Registration Now Open for the 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing

PALO ALTO, CA--(Marketwire - Jun 7, 2011) - The Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI) announced today that registration is now open for the 11^th annual Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing (GHC), to be held November 9 - 12, 2011 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. The conference program is available at www.gracehopper.org.

The world's largest gathering of women in computing in industry, academia, and government, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing is a four day technical conference designed to bring the research and career interests of women in computing to the forefront. Over 450 speakers and 200 technical poster presenters will include leading researchers and industry experts discussing their current work, while special sessions focus on the role of women in today's technology fields, including computer science, information technology, research, and engineering. Co-presented by the Anita Borg Institute and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), the conference has expanded this year to now feature more than 132 sessions (panels, workshops, technical papers, Ph.D. forum, new investigators, technical posters, a track on large scale computing, and "birds of a feather" sessions) across ten tracks, invited technical speakers, and the ACM Student Research Competition.

"What If...?" -- Conference Theme
This year's conference theme, "What If...?", recognizes that innovation in technology arises from the question: "What if a culture of technology that encourages participation and inquiry from a diverse workforce leads to greater levels of innovation?" More than 2800 women and men from over 30 countries in industry, academia, and government are expected to turn out for this year's event. In addition, recipients of the prestigious Anita Borg Social Impact and Technical Leadership Awards, the Anita Borg Change Agent Awards, the Denice Denton Emerging Leader Award, and the inaugural A. Richard Newton Educator Award will be honored at an Awards Ceremony on November 11th.

Highlights of the 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration include: a Career Fair with over 70 high tech companies, government labs, and universities participating; career mentoring workshops presented by the Computer Research Association (CRA-W) for undergraduate, graduate and early career professional researchers; a professional development workshop for technical industry women entitled "Building Your Brand as a Technical Expert"; the third annual K-12 Computing Teachers Workshop presented in partnership by the Anita Borg Institute and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA); and the Grace Hopper Open Source Day, which will feature a code-a-thon for humanity with many partner organizations.

Registration is now open, with super early bird rates in effect through June 30, 2011. For more information, visit www.gracehopper.org.

Sponsors to date of the 2011 Grace Hopper Celebration include Platinum Corporate Sponsors Amazon, Broadcom, CA Technologies, Cisco, Facebook, Google, IBM, Intel, Lockheed Martin, and Microsoft. Silver Corporate Sponsors include Adobe, Applied Materials, Autodesk, Barclays Capital, Bloomberg, Deutsche Bank, EMC Corporation, Goldman Sachs, Salesforce, ThoughtWorks and Yahoo! Bronze Corporate Sponsors include Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Quora and SAP.

About the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology (ABI)
The Anita Borg Institute provides resources and programs to help industry, academia, and government recruit, retain, and develop women leaders in high-tech fields, resulting in higher levels of technological innovation. Our programs serve high-tech women by creating a community and providing tools to help them develop their careers. ABI is a not-for-profit 501(c) 3 charitable organization. ABI Partners include: Google, HP, Microsoft, CA Technologies, Cisco, Facebook, First Republic Bank, IBM, Intel, Intuit, Lockheed Martin, National Science Foundation, National Security Agency, NetApp, SAP, Symantec, Thomson Reuters, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, Amazon, Broadcom, Motorola Foundation, Raytheon, Salesforce, and Yahoo! For more information, visit www.anitaborg.org.