Last Wednesday, 18th May 2011, a mere 7 weeks after GGD #9, Amsterdam Girl Geeks got together for dinner number 10, which was utterly enjoyed by all. We’ve received extremely positive feedback including emails from our male guests, full of kudos for such an informative and interesting evening!

Again, the 3-course-dinner served by Otto and team of Lab111 was delightful!

All the 39 attendees, including our sponsors, Getronics Consulting and Google enjoyed the networking opportunities prior and after the talk by Virginie Hager. Farrah Djohan of Google flew in all the way from London to attend the event!

We are happy to see and catch up with the familiar GGD faces and meet many new ones! Thanks for coming!

The young and attractive Virginie Hager, the first ever mechanical engineer in the Amsterdam Girl Geek circle, works at the European Space Research and Technology Centre in Noordwijk. She took the audience by storm with her natural charm and presentation on the ins-and-outs of professional and personal life of the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) with a special focus on the supply and delivery process to the ISS.

Virginie started with a short presentation on her background and motivations to join the space industry which was in itself fascinating, as Space and Aviation industry is definitely one of the industries in which females are under represented.

Virginie covered various areas of importance in space exploration and projects, the structural and composition of the various vehicles (launcher and transfer vehicles), the process of maintenance, refuelling, transfer of goods and the crucial role of the space station towards the common good of mankind. She also showed the video of the interior set-up and structure of the transfer vehicle as well as the launch of the 200th flight of Ariane 5, which was interesting for most of us who have not paid attention to the detail of such huge operations!

Through out the presentation, the audience was animated and interactive, with thought-provoking questions and exchanges on facts, which made the hour-and-half long session felt quite short! Fun was had by all!

On behalf of the Girl Geeks Amsterdam, we (Rhiannon, Marjon, Hendrike and Nina), thank Virginie for her participation.

In the meantime, if anybody is interested in helping Emily set the GGD Eindhoven events up, please get in touch! (leave a comment here).

We also welcome future speakers to come forward and share the fun at our next events! Please contact us if you wish to share your experience and knowledge with other girl geeks!

If you have enjoyed GGD #10, spread the good word and we hope to see you again (and new faces too) at our next dinner #11 in September!

Post written by Nina Aziz (nina@riddhi.biz) on behalf of the Organising Committee GGD Amsterdam. Photos were taken by Johannes Hjorth. A selection of Virginies presentation is here.