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Washington Women Technology Network Hosts Election Preview With CBS News’ Robert Costa

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Sumi Somaskanda, Jessica Nigro and Michelle Freeman listen to CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa discuss the 2024 presidential election at Washington Woment Technology Network breakfast hosted by Nigro and Tammy Haddad on June 18.

Washington Women Technology Network founder Tammy Haddad and Jessica Nigro, vice president of external affairs at Lucid Motors, hosted a 2024 election preview breakfast at the House at 1229 on June 18 featuring a conversation with Robert Costa, the chief election and campaign correspondent at CBS News.

Costa shared his experience on the campaign trail and discussed the strategic considerations and challenges the Biden and Trump campaigns face leading up to November’s presidential election.

“This election is not so much about Trump versus Biden, it’s about who is going to get their core voters to come out in these key battleground states,” said Costa. 

Reema Dodin, Sen. Brian Schatz’s chief of staff, Deputy Irish Ambassador Orla Keane, Jessica Nigro and Uber’s senior vice president of marketing and public affairs Jill Hazelbaker Franks

Costa also said the Biden administration’s efforts to engage labor unions are critical to his campaign, called North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum “very well positioned” to be Donald Trump’s vice presidential pick, and discussed whether the former president would show up to the first presidential debate this month.

Guests included Monumental Sports partner and Carl M. Freeman Companies CEO Michelle Freeman; Jill Hazelbaker Franks, senior vice president of marketing and public affairs at Uber; General Catalyst’s Teresa Carlson and Maryam Mujica; Tina Anthony, senior vice president of marketing and communications at the NobleReach Foundation; Sen. Mitt Romney’s chief of staff Liz Johnson; Sen. Brian Schatz’s chief of staff Reema Dodin; Sen. Mark Warner’s chief of staff Elizabeth Falcone; Betsy Fischer Martin, executive director of American University’s Women & Policy Institute; Muriel Chase, the director of broadcast media the White House; Julissa Marenco, GlobalWIN founder Helen Milby; BBC Washington anchor Sumi Somaskanda; YouTube’s head of public policy Alexandra Veitch; former first lady Michelle Obama’s communications director Crystal Carson; Irish Deputy Ambassador Orla Keane; Lyft’s head of global public policy Heather Foster; and Washington Post Live executive producer Kathy O’Hearn.

Tina Anthony, senior vice president of marketing and communications at the NobleReach Foundation, and Heather Foster, head of global public policy at Lyft
Co-hosts Tammy Haddad and Jessica Nigro with Robert Costa at the House at 1229

Washington Women Technology Network Hosts Zignal Labs’ Josh Ginsberg and the Washington Post’s James Hohmann

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The Washington Women Technology Network gathered today to hear from two of the leading technology and media voices on the 2016 election. James Hohmann of the Washington Post’s Daily 202, and Josh Ginsberg of data analytics firm Zignal Labs headlined the gathering of media, politics, and technology insiders. The event was hosted by Connie Milstein, Hilary Rosen, Niki Christoff, and Tammy Haddad. Betsy Fischer Martin, co-host along with Tammy Haddad of Bloomberg: Masters in Politics podcast, interviewed Hohmann and Ginsberg to discuss the ways in which social media allows news stories to break in the most unexpected places.

Ginsberg finds that even the most obscure news sources can drive conversations that break out into the mainstream media. In the democratized world of Twitter and Facebook, an independent blogger in New Zealand with a relatively small following can be just as influential as the New York Times when it comes to making news go viral. When it comes to the presidential race and social media Ginsberg said, “Sanders & Trump are driving their own social media conversations. Others, not so much.”

Former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher addressed the issue of Twitter and Facebook users targeting superdelegates, “Messages targeting superdelegates are nasty. It’s harassment. Names & addresses are online. Mostly targeting women,” that are coming from fervent Sanders supporters.

James Hohmann finds that Zignal Labs’ technology can help separate the signal from the noise, “When following so many people, it’s hard to know what’s actually breaking through.”

Also on display off some of the latest technology coming out of Zignal Labs, including their groundbreaking analysis of emoji-use on Twitter. Zignal Labs has found a way to show which emojis Trump supporters use the most and which ones Hillary Clinton supporters use when discussing the candidate.

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Subscribe to James Hohmann’s Daily 202 here.

Find out more about Zignal Labs here.

You can subscribe to Tammy Haddad and Betsy Fischer Martin’s Bloomberg: Masters in Politics podcast here.

Washington Insider Podcast Featuring Jon Meacham

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Jon Meacham is the author of the New York Times best-selling biography of President George Herbert Walker Bush, “Destiny and Power.”

