More than 400 WIT members and guests attended the Eleventh Annual Women in Technology Leadership Awards on May 20. The 2010 Leadership Awards honor women who have excelled as mentors, leaders and role models in their professional endeavors and communities, and embody the WIT mission. “With the addition of four new award categories, WIT broadened the scope of exceptional women who were named Leadership Awards winners,” said Toni Townes-Whitley, president of WIT. “The awardees are true architects of change in the technology community and representative of WIT’s new mantra: advancing technology one woman at a time. We congratulate them and include them among a decade of WIT’s leading women.” More details and full list of honorees.

Ready to Work consists of an encouragement network hour followed by a job search skills practicum. Each session includes tips, observations, realities, good news, and food for thought for the job seeker. This session will be led by executive presence coach Jean O'Brien and Kathy Furlong, director of business development operations at Avaya Government Solutions. More details about this event.

As a follow-up to last year’s sold out event, the Sales & Marketing and Technology SIGs will once again explore the intersection of marketing and technology. This year, we will focus on lead generation — and the technology tools that contribute to and manage the marketing funnel. At this session, you’ll learn how to: build effective lead generation and nurturing programs; best leverage technology tools for lead generation; optimize your web site to capture demand, and develop metrics and tracking capabilities to demonstrate ROI. More details about this event.

Join Booz Allen for a unique and informative Virtual “Meet the Company” webinar for WIT members on Tuesday, June 15 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm EST. Learn how Booz Allen—a leading strategy and technology consulting firm—is currently hiring exceptional individuals with skills in several cutting-edge technology areas. To register for this webinar, please e-mail Jason Park at park_jason@bah.com.

WIT’s Meet the Company Series provides an intimate setting to facilitate the relationship between WIT members and technology companies in the DC Metro area. This Series is designed to provide WIT members and Guests with potential career and partnering opportunities and a better understanding of companies’ businesses, strategies, and culture. At this special SMALL BUSINESS event, WIT is showcasing four to six small businesses. More details about this event.

The Women's Center (TWC), a WIT strategic alliance parner, is hosting a Reception and Book Signing for Rebecca Shambaugh's new book, A Time for Resilience and Reinvention: Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton. Proceeds from the sale will benefit The Women's Center. We are being challenged by several women from many of our competitors & partners (Lockheed Martin & Microsoft -have kicked it off :-) that they would have the most women attend this event. Please help us meet this challenge by registering for this event. June 8: A Time for Resilience and Reinvention.

Research indicates that investing in women as tech entrepreneurs is good for the bottom line. Venture-backed start-ups run by women use, on average, 40 percent less capital than start-ups run by men and are increasingly involved in successful initial public offerings of stock, according to a recent white paper by Cindy Padnos, a venture capitalist who compiled data from 100 studies on gender and tech entrepreneurship. “When you have gender diversity in an organization, you have better innovation, and I don’t know where innovation is more important than in the high-tech world,” says Ms. Padnos, who recently founded Illuminate Ventures, which invests in start-ups led by women.

To register for events, visit www.womenintechnology.org and log in with your user name and password. Once logged in, click on the RSVP Now link by the event for which you wish to register.

If you are not a current member of WIT℠, please register by using the register without logging in link.

Don't miss an issue of WIT.Wire! Make sure to add staff@womenintechnology.org to your email address book to ensure that all WIT emails come right to your inbox. If you do not wish to receive future emails from WIT, respond to this message with Unsubscribe in the subject line. Your request will be processed within 10 days of receipt. To subscribe to WIT emails, respond to this message with Subscribe in the subject line.