By Karen Zeller (Contributing Writer, Women 2.0)
On May 7th, 2011, RailsBridge NYC held its first free outreach and training targeted at women. Open to programmers and non-programmers alike, the event was booked solid within twelve hours of its announcement. Demand and enthusiasm for the event was so strong, attendees facing family emergencies made time in their busy lives to commit and show up for the cause.

Mimi Hui, a product strategist and founder of the consulting firm Canal Mercer of NYC, was the chief instigator and organizer of the event. Without her tenacity the event would not have been able to support the number of attendees as successfully as it had.

According to Mimi, “The attendees were surprising, we had the usual entrepreneurs and women who were interested in transitioning from HTML / CSS but additionally, we also had a woman who is trying to build a prototype to monitor world hunger in real time from the United Nations.”

RailsBridge SF volunteer Curtis Jennings dedicated at least an early morning and more to teleconference and walk organizers through curriculum material, in particular the install.

Sponsors for the event include Simande (provided space for the installation fest), Harvest (provided space for the main workshop), and Magnetic (provided lunch).

For more information about future events, visit the RailsBridge NYC website.

About the guest blogger: Karen Zeller is software professional, holding progressively responsible positions in technical communications, program and product management. Most recently she has been working in a 75% legal and administrative position at Stanford while raising a young child. She volunteers for non-profits including RailsBridge and Women 2.0. Karen holds degrees in Anthropology and Finance from UC Berkeley and a J.D. from Stanford University School of Law. Follow her on Twitter at @karenzeller8.