Gotham Gal

The White House gets Social Media and Entrepreneurship

I was on a panel yesterday that was put on by the Obama administration and Barnard College.  The conference was to promote small business ownership in urban areas for women, aka enterpreneurs.  A really impressive crowd and informative panels.  I was thrilled to sit on a panel with Janet Hanson of 85 Broads, Gail Harmon of Accion, Marissa Lee who runs the Small Business Administration, Natalia Noguera of the Pipeline Fund and we were moderated by Arianna Huffington. 

Even though we were all coming at the conversation from different angles, our stories were similar, our careers had taken a few turns and we all understood what women needed to do to have successful outcomes. It was streamed live but I can't find the taped version.  Alas.

I am also judging this challenge below.  It would be great if the US Dept of Labor was swamped with fantastic applications.  That alone sends a very strong message to the White House which is technology is where the biggest growth is coming from in this country.  For them to see thousands and thousands of apps where one is more clever than the next is powerful.  Info below.

 

The U.S. Department of Labor just launched the Equal Pay App Challenge on Challenge.gov . The contest calls on developers to use publicly available data and resources to create innovative, easy-to-use apps that educate users about the pay gap and provide tools to combat it. The apps should improve the accessibility of pay data broken down by gender, race and ethnicity, and provide coaching on early career pay, pay negotiation or career mentorship. Below you will find a list of resources that can be shared with potential participants and supporters of the Equal Pay App Challenge.

 

Mission

Each submission should achieve at least one of the following goals: 1. Provide greater access to pay data by gender, race, and ethnicity, 2. Provide tools for early career coaching, 3. Help inform negotiations and 4. Promote online mentoring. Additional information can be found at: http://equalpay.challenge.gov/details/about

  

Prizes

A total of eight (8) prizes will be awarded, including five (5) grand prizes and three (3) goals challenge prizes – winners will be announce at or around April 17^th, 2012. Additional prize information can be found here: http://equalpay.challenge.gov/

 

Judges

There are a total of 13 judges supporting the Equal Pay App Challenge, encompassing government, technology entrepreneurship, and advocacy. A complete list of judges can be found here: http://equalpay.challenge.gov/details/judging#judge_522

 

Resources

• Equal Pay App Challenge Information

o   DOL Equal Pay Press Release: http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/opa/OPA20120146.htm

o   Equal Pay Contest on Challenge.gov: http://equalpay.challenge.gov/

• Department of Labor Resources

o   BLS Current Population Survey Information: http://www.bls.gov/cps/

o   BLS Current Population Datasets & API: http://developer.dol.gov/BLS-CPS-DATASET.htm

o   Women’s Bureau Resources: http://www.dol.gov/wb/

• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Resources

o   Job Patterns for Minorities & Women in State and Local Governments: http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/statistics/employment/jobpat-eeo4/2009/index.cfm

• Supporter Resources

o   Salary.com – Equal Pay App Challenge Page & API: http://www.salary.com/equal-pay-app-challenge

o   The Daily Muse – Equal Pay RSS Feed: http://www.thedailymuse.com/tag/thedailymuseepac/feed/atom/

o   10 Steps to Negotiating a Higher Salary – Courtesy of Dr. Linda Babcock: http://progress.heinz.cmu.edu/Files/Dr%20Babcock%20Negotiation%20Tips.pdf

 

Deadlines

Contestants must register for the contest on Challenge.gov by creating an account between January 31st, 2012, and March 31st, 2012. All entries received after March 31st, 2012 will not be considered for prizes.

 

Social Media

You can support the Equal Pay App Contest via Twitter by following: http://twitter.com/usdol and using the hashtag #EqualPayApps. You can always retweet DOL’s message found here: https://twitter.com/#!/USDOL/status/164445171969302528  or use your own – I have included some suggested language: “Can u create innovative, easy-to-use apps that educate users about pay gap & provide tools to combat it? http://equalpay.challenge.gov/ #equalpayapps”.

 

You can also support the challenge by visiting the Department of Labor’s Facebook account at http://www.facebook.com/departmentoflabor and sharing it with your network.

Peck Slip Pickle Festival

All weekend long we were discussing the return to our roots through local businesses, social responsibility and the generosity of each community.  How entrepreneurs are being funded and yet many of them will become singular lifestyle businesses while others could be $50 million dollars businesses and others might have a billion dollar market cap.   Entrepreneurs are alive and well. 

