Month: September 2024

Anyone remember Beer and Blog…? It’s totally okay if you don’t. It’s been gone for more than a decade. With a bit of a blip here and there. But it — like “the Pint” in the startup generation before it — played a formative role in the last generation of startups and open source technology in Portland. As a community gathering that brought disparate folks together in the same space on a regular basis. Like every single Friday.

The culture around alcohol is changing. And the startup community is changing along with it. What used to be wholly focused on events involving happy hours and alcohol has continued to evolve into a wide range of activities. At the foundation, they’re very much the same: a way to create connection in the community. But these days, that connection can come without the pretense of inebriation.

These days, the Pendleton Roundup isn’t the only major event taking place in northeast Oregon in September. And that’s all thanks to the Oregon Unmanned Aerial Systems Accelerator (UAS) which launched its first competitive demo day as a predecessor to the classic rodeo event.

Might be back to school. Might just be pent up energy and a desire to congregate. Whatever the case, September suddenly feels busy. Like there’s some energy in the community. And — dare I say — the early underpinnings of some momentum…? It’s too soon to tell. But if you’re interested in connecting with folks from the community, here are some upcoming options to do so.

I’m dating myself, but back in the early days of the web, a service called SETI@home was pretty popular. In my own rudimentary description, it was a service that allowed you to contribute your own personal computer’s processing power to the search for extraterrestrial life at times when your machine was idle. Like when a screensaver kicked on.

For those of you who haven’t heard me say it before… Bend Venture Conference is the largest Angel competition in the Pacific Northwest. But it’s not just early stage startups. They have growth stage as well. And they just announced the finalists for the growth stage, this year.

From the earliest stage startups to the most significant stalwarts, Built Festival has become the annual place to meet and engage with people from across the consumer products community. A gathering where food & beverage, apparel, footwear, beauty, and an assortment of consumer product based companies can meet one another — and learn from some amazing speakers.