So, can I buy you lunch today?

Well, it’s finally here: Portland Lunch 2.0, the Silicon Florist first anniversary edition. And to celebrate, I’d like to buy you lunch. But don’t tell anyone. This will just be our secret.

All that you have to do is meet me down at CubeSpace around noon. That’s it!

Now, it’s no secret that I’m not the best in front of a crowd. So I’m currently wallowing in a near-death tizzy about forgetting to thank some very important people. (And it’s just you and me. Imagine what a wreck I would be if more people decided to show up?)

So, rather than risk it, I thought I’d do what I do marginally well: write a post.

First and foremost, thank you, um, you. Thanks for reading this blog for a year. For the amazing support. And for the true feeling of community. I completely stumbled into this. And I continue to stumble—and be humbled by the amazing community we have here. I feel incredibly lucky. And, I really, really appreciate your support. Thank you.

Thank you to all of the cool side projects and companies Portland and the Silicon Forest. Thank you to each and of every one of you—geeks, bloggers, and leaders—who take a risk, try to bend technology to your will, and in the end, wind up creating some incredibly cool things about which—in my opinion—everyone should know.

I love hearing about what you’re doing. And hopefully, I’m doing a little bit to help other folks understand what all of those late hours and crazy conversations truly mean.

And I’d also like to thank some individuals:

• Thanks to Jake Kuramoto for bringing Lunch 2.0 to Portland. Without him, I wouldn’t have this knot in my stomach right now.
• Thanks to CubeSpace for always being the gracious host for the Portland Web tech community. Without them, we would all (and by all I mean you and me) be trying to stand in my backyard during lunch.
• Thanks to Marshall Kirkpatrick, who has been a true mentor, a connector of dots, and a consummate promoter of the blog. I can honestly say that I’ve never received a better introduction than, “Rick follows everything going in Portland tech. And then he blogs the shit out of it.”
• Thanks to Justin Kistner, who has truly codified a community with Beer and Blog, who has helped Silicon Florist reach a wider audience, and without whom, we’d still all be seeing that little watering-can guy in the header.
• Thanks to Scott Kveton for his Portvangelist magic, his seemingly unshakeable belief in what this blog could be, his guest posts on Silicon Florist, and of course, for his indefatigable (that’s right, I said “indefatigable”) role in all things Open. He definitely keeps me cranking content.
• Thanks to Mike Rogoway and Steve Woodward at The Oregonian, for the link love, the kind support, and for realizing that there is something happening here. Something that’s important. Something that deserves a wider audience.
• Thanks to Darius Monsef, for sharing his insight, his intelligence, his scheming, and his guest posts which always lead me to wonder if my servers are actually going to be able to withstand the traffic.
• Thanks to everyone who has ever written a guest post, thought about writing a guest post, or read a guest post here on Silicon Florist. It’s really rewarding for me to have the opportunity to share other voices and views, and it’s made this blog a much better resource because of that sharing.
• And finally, thanks to everyone who has ever read, subscribed, commented, trackbacked, and shared articles. It is, after all, a conversation.
• And thanks, of course, to my family and friends without whose support I’d never be able to do what I do. “I thought you were a workaholic before, but this year took you to a whole new level.”

I could go on and on and on. Literally. And hopefully each and every one of you—whom I would love to list—know who you are. I hope. I hope I do a good job of letting you know that.

And I’d like to do a better job of that in year two. Making sure that people know not only what’s happening in Portland but who is making things happen. And there’s plenty of other stuff cooking, too. Let’s see if we can’t make this thing even better, shall we?

So come on down to CubeSpace, grab some lunch, and let’s celebrate a wacky, wonderful first year of Silicon Florist. I can’t wait to see what we accomplish in year two.

And don’t forget, Shizzow will be the guest of honor, so beta accounts will be flowing like honey.

Published by Rick Turoczy

More than mildly obsessed with the Portland startup community. Founder and editor at Silicon Florist. Cofounder and general manager at PIE. Follow me on Twitter: @turoczy View all posts by Rick Turoczy