Girls in Tech, the non-profit organization focused on women's innovative and entrepreneurial achievements in technology, is a good example of a small idea that's somehow grown big because there was simply a need for it.

It started in San Francisco in 2007 as a casual meeting of industry friends interested in talking about all things tech, such as the start-up culture, product marketing and development and business dealings.

Said founder Adriana Gascoigne (right), who recently moved to Singapore and has since started the Singapore chapter, "This meeting was meant as a sounding board for the minority in tech – women – to help answer questions, address any concerns in the workplace, bounce product feature ideas off of each other. It was also meant to inspire women in tech to become "intrapreneurs" as well as entrepreneurs since our gender was and still is, relatively scarce in the tech industry.

"We were on a mission to give female developers, designers and marketers a voice and encourage the younger generations to embrace technology and the start-up world as a viable career path."

Five years on, Girls in Tech has grown to over 38 active chapters across the globe from the Middle East (Kuwait and United Arab Emirates) to Asia (China, Singapore and Japan); Europe such as (UK, France, Germany and Ireland) and Latin America with active chapters in Chile, Brazil, and recently Guatemala.

Beyond a social networking platform, GIT is also focused on education. It has rolled out three programmes – Girls in Tech "Professional," "Girls in Tech University or "GIT U"and "Girls in Tech Mentorship Program".

This year, it will produce the Girls in Tech Catalyst Conference (a one-day traditional conference showcasing women in the tech industry), The AMPLIFY Business Pitch Competition (a business pitch competition promoting women's start-ups) and Girls in Tech 360 or "GIT360," which is a entrepreneur labs programme enabling 20 female entrepreneurs to learn the skills of the start-up trade, helping them in the company launch process.

Technology + Travel: Match made in heaven

For Gascoigne, who recently joined the travel start-up, Impulse Flyer, to head business development, travel and technology are an excellent fit in the following ways – ease of booking and convenience; social discovery; customer service; and content development, distribution and discovery.

And she sees exciting developments taking place in these areas of travel - content curation, targeted niche travel sites; comprehensive aggregation search engines; personalized and customized crowd-sourced recommendations and ratings platforms; mobile apps and the rise of budget airlines.

Full story:

www.webintravel.com/news/a-girl-who-rocks-in-tech-and-travel_3041