Webgrrls International often receives tickets to industry events and we have five FREE passes to attend the Interop Las Vegas Conference in Las Vegas that we want to offer to our members. The dates for the Conference are May 17 – 21. The value of each pass is $3,095.

If you are interested in the opportunity to attend the conference, please let us know by clicking on this link and entering your name and membership id. You must be a member to participate…so, if you are not a Webgrrls member or your membership is not current, please Join or Renew your membership now.

We will randomly determine who receives the ticket for the conference at 3:00PM on April 7th. Please note that if you are selected, you will be responsible for your flight and hotel accommodations and other personal expenses.

See Conference Overview
Enter to win

Have an idea of which online trend will most significantly affect marketing and creative departments in 2009?  Share it here and if your entry is selected as the winning idea, you will win a trip to the 13 Annual Webby Awards in NYC on June 7-8 and your trend will be featured in their 2009 Internet Trend Forecast.

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. They present two honors in every category — The Webby Award and The People’s Voice Award — in each of its four entry types: Websites, Interactive Advertising, Online Film & Video and Mobile.

Tired of carrying around your Blackberry, iPhone, and still having to check your home machine? Google may be swooping in once again to help us manage our information (and device) overload.

Back in 2007, Google bought a company called GrandCentral. The original GrandCentral had many incredible features to offer customers who have multiple phones to manage:

• Single phone number in the area code of your choice. When anyone called this number, all connected devices rang simultaneously.
• Singe voice mail box and management
• Ability to have different voicemail greeting per caller
• Ability to specify which phones rang for each caller
• Ability to record phone calls

For the past two years, Google has been laying low about the service, but now they’re primed to rerelease it with new features that could change the way we think of managing our phones and phone numbes. They are introducing four new features: Free voicemail transcriptions: Getting voicemail in text means you can read it like a text or email. And yes, this means you could search, save, and copy and paste voicemails. Very cool. Free conference calling: No more access codes or special call in numbers. Google Voice will allow you to conference in multiple people who call your phone number. Cheap international calls: They’re promising rates lower than Skype! Ability to sort, tag, and manage text messages: Now that communications are getting shorter and more frequent, important information is now being delivered via texts.

Here are some links to learn more:

• Google Voice page
• Article in New York Times

Razorfish and CafeMom recently teamed up to publish a two-part article that explores the online behaviors of mothers. It’s appropriately titled Digital Mom 2009.This thorough, 30+ page article examines what women with children are up to when they log on. It avoids generalizations and is full of hearty statistics. For example, here is their finding about how mothers with older children are more likely to use Web 2.0 features:

Digital moms of children 12 and older, versus moms with children under 12, are more likely to watch online video (40% vs. 34%), game (57% vs. 51%), read online consumer reviews (38% vs. 30%), and watch or listen to podcasts (13% vs. 9%); while moms of children younger than 12 are more likely to use social networks (67% vs. 62%).

Part 1 focuses on the online behaviors of this growing group. The article’s table of contents summarizes the key findings:

• Digital moms are active users of Web 2.0 technologies.
• Age does matter, both the mom’s age and the child’s.
• Moms’ motivations for using emerging channels change as their children grow.
• “Whom moms communicate with” is changing.
• Moms may be moms, but they are also women with interests beyond parenting.
• Digital Moms first learn about products via many channels.

Part 2 looks at how mothers use social networks to connect, find information, and express themselves online.

Read the full article: Digital Mom 2009

In light of March being women’s history month, I thought it was time for us to take a break from the recession and quickly reflect on great women who have made strides in the web industry.  May these women motivate and inspire you to create cutting edge technology, leverage the web to create a new business, or continue to strive for excellence every day.

Naomi Simson - Founder and CEO, Red Balloon Days

From marketing to entrepreneurship, Naomi has taken her passion for pleasure seriously as a career option, creating the #1 Gift site in Australia and New Zealand four years running.

Marissa Mayer - VP Search Products and User Experience, Google

Ten years after becoming Google’s first female engineer on staff, Marissa now leads product management on all search related products – web, maps, desktop, earth and more.  Marissa is an example on how sticking with a company willling to groom and train their employees can create shining stars.

Esther Dyson - Independent Investor and Entrepreneur

From writing for then flipping EDventures to CNET (thought reclaimed the name for personal business), becoming the founding chair of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to publishing a book on how the Internet affects individual lives, she has influenced a lot of people on the web.  She now dabbles in many different companies, often becoming an early investor or board member of online startups, which have included Flickr and del.icio.us.

Alex Beauchamp – Independent Consultant, Girl at Play

Alex is noted to be one of the first females to create a personal web site back in 1995.  She now owns a prosperous design company, having completed projects for many well known brands, including Disney, Washington Post and Anthropologie.

Lynne D Johnson - Director, Social Media, Fastcompany.com

Lynne is a professional journalist and blogger, having won numerous awards for her work, including the 2006 Black Blogger Achievement Award.  Before Fastcompany she held the position of General Manager of new media for SPIN, VIBE and VIBE Vixen.

Who are other Women of the Web Leaders who, famous or not, creating the technology supporting it or leveraging the web in new ways, have inspired you?