work, whether it’s a pay rise or a promotion, and there are obvious signs the female employee missed out solely because she’s knocked up, then pregnancy discrimination has occurred…
Read on…

A very interesting article from “theAge.com.au” and the comments that follow are must read.

What do you say?

» March 10, 2010 » Posted By Angie »

Updated on March 20, 2010 — Baat Enosh from Women 2.0 shares her story from SXSW.

“It was quite the attraction. There wasn’t a woman who walked by (and lots of men too) who didn’t stop to see what it’s all about,” said Baat. Ranging from research to mailing lists, the organizations who participated provide a wide spectrum of tools to raise awareness for women in technology (or lack there of..).

Conversations on the topic of women in tech (both spontaneous and at the panels) addressed the entire pipeline — from teaching K-12 about creating technology (”Duh, it’s like tech for girls”) to finding out “What guys are doing to get more girls in tech”. Some were more useful than others, but at least it is clear that there is a discussion taking place. And many are involved in it! It was refreshing to see the collaboration by the different “women in tech” organizations.

Read on…

The Zicklin Women in Business club

On Monday, March 8, in the Vertical Campus Multipurpose Room, the Zicklin Women In Business club convened a panel of six corporate women to share their stories of success in the workplace in honor of International Women’s Day.

International Women’s Day began a century ago to secure for women the right to vote. Today, it celebrates the social, economic and political achievements of women. It is recognized by the United Nations and is an official holiday in several Eastern European and Asian countries.

Read on…

Professional Networking is the creation and cultivation of business friendships and acquaintances. Most professionals neglect this important aspect of career development and scrambling to create new professional relationships is something goes wrong with their career or job.

Not only of great help to a job hunter, one must integrate regular professional networking must in the overall career development process.

 Over the years, entrepreneur Anuradha Acharya has found invaluable contacts and potential business development opportunities through professional networking. We present a short interview with her on her thoughts on how networking has helped her towards running a successful business.

Question:

There are quite a few online networking tools online now for example LinkedIn and Ryze. How have these helped and benefited you in local or global networking through your entrepreneurial career?

 Anuradha:

It has been very helpful both for coordinating and keeping in touch with people that I already know and those that you would want to know. These tools allow you to search for right people within an organization and also find out who can help you reach them.

Question:

In your opinion how does networking help entrepreneurs and business owners? Is professional networking in the business world different from the corporate world?

Anuradha:

Networking is extremely useful for entrepreneurs as it gives them access to a range of people like

• - Potential business development opportunities
• - Potential recruits
• - Potential investors
• - Free publicity of your company

Question:

Professional networking is not only about initiating new contacts but nurturing better relations with existing ones. You had mentioned that you have been in continuous touch with your former clients/customers; do you think keeping them apprised of the new solutions and offerings by Ocimum has helped in your company’s success?

Anuradha:

Absolutely.. It is used to create a platform for keeping them informed about activities at Ocimum and new launches. It also helps me organize and visit customers in cities that I am in to be able to nurture those relationships.

Question:

What other tips on professional networking you can share with us which can be of use not only to an entrepreneur but also to any professional to be integrated as a routine towards personal career development? In your opinion what are the best ways to build and develop a strong career network?

Anuradha:

Any professional can gain from being exposed to a large network. It allows better access into opportunities and being able to connect with the right people allows them to scout for opportunities, talk to peers in different companies to learn and become part of other circles.

 Tips-

- Find time to network.. its about who you know, not always about what you know

- Don’t network with anyone. Find relevant contacts that you can develop over the years.

- Work on your existing contacts, since every relationship especially the oldest one that counts

 About Anuradha

Prior to founding Ocimum Biosolutions with two other partners, Subash Lingareddy and Dr. Sujata Pammi, Ms.Acharya has had rich experience in the Telecom, IT and entrepreneurship arenas. She worked for a startup in the telecommunications space called Mantiss Information and a consulting firm called SEI Information where she helped create a social networking site for entrepreneurs. Both Mantiss and SEI were based in Chicago, IL. Her experience is backed by education at premier institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur, India (IIT) and University of Illinois where she has two Post Graduate degrees in Physics and MIS.

World Wide Launch Meeting for Elite Women Around the World®

The MISSION of Elite Women Around The World is to Enhance The Economic Position of Women Globally.

The Elite Women Around The World project is a regional effort with a global reach to create collaboration and alliances among individuals, companies and organizations for the economic advancement and empowerment of women.

Starts: Wednesday March 31, 2010, 11:30AM
Ends: Wednesday March 31, 2010, 01:30PM
Event Type: Networking/Meetup
Location: Cleveland, OH 44124 US

Know more…

United Nations announces Ivanka Trump as the spokeswoman for the international program “Girl Up”

Celebrating and supporting women during Women’s History Month, the United Nations announced on March 1 that Ivanka Trump, business woman and daughter of Donald Trump, will be the spokeswoman for the international program “Girl Up.”
Read more….

