Photo credit Luca Sartoni
Bio
Cami Kaos has always been inquisitive and curious. It’s a quality that has left her enamored with the ever-changing world of technology and the people who build it. That’s how she found herself smack in the middle of the Portland tech scene and startup community more than a decade ago—first with blogs and then events and podcasting.
Back in the day, she focused on innovative podcasts like Strange Love Live and memePDX—and events like 30 Hour Day—and work at local tiny startups Paleo Plan and Tiny Startup Camp. Now, she spends time making order out of chaos in her life, parenting, and work at Automattic.
When she’s not doing all of those things you can find her supporting startup and community events around Portland. Though she doesn’t have the time she once did to dedicate to spotlighting startups and people on her shows, she’s still enchanted by the startup community in Portland and those who keep striving to make it a stronger more inclusive community within the city she loves.
What are you up to?
I work at Automattic as a WordPress community organizer. I coordinate with amazing volunteers from around the globe, helping them to organize the best events possible for the WordPress open source project.
Day to day, I’m primarily focused on WordCamps and the hardworking volunteers who run them. And I’m passionate about ensuring that community and event organizers get the support and guidance they need to make WordPress events as diverse, accessible, and educational as possible.
Why Portland?
When I settled in Portland in 1995, it was for all the wrong reasons, but it was without a doubt the right decision. Portland was my first home by choice, as a kid I was moving around every few years each time the railroad company for which he worked relocated my father. It was tough for the whole family and left me imagining that’s what being an adult was, picking up and moving on every few years.
From the first moment I stepped foot in Portland I knew that was changing. Because of so many things about this city, which in many ways cleverly masquerades as a small town, it’s been my home for more than 20 years. And because of the culture, the people, the river, the ocean, the hiking, the food, and because I can’t imagine another place on earth being more perfectly suited to raising my now teenage kid, I’m going to continue to call it home. Anything else I could say about how amazing it is here has probably been said by every person you meet here and will be said by many more.
Links
Interested in being featured?
Silicon Florist introduces one person, each day of the work week, to the Portland startup community. If you’re interested in being one of those folks, please let us know a little bit more about you and you’ll be selected at random to be featured.
