Women on the Next Web meetup
Written on April 5, 2008 – 5:56 pm
Simone Brummelhuis, writing about women on the web
On Friday morning, every woman that participated in the conference got together at the Women on the next Web meetup, which I organized during the international meetup as a follow-up of the female Internet heroes series. About 40 women, being 5% of the participants, joined forces to network, get inspired and talk about their business.
Among them were some Dutch female heroes, such as Marja Ruigrok, founder and CEO of Ruigrok Netpanel, who submitted her latest press release about online surveys, as well as Louise Verschuren, founder of Wuzzon, winner of the Dragon’s Den contest, who mentioned the entering into the German market. Also was present Monique Dusseldorp of Picnic and internet trendwatcher Jacqueline Fackeldey, with whom I discussed the series about female heroes. Leonieke Verhoog of the VPRO highlighted the technical wonders of a white label social network based on ning.com, of whom Gina Bianchini is the founder and CEO.
Some founders of new start-ups were also present, such as Tessa Sterkenburg of the Thenextspeaker.com and Sharon Mombru, founder of the start-up Blue Insights, mentioned her search for a superb CTO for her venture. Sita Teli was there from the investors side. A huge success which will get a follow up, that’s for sure.
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
By Suzan on Apr 5, 2008
I don’t get it. There is no men ‘get together’ at thenextweb conference right? So why would there be a women ‘get together’ to become inspired and network? I was at the conference and there were hardly any women. Maybe because it is more of a guy’s industry? I prefer to network with men ánd women and not set myself apart from men. But hey, if you were there and enjoyed it, great!
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By simone on Apr 5, 2008
Hi Suzan, Of course there was a men get together for 2 full days at the next web with 95% men…. and only 1,5 hour for a women get together, but that’s not the point of the meetup. Purpose of the Female Heroes series and the meetup is to show to men and women alike that there are indeed a lot of entrepreneurial, risk taking web- and tech savy women out there!! The creation of visibility is the key. And so we do!
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By Suzan on Apr 6, 2008
Hi Simone, I think it’s a great thing to show that women are also part of the business and are often also setting up interesting companies. But I have to disagree on the fact that there are many women, because there are not so many ‘unfortunately’. I have been working in this industry for many years and not much has changed during the years. After all there are not so many female plumbers either:-) But I sincerely hope you have inspired more women to enter this amazing industry by setting up this meetup.
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By Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on Apr 6, 2008
I think the internet industry could benefit from having more women involved. There are no reasons why there couldn’t me more women in technology. The only thing they have to do is realize that they can have a positive impact and that there are many benefits to being an female internet entrepreneur. Now all we (male AND female entrepreneurs) have to do is say ‘Come join us, it is fun and this can be an industry where being a female won’t have to restrict your career opportunities’. I think Simone did a great job doing that.
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By Suzan on Apr 7, 2008
I agree. Come join us, it is fun! It’s a good motto. With respect for the Nextweb Women Meetup initiative (I’m confident Simone did a great job!) I’d like to encourage internet women also to join IPAN (Interactive Professionals Association Netherlands http://www.ipan.nl), because we as female members are a major minority…So female internet heroes, please consider to join IPAN!
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