I wandered down for breakfast (sleeping in as long as possible on Sunday morning is so key) Fred pulled out the Sunday Review of the NYTimes and said, this article is exactly what you have been talking about.  William Deresiewicz calls it Generation Sell.  His article is worth the read.  His theory to how we got here is interesting.  Regardless, I love where we are.  I like what this generation is about from the people who are creating the tools that allow us to live in a virtual global world to the community businesses that make us feel grounded and part of something. 

We couldn't have wrapped up this weekend more perfectly than by going to the Peck Slip Pickle Festival at the New Amsterdam Market with Josh.  This market place that now takes place almost every Sunday completely defines what is happening in the world of small businesses around food.  Everyone is hip, everyone is nice and supportive of each other and the feeling of community is everywhere. 

We basically tasted a bunch of things and I tried to support as many local vendors as possible.  Many people just love to taste and never buy a damn thing. I didn't buy one of these Brooklyn Butcher Blocks but I have the card and I am going to buy one online after I post. 

We began with the Mighty Quinns slow smoked brisket sandwich with pickles and red onions.   Can't seem to find the website to link too but they make the rounds from the Brooklyn Smorgasburg and Flea to other events. 

Next stop was La NewYorkina.  Dried orange peels with cayenne pepper, pumpkin seed brittle and a gruyere cheese empanada with strawberry jelly.  The empanada totally worked and the crust was killer. Their tag line is "handmade with love".  No question about that.

Gotta love Porchetta.  There is nothing like the slow roasted pork chopped in a sandwich mixed with the crispy skin. 

Hot Bread Kitchen that is near and dear to my heart was selling bialys today.  Jessamyn, the brilliant founder, got together with Mimi Sheraton before the market at an event to discuss bialys. Wish I caught that.  Mimi Sheraton is one of the mavens of the food industry, wrote a book about bialys and was the food critic for the New York TImes.

When did everyone become a pickler?  Here are all the entries for the pickle challenge.  There were easily a dozen pickle makers there today.  Ricks Picks is still the leader in this space.  Look for some new products as well as bigger and less expensive products coming to you sometime in the spring from Rick.

The musicians.  Sorry the picture is so blurry.  These guys were singing and crooning like they had just come out of the Appalachians.  You have to see and hear that and immediately think about what is going on in our culture.  We have Occupy Wall street happening only blocks away and this group of hipsters making pickles and crooning.  You can't help but take pause. 

This was great.  P & H Soda.  The guy who was doing this was not a young pup.  He had syrup bottles to sell from ginger to sasparilla.  He was making these amazing soda drinks.  We had a ginger lime which was one of the most refreshing clean drinks I have ever had.

Lamb sausage sandwiches at 18NY.  Brilliant idea of using a blow torch to melt the cheese.  Excellent spicy hot sauce.

Blue Bottle Coffee with sweets to sell and a clever drip system. 

First Field was selling their two wares.  New Jersey tomatoes turned into homemade ketchup and a local Jersey cranberries turned into cranberry sauce.  I bought them both.  The cranberry sauce is delicious although they would need some serious capital to stock up on that product to sell all year.

Peanut Butter & Co is a place we have gone to on Sullivan since they opened. They were certainly pioneers in the artisinal food space. Now selling jars of peanut butter from regular to crunchy to honey to chocolate to cinnamon raisin.  Really good. 

I did not get a chance to taste these but they look so beautiful.  The Dumpling Dutch Diva making profittjeres.  I love the pan she is using. Sweet and savory.

I did pick up some greens, apples and such from the farm stands but our last taste was a grilled gouda sandwich with pieces of pancetta from Morris Truck who you can follow on Twitter because they don't have a website.  Just the browning of the bread alone makes your mouth water.

The market was packed, we bumped into more than a handful of friends taking it all in and making their purchases too.  The New Amsterdam Market which was packed more today than others because of the pickle theme defines the times we live in. Smart people creating businesses that they love.  There is a knee jerk reaction to working in structured businesses like banking and people are embracing their lives and what turns them on by becoming entrepreneurs.  They want to enjoy their lives.  I like these times. 

 

Hamptons Burger Bloodbash, 2011

I hate to sound like a curmudgeon but I missed the Burgerbash of years before.  The event was homegrown and over the years grew but it was always fun because it was more like a bunch of friends and extended friends getting together for a fun afternoon with a little competition thrown in on the side.  This year was a sponsored event that actually sold tickets and was housed at a perfectly groomed pool side home.  I felt a little bit like I was part of a photo shoot for a magazine.  Just not my thing.  Put it this way, there are valet parking by a bunch of kids in uniforms.  This is not my Hamptons. If the tickets helped cover costs, I am sure there is another way. 

