The inaugural Colorado Celebration of Women In Computing (CCWIC 2008) will bring together students, faculty, and technology leaders from across Colorado and neighboring states to discuss the role of women in today's computing fields, share experiences and strategies for success, and explore issues common to women working in these fields. It will be held April 4-5, 2008 at the Boulderado Hotel in Boulder, Colorado. We entreat you to take part in this historic conference in any of a number of ways.

You should attend if you are interested in learning about the challenges and rewards of computing careers or in advancing technology through broader representation of women. We encourage undergraduate and graduate students with interests in computing to attend and also to submit work in the appropriate categories below. We invite faculty and computing professional leaders to come meet and mentor the next generation of computing professionals.

Download the flyer and help us spread the word to anyone who you think might be interested.

Special Call for Faculty and Professional Leaders: We need faculty from higher education as well as computing professionals who are willing to share their experiences, expertise and advice with the next generation. Appropriate avenues include giving lightning talks, organizing a BoF session, staffing information tables, and engaging in informal discussions with students throughout the conference.

Scholarships for Non-profit Representatives: Representatives of non-profit organizations (excluding students) may apply for $150 registration fee scholarships. The request for a scholarship should include one paragraph on how your attendance at this conference would benefit you or your institution. Scholarship applications should be submitted to ccwic-scholarships@cs.colorado.edu. Questions about scholarships should be directed to ccwic-info@cs.colorado.edu. Scholarship applications are due by March 12, 2008 (new extended deadline). To ensure correct payment, we suggest delaying registration until you've heard about your scholarship application. We recommend, however, that you reserve your hotel room before the Feb.4 room block deadline.

One of the non-profit scholarships was funded by the Colorado Coalition of Gender and Information Technology (CCGIT).

Professionals without scholarship:
   $250.00 Early registration fee through March 3, 2008
   $275.00 Late registration fee starting March 4, 2008

Non-profit professionals with scholarship (see above):
   $100.00 Early registration fee through March 3, 2008
   $125.00 Late registration fee starting March 4, 2008

Students:
     $25.00 Early registration student fee through March 3, 2008
     $35.00 Late registration student fee starting March 4, 2008

Registration fee includes:
     Reception and dinner on Friday, April 4
     Breakfast and lunch on Saturday, April 5
     Housing is provided on Friday, April 4 for all students who register by March 3rd, 2008. Housing for late student registrants will be provided on a space available basis.

Faculty and other non-profit professionals: please pay the registration fee with a tax exempt credit card or check from your organization to ensure tax exempt status.

We have reached our registration limit. REGISTRATION FOR CCWIC 2008 is now closed.

The CCWIC 2008 organizing committee invites contributions in the following categories:

• Papers (Open to students)
• Posters (Open to students)
• Lightning talks (Open to all attendees)
• Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions (Open to all attendees)
• Information table (Open to corporate and academic sponsors)

Both single and multiple-authored submissions are encouraged. Submission details are at the bottom of this page.

CCWIC 2008 welcomes papers from students on any topic in computer science, including social and ethical issues. All submissions will be lightly reviewed. Our goal is to mentor young researchers and to help students gain confidence in the publication process. Selected papers will be presented at the conference in a lecture format involving 15 minutes for the oral presentation with an additional 5 minutes for discussion. All suitable papers will be included in a published CD Proceedings of CCWIC 2008. Papers should be from 2 to 6 pages in length including text, figures, and references. Submission details are at the bottom of this page.

Students are encouraged to submit posters on research, class projects, and work-in-progress. The poster reception will give students the opportunity to discuss their work with conference attendees in an informal setting. Submit a poster abstract of no more than one page summarizing the key idea of your poster. Poster abstracts will be lightly reviewed. Our goal is to help students gain confidence in discussing their work. All suitable poster abstracts will be published in a CD Proceedings of CCWIC 2008. Posters should be no larger than 36x48. Submission details are at the bottom of this page.

Lightning Talks are five-minute mini-presentations on any subject relevant to the conference. A lightning talk may be given by one or more students, faculty, or industry professionals. Submit a brief abstract of no more than one page describing the topic of your talk and listing the name(s) and affiliation(s) of the speakers(s). Submission details are at the bottom of this page.

Birds of Feather (BoF) sessions are informal discussion groups on specific topics of interest. Attendees split into small groups to discuss specific technical or social topics that interest them. Suitable topics for discussion include anything related to computing: careers, education, challenges, student organizations, or a variety of other topics. BoF sessions may be organized by one or more students, faculty, and industry professionals. Submit a brief proposal of no more than one page describing the discussion topic and listing the name(s) and affiliations(s) of the organizer(s). BoF session proposals will be reviewed; due to limited space, only the top BoF proposals will be accepted. Our goal is to engender a lively exchange of ideas and foster a sense of community and mutual support. Submission details are at the bottom of this page.

Sponsorship of CCWIC 2008 offers many benefits to companies, colleges and universities. An important benefit for both corporate and academic sponsors is the opportunity to set up an information table during the career fair on Saturday, April 5th. All sponsors will be assigned a table on which to display information about opportunities in their company or academic programs. Participants at CCWIC 2008 who are not sponsors may submit requests for space at a shared table for brochures or fliers.

Deadline for paper, poster, lightning talks, and BoF topics submissions is Monday, February 18, 2008 (new extended deadline).

Notification of acceptance will be made by Friday, March 7, 2008.

All submissions should be made via the OpenConf site. We prefer that papers be submitted in pdf format; however, papers in Word format are also acceptable. Papers should be formatted using this Word template. All other submissions may be submitted as plain text, as a Word document, or as a pdf file.