Lunch 2.0 at Eclipse Foundation: Mission Accomplished

Yesterday afternoon, about 70 people came to the see the best kept secret in Portland Open Source, the Eclipse Foundation office.

Turnout seemed a bit lighter than usual, probably due to the lovely Portland weather, but those who did swing by were treated to a casual networking session.

If you’ve attended a Lunch 2.0 in the past, you’ll know we typically do a very short introduction of the host and what they do. Not so this time.

Our hosts, Anne Jacko and Bjorn Freeman-Benson, just wanted to mill around and get to know people. As Bjorn says:

Our goal was to get over the “I didn’t know that Eclipse had an office in Portland” and we met out goal: people know that Eclipse is here in Portland and that we’re nice people and we’re here to help.

All-in-all, it was a successful lunch, and now you know where to find the Eclipse Foundation.

Lunch 2.0 continues to attract a diverse crowd of interesting Portlanders, which is exactly how we like it. Aaron took a bunch of photos, but hasn’t uploaded them to Flickr yet. Watch his Lunch 2.0 set if you’re interested. Update: They are posted now, excellent work as always by the unofficial Lunch 2.0 photographer.

Upcoming Portland Lunch 2.0s
It looks like we’ll be taking a break in December, which is just as well considering a) the weather and b) all the seasonal activity everyone no doubt has planned. We’re back at in January at the OTBC.

• January 14 in the ‘burbs at the new OTBC offices in the Beaverton Round
• February?
• March?

Thanks to all the hosts and people who’ve made this a success. If you want details about hosting, let me know in comments or drop me a tweet. I’m @jkuramot.

And don’t forget that Seattle also has a Lunch 2.0 chapter, organized by Josh Maher. If you get up that way frequently, check them out and report back to me. Their next Lunch 2.0 is November 13 at RocketDog Communications from 4:30-6:00 PM. You can RSVP on Upcoming, natch.

And now for something completely different:

Some of you may know that there’s an Open Source (Bridge) conference brewing for next July to help us all get over the loss of OSCON.

Both Rick and I are assisting with the organization, and the whole crew of organizers will be in Beaverton today at the new OTBC digs in the Beaverton Round hosting a townhall meeting. The meeting starts at 11:30 and should go until about 1.

The townhall is your chance to hear what the conference is all about, meet the organizers and add your two cents. Oh, and if you like, sign up to help us. This conference will be volunteer-driven, start to finish, so we’ll need loads of help.

See you there?