The chefs this year were some old favorites and some new entries.  Mo Koyfman, back again with Jim McDuffee from Joseph Leonard ( and one of our favorite chefs in the Wilson household ), Michael White who certainly seemed to be enjoying himself, Wylie Dufresne of WD-50, Zach Chadorow, Cobi Levy, Preston Madison and the Team from Peels, Jesse Gerstein and Marc Vidal.  Many of the judges made a return including the charming Kate Krader from Food and Wine magazine, Marc Murphy, Lee Schrager and one of my faves, Mark Pastore from Pat LaFrieda. 

The grills fired up at 3pm and not a soul was allowed in until that time.  The people at the gate with their walkie talkies took that pretty damn seriously.  Considering Lockhart Steele who had been involved with this event from the get-go and a true leader in the food community was in the car behind me and wasn't allowed in either until 3pm was not a good start for any of us.  Well, particularly me. 

Josh and Emily came with me.  We had an entire house of guests so we couldn't stay through the entire event.  Truth is that after we had tasted a few burgers, none of us even cared if we stayed to try the others.  It just wasn't the Burgerbash we had come to love. 

This was Mo and Jim's burger which is always a classic.

Here was the special sauce in Michael Whites burger.

Wylie Defresne made a classic cheeseburger and I do believe he made the cheese himself.

Here is Lock indulging himself on the Defresne burger.

Unfortunately we didn't taste the rest, we went home.  I heard Mo and Jim were the winners, 3 different years of bringing home the award.  Nice one.

 

 

 

Women Bake Bread!

This Saturday, Hot Bread Kitchen is running an incredibly event called Women Bake Bread.  Should be fantastic. 

Join us on Saturday May 14th  for an all-day artisan bread workshop led by NYC’s premier women head bakers. Learn how to make a sourdough starter, hand twist pretzels and much more from the top female bakers in the industry from:

Grandaisy, Amy’s Breads, French Culinary Institute, Hot Bread Kitchen, Fairway Market, Bread Alone, Le Pain Quotidien

The event will be held from  8:30 to 5:30 at La Marqueta on 115th Street and Park Avenue.

PURCHASE TICKETS OR MAKE AN ONLINE DONATION

For complete workshop schedule view the Women Bake Bread web page

 

Women Bake Bread is generously supported by:

James Beard Great Performances pop-up

If you get a chance, get over to Chelsea Market to the James Beard Great Performances pop-up.  The event is a 27 day event and I believe this is the last week. 

There are plenty of seats.  Something different every day.

Here is Marc Murphy from Landmarc doing a cooking presentation. 

I was with Liz Neumark of Great Performances so I got a little taste of everything.  The vegetables were a morel, sweet pea and asparagus ragout.  Perfect for spring.  Heirloom tomato and watermelon salad with pickled watermelon rind and feta cheese.  French beans sliced with slivered almonds, celery, parmesan and a little lemon truffle vinaigrette.  Fingerling potato salad with roasted red peppers and kalamata olives.  Yellow lentil salad with tomato concasses and mint.  Last but certainly not least was a three bean salad with baby farm greens and a ginger vinaigrette. 

This plate was the meats and a spoon bread.  I really loved the tomato spoon bread with fresh herbs and local goat cheese.  The meat consists of a Hudson Valley duck confit with a blackberry garnish, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola Miss Mamie's Fried Chicken.  Wow.  Olive oil poached salmon with a sauce verte and sliced beef tenderloin with a forrest mushroom cream. 

All of this with a strawberry orange iced tea made my lunch.  You can buy combinations so two vegetables and one meat etc.  I like that.  Gives you a chance to try a few things. 

I love what they did with the space that used to be a restaurant/store.  Hope to see more pop-ups coming to Chelsea Market. 

Boulder Start-up Week

A long time reader of this blog brought this event to my attention.  I know there are a lot of these type of events starting to crop-up around the country but Boulder has definitely been a leader among the pack. 

This week, Boulder Start-up Week is holding a contest to fly 5 entrepreneurs and engineers to come out to Boulder to participate in this event.  The deadline is Monday.  BTW, there have been no women who have applied.  Come on now, here is a great opportunity for women to be part of the start-up world. 