International Women’s Day Web Seminar
March 8, 2010 TIME: 11-12:30 pm EST

In honor of International Women’s Day, we will explore how some top companies are changing the world by empowering women, learn more about their innovative programs, and how they are having a global impact on women by engaging in conscious commerce.
The seminar will be moderated by an early pioneer in corporate social responsibility, Samantha Taylor, Founder of Reputation Dynamics, and will feature presenters Josefine van Zanten, Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion from Royal Dutch Shell; Ellen Goldberg Luger, Executive Director General Mills Foundation and Vice President, General Mills and Sabin Rahman, Internal Communications Manager, Unilever Bangladesh Limited.
Read more here….
Register here.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Attend The Daily Beast’s Women in the World Summit – MARCH 12, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the March 12th opening night in New York of a three-day summit, Women in the World: Stories and Solutions, co-hosted by The Daily Beast, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Diane von Furstenburg, and the UN Foundation.
Secretary Clinton will introduce an exclusive one-night reading at the Hudson Theatre of SEVEN, the documentary play created for Vital Voices Global Partnership to honor the courage of brave female activists from Afghanistan, Cambodia, Guatemala, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Pakistan, and Russia.

Read more…

Women for Hire Career Expo – Schedule 2010

Awards

ANITA BORG INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES 2010 WOMEN OF VISION AWARD WINNERS

Leading Technical Women to Be Honored for Outstanding Achievements at May 12, 2010 Awards Dinner in Santa Clara

PALO ALTO, Calif. — March 1, 2010 —The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) announced today the winners of this year’s Anita Borg Women of Vision Awards. Three leaders in technology – Kristina M. Johnson, Under Secretary for Energy, Department of Energy, Kathleen R. McKeown, Henry and Gertrude Rothschild Professor of Computer Science, Columbia University, and Lila Ibrahim, General Manager, Emerging Markets Platform Group, Intel Corporation will be honored for their accomplishments and contributions as women in technology at ABI’s fifth annual Women of Vision Awards Banquet at the Mission City Ballroom, Santa Clara, California on May 12, 2010. The event will feature keynote speaker Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor-in-chief, the Huffington Post and Sal Pizarro, Around Town columnist for the San Jose Mercury News as Master of Ceremonies.
The Women of Vision (WOV) Awards honor women making significant contributions to technology in three categories: Innovation, Leadership, and Social Impact. The three winners were selected from a field of highly qualified women all of whom are engaged in technology professions in industry, academia, non profits or government. Candidates for the awards are considered based on their records of (1) consistent, significant contributions to technology invention and application; (2) effecting positive changes in the ways in which technology impacts society; and (3) demonstrated leadership in the technology industry that extends beyond their place of work.

Info

PROJECT WORKING MOM

Between your kids’ needs and your work headaches, the last thing you need is another time commitment, right? Wrong! Education is the first thing you need. A college degree is the clearest route to self-fulfillment and financial security. Learn how online education can fit in to your busy schedule, and see how other working moms have achieved their educational goals.

Apply for scholarships to get back to college here…

10 years is a lot of time to put on those extra pounds which you don’t want to show .. and I am no  exception.

Since I heard the about the plan  I have been on the internet to look up the latest fashion in India and what I would be wearing.

Just to know how much I bigger I am from those good old days, I tried on a couple of jeans from my pre marriage days, I held my breath for as long as I could to get it on and yes I do admit tried oiling my legs so that I could decrease the friction… after struggling for some time and trying it on in phases – you see I had to breathe in and out as well. After around 6 minutes, I finally had it on only to hear the zip rip and the button pop as soon as I let my breath out …

But being a fighter as I am I tried the other on.. Unfortunately the skinny one did not even go on beyond my knees..

So perhaps a tight fitting jeans and a snug top, which are a fashion in India for hanging out with friends is OUT.

I thought maybe a long sleek fitting dress will look good on me but all the bulges in the wrong places made me wriggle out it before you could say potato bag!

I tried a few other trendy looking outfits .. but..

My bulges threatened to spill out of the struggling restraints.. I was now sure .. no more fitting dresses for me.

Sharing my concerns with my husband was of no use either, I told him that I have to shed at least 10 pounds to look good in a fitting outfit, he quickly got up and went to the kitchen to get the 10 pounds potato bag.. he weighed it in his hands and then looked at me .. “Wow! That’s a lot of potatoes.. can you manage it within a month”… he stopped short seeing the expression on my face….

Needless to say he had to go get a take out for dinner that night..

Last week, I tried jogging around the neighborhood, I gave up embarrassingly in the first round itself, I had set off two car alarms…

I looked up the weight management forums and similar ones to look for the best way to lose 10 pounds in 10 days except for the pills which I do not believe in..

I would like to share with you a few discussions I saw there:

 One woman wrote, “please help I am enormous, so much so I have to iron my clothes in the driveway”

The other wrote, “I am huge and slow, my kids don’t want me around the TV when they are there, by the time I pass through the TV, they have missed almost 3 commercials or two minutes of game time!”

I signed off happily; this was not my league, thankfully.

