The Anita Borg Institute Opens Registration for Grace Hopper Celebration 2013

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 3, 2013) - The Anita Borg Institute (ABI), a non-profit organization focused on the advancement of women in computer science and engineering, today opened registration for the 2013 Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC) of Women in Computing to be held October 2-5 at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This year's distinguished keynote speakers include women at the top of their respective industries including Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.org; Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College; Ana Pinczuk, Senior Vice President of Services Transformation at Cisco; and Dr. Arati Prabhakar, Director of DARPA. GHC is the largest gathering of women technologists in the world, and is expected to attract approximately 4,000 participants, from over 40 countries, in industry, academia, and government. To register, visit www.gracehopper.org.

"I'm thrilled to be a keynote speaker at the annual Grace Hopper Celebration," says Ana Pinczuk, SVP of Services Transformation, Cisco. "When it comes to reaching out to women in technology, this is the forum. I'm really excited about the opportunity to inspire and encourage women of all ages and experience levels to embrace and navigate a career in technology."

The 2013 Grace Hopper Celebration's theme "Think Big. Drive Forward," is designed to encourage technical women to dream ambitiously and push the envelope. This annual four-day conference featuring over 200 speakers brings together women at various phases of education and career, including students; women starting their professional careers; mid-career technologists; women entrepreneurs; and those in the highest technical positions at multinational corporations.

"Women must dream ambitiously and push the envelope, especially in math and science," said Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and founder of LeanIn.org. "I am proud to join The Grace Hopper Celebration in this critical effort to encourage more women leaders in technology, something that all of us at Facebook and LeanIn strongly support."

Conference sessions will feature discussions on the role of women in technology fields today, rich professional development sessions, and presentations about the latest technologies from leading researchers on their current work. Sessions will explore trends in Medical Technology, Media and Entertainment, Software Engineering, Education Technology, and Mobile Experiences. In addition, over 170 undergraduate and graduate students are expected to present their research work at one of the largest poster sessions at any conference.

Think Big. Drive Forward
The theme "Think Big. Drive Forward" highlights the innovation taking place in high technology fields today, and the important leadership role technical women hold in the industry. Both men and women are encouraged to attend and join the movement to drive technology forward.

According to Telle Whitney, President of the Anita Borg Institute and co-founder of the original Grace Hopper Celebration 20 years ago, this is a celebration of success for those who have embraced opportunities while inspiring others to Think Big and Drive Forward. 

"There is no event like this in the technology industry in terms of the education, information and inspiration that is shared and celebrated among a diverse group of technical women, and the next generation of women who will follow in their footsteps," said Whitney. 

The Grace Hopper Celebration 2013 will feature special keynotes, educational sessions, awards and presentations, a hackathon and a job faire. Specific highlights include:

Wednesday: Plenary session in conversation with Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, Maria Klawe, President of Harvey Mudd College, and Telle Whitney, President of the Anita Borg Institute; Career Fair with leading high-tech companies, government labs, and universities participating; career development sessions from industry and academic leaders; student poster session and competition.

Thursday: Keynote address from Ana Pinczuk, SVP of Services Transformation at Cisco; research presentations and technical sessions including panels, workshops and talks from a range of tracks on Medical Technology, Media and Entertainment, Software Engineering, and Mobile Experiences; awards ceremony and celebration.

Friday: Keynote address from Dr. Arati Prabhakar, Director of DARPA; presentations from award winners; technical sessions, panels and workshops from tracks on Education Technology, Media and Entertainment, Software Engineering, and Mobile Experiences.

Saturday: Open Source Day and GenConnext, a program for local high school students.

Registration is now open to attend the 2013 Grace Hopper Celebration. Participants who sign up between now and June 21 will receive the super early bird price of $625 for general attendees, a $100 discount from the regular rate, and $270 for students. For more information, visit www.gracehopper.org.

Platinum Corporate Sponsors of the 2013 Grace Hopper Celebration include CA Technologies, Cisco, eBay, HP, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Microsoft, Neustar, SAP, and Thomson Reuters. Gold Corporate Sponsors include Dropbox and LinkedIn. Silver Corporate Sponsors include Andreessen Horowitz, Aruba Networks, Barclays, Bloomberg, Box, Comcast, Credit Suisse, EMC, FactSet Research Systems, GE, GitHub, Goldman, Sachs & Co., Groupon, Morgan Stanley, New York Life Insurance Company, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Palantir, Salesforce, State Farm, USAA, VMware, Yahoo! and Zendesk. 

Gold Academic Sponsors include Carnegie Mellon University INI, Georgia Tech College of Computing, Harvey Mudd College, New York University, Stanford University|Engineering, UC Berkeley, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Virginia Tech.

About The Anita Borg Institute (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute works to advance women in computer science and engineering roles globally. ABI provides resources and programs that help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and advance technical women to meet the growing global need for technology workers and to increase technological innovation. ABI programs inspire technical women, foster community and provide tools to help them develop their careers. The Institute works with industry partners to make the global technology workplace more welcoming to women. ABI partners include: Cisco, Google, HP, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, Amazon, CA Technologies, Dell, eBay, Facebook, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Juniper Networks, Lockheed Martin, Marvell, National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, NetApp, SAP, Symantec, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Broadcom, EMC, Neustar, Raytheon, Salesforce.com, VentureLoop, Xerox and Yahoo! The Anita Borg Institute is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.

Follow the Anita Borg Institute on Twitter at @anitaborg_org and become a fan at www.facebook.com/anitaborginstitute.