There are over 40 events that will take place over the week.  Here is the criteria for entering the content. 

Are you an engineer or entrepreneur?
1) Why you are interested in coming out to Boulder?
2) A resume or examples of your work (your personal site, etc)
3) Your phone number

Email the answers to the above questions to ryanwanger at gmail. 

I admit, I have never been out to Boulder.   But from what I understand, it is a great place to spend a week thinking about your future. 

 

International Women's Day

This is an incredibly powerful video.  For International Women's Day.

 

 

healthcare

Image via Wikipedia

There are a few things that can really me going and one of them is health care.  The other is education but I am going to stick to health care today. 

Everyone should be covered.  That is pretty much where it stands for me.  Totally black and white.  Why?  Because shit happens and if something ends up happening to you and you aren't covered, you will find yourself in serious financial trouble. 

This past week, the super in our building slipped on ice and broke his leg and fractured his ankle.  Although I really wanted our building to provide health care for all the employees, it wasn't in the budget.  Our building is relatively new and we have yet to even have a meeting of the minds to discuss adding something like health care to the annual costs.  It would increase all of our annual maintenance but personally I could care less because people who are working with us every day should be covered...bottom line.

Our super will be out for a month, needs surgery and also has two young twins at home.  I can't even imagine how he is going to pay the bills that are going to start pouring in.  The stress, the anxiety he must feel and he needs his health as we all do. We have reached out to him so we can help him financially.  I feel absolutely terrible about what has happened.

The latest headline in the past week was how the Republicans want to repeal the Health care bill.  Granted there is no way that we are all going to be happy with the actual bill but at the end of the day, shouldn't we all be covered?  Putting money into a reserve fund for the god forbid accident or unforeseen health problems.  If we don't have health care for all there are other financial costs that are hidden.  People go into bankruptcy because they can't afford their medical bills, people don't have annual check-ups which are the key to proactive care, etc. 

I could go on and on but after seeing what happened this past week to someone we see everyday drives the need for health care straight home.  I am lucky that I don't need to worry about paying for our medical costs and we all get annual check-ups but for those who have that worry hanging over their head every day because they aren't insured makes me very angry.   

 

Closettour

Jenni Avins is creating short videos leading up to fashion week.  This is the first of the series.  I am going to post them as they come in.  I really like what she's doing.  Hoping you will see these videos more places than my blog in the next few weeks...maybe taxis?

CLOSETTOUR Coming Soon: pre-Fashion Week Webisodes! from Jenni Avins on Vimeo.

The Census

Like most good citizens, I filled out the census form.  The count takes place in the month of April so it was relevant to where we were living that month.  We have been receiving phone calls to confirm the information that I filled out on the form.  I finally connected with them today. 

I don't know whether to laugh or cry now that I have completed the phone call.  I assume that like the airport where they randomly decide to pull some aside that our census was just picked out of a group.  The questions they asked were pretty much the exact same questions asked on the census.  They want to confirm that all the information I filled out was true.  Did we all really live in that particular household in the month of March and April 2010, were any of us living in another place at the same time like jail, a nursing home, a different facility, etc.  Before asking everything question the caller would read some statement that was obviously written by a lawyer.  A few other questions were asked like was I sure I didn't have another baby during that time or perhaps have another person living with us.  My answers were basically no, no, no.

At the end of the call I did ask one question, "where are you located?"  The woman on the other end of the phone spoke seriously broken English with a heavy Chinese accent.  I had to keep asking her to repeat the question because I couldn't understand a word she was saying.  She continued to read off the computer screen in front of her and at one point I asked her to spell out one of the words she was saying.  She told me she was only reading a statement, it wasn't a question.  Basically, it was the legal cover my ass Government stuff.  She told me she was located in Georgia.  Not sure if that was Georgia as in the USA but I figured enough probing.

On another note, this was my second call today with someone that I couldn't understand a word they said.  I spoke with a banker today who had such a heavy Indian accent that I felt bad that I couldn't understand a damn thing he said.  I probably asked him to repeat what he said at least five times.  At one point I asked if I could speak to someone else but he refused to budget and just repeated himself again.  I finally got it.

Glad we are keeping the phone banks busy and employing people to do the work but not quite sure how we help the callers articulate the necessary information over the phone in a way that I can understand what they are saying.  It has to be frustrating on their end too.

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• The Census Takers (lewrockwell.com)