Mr. Meacham was interviewed at a Washington Women Technology Network event by WWTN co-founder Tammy Haddad and Megan Murphy, Bloomberg DC Bureau Chief.

Questions were also taken from the audience in the Gallatin Room of The Jefferson Hotel in Washington, DC on November 20, 2015.

Download the podcast on AudioBoom or iTunes.

Jon Meacham SRO at The Jefferson Hotel

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The Jefferson Hotel, Washington Women Technology Network, an interview with Jon Meacham

The Jefferson Hotel, Washington Women Technology Network, an interview with Jon Meacham

Pulitzer prize-winning biographer Jon Meacham packed in admirers at a Washington Women Technology Network “Cocktails and Conversation” gathering on Friday, November 20th at The Jefferson Hotel in Washington, DC.

Meacham’s new biography, Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, is already a New York Times Bestseller. Meachan spent 17 years writing the book with access to President Bush’s personal diaries. He interviewed the president many times over the years, his family, colleagues and political enemies. Meacham’s previous biography of President Andrew Jackson, American Lion, won him the Pulitzer Prize.

Meacham, a Washington favorite, began his writing career at The Washington Monthly and became the youngest Newsweek editor where he created legendary covers and controverises with politicians and people of all stripes. He is currently and editor at Random House.

Co-hosted by Connie Milstein, co-founder of Dog Tag Bakery, Democratic commentator Hilary Rosen,and Julie Goon from Anthem, the crowd watched Megan Murphy, Bloomberg Bureau Chief and Tammy Haddad, WHCInsider editor, interview Meacham as he discussed the decades of public service and political moments that made President Bush’s career. It was an insider’s inside conversation detailing their triumph’s and disappointments. The interview will be uploaded to WHCInsider.com next week.

The Friday afternoon crowd included politicos and media. Stephanie Cutter, Neera Tanden, Holly Page, Kelley McCormick, Jill Zuckman, Jennifer Maguire, Ceci Connelly, Emily Lenzer and David Chavern. Long time Obama White House aides Ferial Govashiri and Ellie Schafer and the State department’s Nick Schmit.

Stpehanie Cutter, Hilary Rosen, Neera Tanden

Obama White House aide Ferial Govashiri and former Laura Bush CoS Anita McBride

Obama White House aide Ferial Govashiri and former Laura Bush CoS Anita McBride

Bushies including Anita McBride, whose husband Tom McBride, was a longtime personal aide to President Bush.

Journalists seen were James Hohmann, Glenn Thrush, Hadas Gold, Ruth Marcus, Henry Schuster, Jackie Kucinich and Carl Cannon from Real Clear Politics.

Shailagh Murray at Washington Women Technology Network Lunch

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Washington Women Technology Network hosted a special lunch featuring an off-the-record conversation with Shailagh Murray, a senior adviser to President Obama. Co-host Karen Appleton, SVP of Box, welcomed the crowd which included women CEO’s and executives in Washington for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference which ended earlier in the day.

Shailagh Murray, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporter is a veteran of Vice President Biden’s office before she moved to the West Wing earlier this year. Washington Women Technology Network was founded by Connie Milstein, Tammy Haddad and Hilary Rosen to bring together women leaders in technology, politics and media.

Previous guests included Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar, Kara Swisher, April Ryan, and Megan Smith.

Tech guests included Google’s Niki Christoff and Twitter’s Jenna Golden. Traditional media guests included Betsy Fischer Martin, Trail Talk, Lisa Sherman, CEO of Ad Council, Carol Melton, Time Warner, Shelley Brindle, HBO, Robin Sproul, ABC News, and Nick Massella, NewsHour.

Other special guests were Kara Goldin, Hint Water, Kelley McCormick, SKDK, Wendy Clark, Coke’s Sparkling Brands President, and Juleanna Glover, who needs no title.

Trail Talk with Senator Amy Klobuchar

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No stranger to life on the campaign trail, two term Democratic Senator from Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar, spoke to Trail Talk during a special gathering of Washington Women Technology Network.

Senator Klobuchar spoke frankly about the challenges facing women running for political office, especially when it comes to raising money in what has traditionally been a man’s world. She also shared stories about balancing life in the U.S. Senate with raising a teenage daughter and moving her family to Washington, D.C.

Getting a big laugh from the women in attendance, Senator Klobuchar described how her daughter Abigail coined the term “submarine mom” (vs. “helicopter mom”) to describe her parenting style: “Lurking below the surface and coming up unexpectedly.”