My husband tried to console me yesterday, he said “Honey, you should not go for the looks only, go for the substance and depth. You have a lot of substance”

I would have taken it well had he not smiled immediately after saying the word “substance”.

Yesterday night he slept in the guest bedroom.

Well the struggle only got worse, since I got a mail from a couple of my batch mates suggesting that since it is so hot in India why not do a pool party, kids would enjoy as well.

Since then my mind has been spinning to find a solution to it all and influence all to go for a theme party ..

So this week would be my search for a better theme party where I can look good and not look the heavier side I am since those days..

I asked my friend Usha for some advice, she consoled me, “You’re not fat at all just plump or on the border line, you’re not fat if you don’t fit in the dresses you want to but when you can’t fit in the dressing room of the stores to try on the dresses that is when you should start looking for help”. So much for the consolation!

I have now realized that the best dress is the one in which I feel confident and comfortable; it is not how I look when I look in the mirror but how I FEEL.

Oh well, why be modest, I admit I am a multitasking guru..

I can talk on the phone read a newspaper, feed my child dinner and turn the TV channels to put the favorite cartoon on .. All at the same time!

I sometimes tell my husband that you should also learn to multitask and he always gets back to me saying, “Of course I do honey, I read in the bathroom.”

I have been quite proud of these achievements until recently I have been noticing my forces are getting weaker. ..

While doing the same as I mentioned just now.. while talking on the phone to my friend and flipping through the pages of the newspaper, I heard a strange crunching sound … it was then I noticed that my child was chewing happily on a pen, the food had spilled on the carpet, and I had selected an adult channel on TV to which the little pair of eyes were glued on and giggles were bursting in now and then through the periodic crunching sound!!

I was aghast .. Dropped the phone .. Later realizing that I annoyed my friend as she was in the middle of her detailed description telling me about how fantastic her recent cruise was …

I Scrambled to change the channel only to spill the glass of juice on the carpet and then tried hard to get the left over plastic of the pen out of my daughter’s mouth Now it was my turn to burst out in periodic shouts of pain as she playfully bit hard on my fingers.

You might have heard about the Windows system error 006 which describes the error as “Multitasking attempted- system confused”

Well I have also had such moments..

At some time I feel like I am losing it all when I see that I just broke a favorite glass while washing it only because I was running back and forth to turn over the omelet which eventually got burnt and my little daughter is wailing hard just because the ponies I made for her are all skewed and don’t match the ones on her favorite cartoon character. Dropping my head in desperation and then I notice that I had been wearing my sweater inside out L the whole day!

Maybe it is well said that multitasking is indeed screwing up several thing at once! Or in technical terms the ability to crash several programs at the same time.

I knew I had had enough when one night in my dream I was juggling between three dreams and coming to number two in between the third one before completing the first one!

Help help…I hear a fizzle of a spark, do I smell some smoke? Maybe it’s my brain short circuiting.

I must find a solution to it all now.

Did I mention that I have even bought a book on Time Management but … have not yet found time to read it. I thought of a solution that perhaps I should prioritize my work.. I should finish one task before beginning another one..

So maybe this is what I can do…

With a whole load of laundry that needed to be ironed and the plants to be watered .. I also realized that I have to put the soup on in the crock pot for the dinner / maybe I can plug the iron on, water the plants in the meantime and put the soup ingredients in the pot and when I am done with the ironing then perhaps I can go and clean my car which badly needs a wash.

In a moment of exasperation I grabbed my head and screamed.. My multitasking abilities are diminishing beyond my reach. I am losing my powers!

At that very moment I heard a strong booming voice from somewhere above…

Do not despair! You are a woman – a born multitasker. Get up get there and get it all done! You have the power! May the force be with you!

• Could all your most important tasks be done in fewer hours?
• Could less important tasks be discontinued or done by someone else?
• Could your job be shared with another part-time employee?

Get information about your salary and benefits.

• Assess changes to salary, leave earning, health insurance cost, and retirement and life insurance benefits.
• Could you afford to earn less pay and pay more for insurance?
• Could you do with less leave and potentially less retirement?

Research policies and practices

• Study Government wide policies in this guide.
• Consult your supervisor about your agency’s policies and programs.
• Talk to part-time employees about their experiences.

Devise a strategy.

• Propose restructuring your full-time job into a part-time job.
• Find a partner and propose a job sharing arrangement.
• Apply for any part-time/job sharing vacancies.

Make a written proposal.

• Propose a schedule and explain how your duties would be handled.
• Focus on employer’s needs, not your own.
• Suggest a pilot test where managers, clients, and co-workers could assess the arrangement.

*This information was adapted from Flexibility at Work … 5 Steps To Get You Started, a brochure produced by the Association of Part-time Professionals.

Welcome to CareerWomenForum.com

The origin of the word Forum comes from the old time Rome, it was the public square or marketplace of an ancient Roman city that was an assembly place for judicial and business activities.

This forum is for the career women of the world. A place where career women can meet, check out products relevant to their needs and discover some valuable resouces which make their life easier.

Welcome to the Career Women FORUM.