And since the previous evening’s CNN debate featuring Republican presidential hopefuls was the talk of the afternoon, Senator Klobuchar weighed in on the GOP field, Donald Trump, and her own party’s nomination battle between Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders.

Download the Trail Talk Podcast from this event on AudioBoom or iTunes.

Read more about the event via washingtonpost.com: Sen. Amy Klobuchar calls her new memoir ‘the anti-Trump book’

Washington Women Technology Network honors Megan Smith, White House Chief Technology Officer

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It was a mix of Silicon Valley and Washington veterans at the Jefferson Hotel for the Washington Women Technology Network (WWTN) lunch honoring Megan Smith, the White House Chief Technology Officer.

Connie Milstein, Hilary Rosen and Tammy Haddad co-hosted the event with Karen Appleton, SVP Industry and Founder of Box.org. Guests heard from Smith, the president’s top technology adviser, about plans to bring technology solutions to some of the country’s biggest challenges.

“We have started a ‘cyber-sprint’…very quickly to audit everything that’s going on and make a couple really fast upgrades that we need to just fill a bunch of holes. … I think what you’re seeing is a real collaborative set of people coming together and starting to work together,” Smith explained.

Smith is also leading the charge to bring more experienced technology minds to Washington: “The great news is we have through…the Presidential Innovation Fellows and U.S. Digital Service…a bunch of rock star people who are at the top of their game.”

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Haddad asked Smith to explain how she is attracting young talent to Washington: “We just did our first map hack-a-thon in the White House, and we were working on MapGive which is the State Department…The community of mappers mapped, in 48 hours, 150,000 buildings and over 40,000 kilometers of roads in Nepal to help responders. So this idea of the crowd and leveraging the crowd to get things done. …Mapping is important for so many things. …The reason I bring this up is that GOTUS (Geographer of the United States)…what does GOTUS want? What does POTUS want? George Washington was an incredible geographer and surveyor. We’ve always had tech. Washington started the Army Corps of Engineers before the country was founded. …We’ve always used technology, we just need to keep remembering that. So constancy of values…constancy of re-invention. …You can go get the American people interested…as long as you’re letting them come do the things they believe will be the right choices and giving them space. That’s why it’s important to make sure we have technical people at the principal level.”

Smith on lessons learned from healthcare.gov: “It’s really to the President’s credit that…the experience they had…to see the more agile way that techies work now…they’re like, ‘hey we’re missing this in the leadership and in government. …So that gave us the ability to establish the U.S. Digital Service which is now rolling out. …What we want is Americans to come and rotate through.”

Haddad asked Smith to explain what they are doing to get better Internet access across the country: “We have a project called Connectivity Deserts, which is where the Internet is missing. …One of the best things is modernization of the E-Rate program…the way Federal dollars are coming out of things like the Universal Fund. …There is this pool that can flow to different things. …One of the things that we’re adding into that conversation as the CTO team is finding tech people who are those connectivity teammates who tend to live in the vendor world, and having a few of them on our team…so we are informed by someone who speaks the language.”

Download the Washington Insider podcast from the event.

WWTN guests included FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, Didem Nisanci, Jen Kuhn, Kelley McCormick, Juleanna Glover, Holly Page, Melissa Moss and Heather Podesta.

Top government technology experts included Box’s Sonny Hashmi, a former General Services Administration CTO; Ann Dunkin, CIO of the EPA; and Christine Harada, acting Chief of Staff at the GSA.

Media was well represented by Betsy Fischer Martin, Jennifer Maguire and Kim Kingsley.

Washington Women Technology Network is a women’s leadership forum founded by Connie Milstein, Tammy Haddad and Hilary Rosen to include women in technology, media and politics.

View photos from the event.

Watch the livestream from the event.

Washington Women in Technology Network Welcome Bloomberg's Jonathan Alter

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Jonathan Alter, author of the first 2012 campaign book “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies,” came to the Jefferson Hotel in Washington, D.C. to meet with the Washington Women in Technology Network.

Alter went into stories not reported as in-depth outside of Washington. He discussed how the Romney campaign rejected strategies from a top Republican digital expert. He went in depth into anecdotes about both campaigns; their competing digital strategies and offered to have readers call him out on events–like he was on Friday by Fox’s Roger Ailes in Politico.

Speaking to a luncheon co-hosted by Hilary Rosen, Becky Fischer-Martin, Constance Milstein, Holly Page and Kim Kinglsey. Guests included Facebook’s Marne Levine and Sarah Feinberg, Regina Hopper, Kelley McCormick, Emily Goodin, Stephanie Green and Kim Kingsley.

The full interview below:

You can see more photos from Monday’s luncheon here: