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Category: Events

Have a Happy Halloween at Beer… err Bat & Blog

Rick Turoczy on October 31, 2008

Bat and BlogEvery week around this time, a group of Portland blogging and tech types gather at the Green Dragon to end the week on a good note with Beer and Blog.

This week, it just so happens that Beer and Blog falls on Halloween which has it—like a victim of an unfortunate zombie bite—transforming into the ghoulishly clever “Bat and Blog.”

But wait, there’s more:

Now, if you are like me (meaning, not into intricate costumes that involve actual planning) you may find yourself dressing up as yourself again this year (meaning, sans costume). All that thinking ahead for costume ideas really bums me out, so I usually skip the whole thing.

This year, however, I came up with an easy-to-create Halloween getup of the non-lame variety that lets you participate in the celebrated tradition of being someone else for a day. The best part is that this costume idea is of someone we all admire, whom men and women alike want to emulate. Someone smart, popular, good looking and super-dooper nice, who supports and promotes the Portland tech scene with unwavering love. A bona fide tour de force.

Who are they describing? You’ll just have to head over to the blog and see.

Suffice it to say, I’m buying. But you’ll have to show up to find out if that’s a trick or a treat.

An evening of Color, Final Cut Studio Color, that is

Rick Turoczy on October 31, 2008

[Editor’s note: Thanks to Rebecca Gerendasy for this guest post. Looks like a very cool event!]

If you’ve been struggling with or wondering about the amazingly cool software, Final Cut Studio Color—Apple’s new professional color grading application—this is the meeting for you!

Jack Chavez is going to be here in town to give us a tour. Jack is a Creative Director and Producer at Intel Corporation where he has worked in-house for eight years. He was an early adopter of the software program that came to be known as Apple Color and has mostly recovered from the trauma of trying to finish high visibility videos with flaky beta software. Jack believes the future looks bright for Color.

And we’re excited to have Jack here to share some of his expertise and enthusiasm at the next Portland Final Cut Pro User Group.

If you create any type of media—be it for the web, mobile, or more traditional outlet—this meeting might hold the spark you are looking for to help your images stand out. Color is a professional color grading application. Once costing mid-5 digit range as a stand alone, it now comes packaged with Final Cut Studio 2. Once again, the tools are within our grasp, but how to use them and use them well. Whether you have Color in your arsenal of video applications or not, this will be a meeting worth coming to just to get a taste of the possibilities.

Date: Wednesday, November 5th
Meeting Time: 6:00 – 8:30p
Location: PCC/Cascade Campus MAHB, Room 104
Cost: Free to members & students w/ID. $5 for non-members
For more info: http://www.pdxfcpug.com/meetings.html

Portland Final Cut Pro User Group is an ongoing educational meeting the first Wednesday of the month at PCC/Cascade Campus. The meetings are geared toward learning about different aspects of editing, filmmaking, and also to give another opportunity to network with others in the film community. Our membership ranges from beginners to veteran professionals. For more information, or to be added to the monthly eNewsletter, drop us a note at: info@pdxfcpug.com

Open Source Bridge: Get involved in bridging the gap

Rick Turoczy on October 30, 2008

We—and I’m using the royal “we”—were all a bit taken aback when O’Reilly decided to pull the plug on OSCON in Portland.

Was it something we said? Did we no longer have the “open source” cred? What did we do? Why hast thou forsaken us?

Confusion reined.

But it was only a momentary lapse.

You see, if there’s one thing I love about Portland, it’s our entrepreneurial spirit. We weren’t just going to sit around and cry in our microbrewed beers about it. We Portlanders are going to figure out how to do something else. We’ll show them.

And true to form, here’s Open Source Bridge, a new grassroots-organized open-source-developer-oriented conference that’s slated to be held in Portland, next summer.

What are we planning? I’m glad you asked. Let me let some of the Open Source Bridge organizers tell the story:

Selena Deckelmann writes:

I love conferences. And I love Portland. Maybe you can guess what’s coming next.

During an intense brainstorming session at Side Project To Startup, a group of concerned Portlanders drew together a plan for a new conference. We packed a tiny room, and had a heated discussion about what we wanted, what Portland needed, and how we might do it. By the end of the session, Audrey Eschright and I agreed to co-chair. And with the support of Portland’s incredible tech community, we knew we could make it happen.

Audrey Eschright writes:

I am excited to be co-chairing this event. Portland is a fabulous place to be working on open source projects, and we’re the ideal community to build an inclusive, diverse conference that focuses on developers’ interests and needs.

Dawn Foster offers:

Were you sad and dismayed to hear that OSCON was moving out of Portland? Are you looking for more open source events to attend? Would you like an open source conference organized by the community? Want one more tech event to attend in July? Need an excuse (any excuse) to visit lovely Portland, Oregon in July? Do you like to help organize events for fun in your spare time?

If you answered yes to any of my obnoxious questions above, I have a great solution for you: The Open Source Bridge event.

Oh, yes. It’s on, my friend.

I’ve been lucky enough to be involved in some of the early planning. And there’s a great team working to make things happen.

Who?

Well Reid Beels, Professor Bart Massy, Jake Kuramoto, Kelly Guimont, Adam Duvander, and of course the folks quoted above. And the team is growing, adding Ward Cunningham, Irene Schwarting, Harvey Mathews, and Clay Neal (from the City of Portland) since our initial meetings.

Now, we need some help from you.

That’s right. You. We need you.

If this sounds like an interesting concept and you’re interested in contributing some of your time, join us at CubeSpace tonight (October 30) at 7:30 PM to take part in the Town Hall.

The Town Hall will give the organizers a chance to chat with you about the proposed event. And give you a chance to voice your opinions on what you’d like to see. It will also likely give us a chance to guilt you into helping convince you to join the cause and volunteer some time.

Can’t make it? No worries. Just make sure to let one of us know how you’d like to help.

Open Source Bridge is going to be an amazing event. I can tell, already. And I’m already looking forward to seeing you there. Even though I’m not even really sure where there is yet.

At the very least, I hope to see you at CubeSpace on Thursday, October 30.

Where I catch up on WhereCamp PDX

Rick Turoczy on October 22, 2008

Last weekend, Portland played host to all sorts of geolocation goodness at WhereCamp PDX. And proud as I was to sponsor this unique event, I was unable to attend.

What to do? Read the blog posts about the event, of course! And since I’m tracking down those posts, anyway, I thought it might be nice to share them with you, gentle reader.

Let’s get going, shall we?

  • WhereCamp PDX Roundup
    “As you can probably guess, WhereCamp focuses on geo-geeking. It began in 2007 as a way to extend and build on conversations and topics presented at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference.”
  • WhereCamp PDX Takes on PacManhattan
    “On the final day of WhereCamp, it was time for location-based games. After a late night of geohacking, several WhereCampers returned early to play PacManhattan, where city streets become the game board.”
  • Oh my gosh, it’s like being immersed in the brochure online!
    “So the conversation started off all over the board: discussing whether Google was a brand-neutral service or whether or not it over-shadowed the brand; why anyone would want to push branded content to the web; the cost-benefit analysis of any custom solution (including Google or Flash); the perceived need to require Geo-spatial accuracy and so on.”
  • Wherecamp PDX | Paul Bissett on Illuminating the Dark Geoweb
    “These are notes from the WhereCamp Portland morning session on dark content and the geoweb. It was led by Paul Bissett, CEO of WeoGeo. About 15 people were at the session, and brought up some very interesting points.”
  • WhereCamp PDX Resources
    “This Yahoo! Pipe for WhereCamp PDX [built by Amber Case] grabs FlickrPhotos, the Google Map Location, drop.io session note updates, and Twitter Feeds.”

For more details on the event, visit WhereCamp PDX.

Lunch and Unexpected Careers at the Art Institute

Rick Turoczy on October 16, 2008

Yesterday, the Art Institute of Portland graciously hosted what looked like about 175 people in their aptly titled “open space”.

We came for the lunch, but got an unexpected bonus, a career fair. Turns out the “open space” is so ginormous it can house two events at the same time, very nicely.

Some explanation: the AI was holding a career fair for their students in the same space as Lunch 2.0, overlapping us by about an hour or so. Aside from a little confusion, sharing the space, separated by portable wall-boards worked really well. It may have been fortuitous for at least a few people attending Lunch 2.0, since I heard one group mention they were looking for design interns.

The format was a bit different this time, mostly by accident. This was the first lunch table style setting, which seemed to work well for conversations, even though it crimped the milling around time we usually get.

Also, since the career fair was in full swing when we started the lunch, it was too noisy to do my usual five second, stumbing intro and the host’s welcome. So, we did them later, after people had eaten and the noise had died down a bit. I actually think this is a better format, not that there’s a playbook or anything, just an observation.

This Lunch 2.0 featured a swag drawing for Art Institute gear, won by Bill Jackson and Manuel Espino.

Thanks to Allena Baker, Lulu Hoeller and the Art Institute for hosting a highly successful and enjoyable Lunch 2.0, and to Bram for connecting the dots for us.

And finally, thanks to Don Park for providing some shots (and a video), in the absence of the unofficial Lunch 2.0 photographer, Aaron Hockley, who apparently is on vacation. If you liked the food, the event was catered by Kam & Kam Catering.

Upcoming Portland Lunches 2.0

  • November 5 at the Eclipse Foundation
  • January 14 in the ‘burbs at the new OTBC offices in the Beaverton Round

Looks like we may be unintentionally taking December off, unless someone out there wants to host a Lunch 2.0 in December. Interested? Let me know in comments.

Of course, other comments and inquires should also be directed to the comments.

Lunch 2.0 at the Art Institute is Wednesday

Rick Turoczy on October 13, 2008

It’s been a while since this Lunch 2.0 was announced, but the big day has nearly arrived.

aiipdx.png

So in case you’ve forgotten, the kind people at the Art Institute of Portland will be opening their doors to the eighth iteration of Portland Lunch 2.0 this coming Wednesday, the 15th, from 12 to 2 PM.

Ideally, you’ve already RSVP’ed on Upcoming, and you know where you’re going. It’s not too hard to find, right across the street from the Portland Armory, in the Pearl District. Parking may be a bit dicey, so carpool, MAX it, or bring your parking space radar.

As previously mentioned, the space is very big. So, feel free to bring along your coworkers, but if at all possible, RSVP with an accurate number to help with the food planning. The Art Institute’s Fall term just began, so perhaps some students will come by to mingle as well.

One person you can definitely expect to see on Wednesday is Art Institute graduate Bram Pitoyo, who convinced the Art Institute to host this Lunch 2.0. Bram recently had his bike and laptop stolen, and Amber Case has rallied the Portland tech community to come to his aid. Collecting small donations over the course of four days last week, she suprised him with $400 at Beer and Blog last Friday.

If you haven’t met Bram or Amber, take the opportunity on Wednesday over lunch.  Based on Upcoming, it should be a nice turnout, and I hope to see you there.

Upcoming Portland Lunch 2.0s

  • November 5 at the Eclipse Foundation
  • January 14 in the ‘burbs at the new OTBC offices in the Beaverton Round

Thanks to all the hosts and people who’ve made this a success. If you want details about hosting, let me know in comments.

Venture Northwest 2008: AboutUs, Collaborative Software Initiative, Revelation, SplashCast make the cut

Rick Turoczy on October 8, 2008

Venture NorthwestMy favorite thing about entrepreneurs? They’re scrappy.

So today, it came as a pleasant surprise that—even in light of the not-so-hot economic environment—our plucky local organization of entrepreneurs, the Oregon Entrepreneur Network (OEN), has chosen to unveil the presenters for the upcoming Venture Northwest 2008.

“The companies presenting at the conference represent some of the most innovative and creative companies from across the Northwest,” said John Hull, chair of the OEN Venture Northwest 2008 and managing director at OVP Venture Partners. “Some of these companies are seeking their first institutional venture financing while others have already received first rounds of capital from top-tier venture firms. In total, this list of companies represents well the broad spectrum of investment opportunities that flourish in our region”

Not only that, but I’m happy to report that there are some Web startups—and at least one open-source-focused company—on the list.

And four out of 14 isn’t bad.

So which of the Silicon Florist crowd got a nod to present?

Interested in who else is presenting? The Oregonian‘s Mike Rogoway has a complete list of the 14 Venture Northwest presenters with links.

OEN’s Venture Northwest is the premier forum for new and emerging investment opportunities in exciting companies from Oregon, Washington, and throughout the Pacific Northwest. This annual conference draws institutional investors and investment bankers from across the western US who are interested in the emerging companies that the Northwest has to offer. Companies that have presented at Venture Oregon have raised over $1.3 billion in venture capital since 1996 and over $68 million in angel investment.

For more information, visit OEN’s Venture Northwest.

Time to find that creative spark: Ignite Portland 4 submissions are open

Rick Turoczy on September 29, 2008

Ignite Portland

Well, well, well. I was just thinking about how it was almost October. And that meant that it was almost November. And that meant it was almost time for the next Ignite Portland.

And lookie what just got announced today: Ignite Portland 4 presentation submissions are now open!

If you want to share your passion with some of the most brilliant minds in Portland (and all 500 of them,) here’s your chance.

Submit An Ignite Portland 4 Talk!

We’re going to close submission at midnight on October 14, and announce the selected talk lineup on October 20.

So there you go, kids. It’s open! Get going!

I’m looking forward to seeing what you propose.

For more information on the incredible experience that is Ignite, visit the Ignite Portland site.

Like WordPress and OpenID? wp-openid 3.0 to launch at Demolicious

Rick Turoczy on September 29, 2008

I’m always saying that—with companies like Vidoop and JanRain here in town—Portland is the de facto hub for the world of OpenID.

And clearly after last weekend, we’ve got a lot of love for the WordPress platform, as well.

So where better to launch the latest version of the leading OpenID plugin for WordPress—wp-openid—than Portland?

wp-openid launch

Will Norris, the lead developer of the wp-openid plugin, happens to be in town this week. And, as such, he has just announced that he will be launching wp-openid 3.0 this Wednesday at Portland Web Innovators “Demolicious!“, the new hip spot to unveil cool new tools here in town.

What does wp-openid do?

This plugin allows verified OpenIDs to be linked to existing user accounts for use as an alternative means of authentication. Additionally, commenters may use their OpenID to assure their identity as the author of the comment and provide a framework for future OpenID-based services (reputation and trust, for example).

So, if you’re a WordPress type who’s been using OpenID or who is interested in deploying OpenID on your blog, make sure to attend Demolicious! on Wednesday night at NEMO Design. Even if you’re just OpenID curious, I’d highly encourage you to attend.

Plus, as always, there will be some other cool stuff being demoed there, as well.

For more information on the event or to RSVP, visit Portland Web Innovators Demolicious! on Upcoming. For more information on the current version of the plugin, see wp-openid in the WordPress plugins directory.

WordCamp Portland (#wordcampdx) 2008: Ironically, words escape me

Rick Turoczy on September 29, 2008

WordCamp PortlandI’d love to prattle on and on about how great and amazing and inspiring WordCamp Portland 2008 was. But I can’t.

I’m simply at a loss for words.

Yes, it was that good.

And I remain ever so proud to have had the chance to sponsor and participate.

What was WordCamp Portland, you ask? Well, it was a very long day of love and learning focused on WordPress—a popular open source blogging platform and content management system. Throughout the day, more than 150 WordPress enthusiasts and soon-to-be enthusiasts shared their ideas, their problems, and their insights.

And, perhaps the most amazing thing? It was almost single-handedly willed into being by Aaron Hockley, following a conversation at Beer and Blog. And with the support of team of volunteers and sponsors, he and his team turned WordCamp Portland into a truly incredible event.

I’d love to tell you more, but honestly, I can’t really do it justice. So—as is my general wont after these types of things—I’m going to round up the stuff that other people are saying.

Let’s let them do the talking:

  • Twitter posts tagged with #wordcampdx (It was the topic on Twitter throughout the day.)
  • Flickr photos tagged with wordcampdx
  • Thank YOU (WordCamp Portland)
    “We’re wrapping things up here at WordCamp Portland, but I wanted to post a quick thank you to everyone. Thanks to our sponsors for providing cash and services that helped make this possible. A big thank you to all of our speakers, some of whom traveled quite a distance, for sharing their expertise and helping to facilitate a ton of great discussion. Thanks to all of our attendees – hopefully you learned something, and we appreciate all of your knowledge that you’ve shared.”
  • Presentations Links Roundup (WordCamp Portland)
    “Many of the WordCamp Portland presenters referenced links, information, or slides which are shared online. Here’s a roundup of pointers to the presentation information, roughly in the order presented…”
  • Liveblogging WordCamp Portland (Critical Games)
    “8:33am: We’re all set up in the main conference room at CubeSpace, bagels and coffee in hand… slide on the project points out that if you want to search on twitter or flickr or anywhere, the hashtag to look for is …. “
  • Liveblogging WordCamp PDX (Eric Stoller)
    ” The tag/hashtag for WordCamPDX (only 1 p) is wordcampdx. Aaron Hockley is kicking off the event promptly at 8:36. Very diverse group of attendees.”
  • WordCamp PDX (superfancy)
    “Anyway, the reason I attended was for information overload! And I was not disappointed in the least.”
  • WordCamp PDX! Resources and Morning Recap (Hazelnut Tech Talk)
    “Saturday morning cartoons and sleep were replaced with a hundred bloggers at CubeSpace. We woke up collectively to a series of speeches, tips, and new friends we didn’t expect.”
  • What I learned from WordCamp Portland (OurPDX)
    “Sitting in the sold out room for WordCamp Portland I was struck by just how dynamic and exciting the internet community in Portland has become. There’s a part of me that doesn’t want to write about it, doesn’t want the rest of the world to know about our little secret (but I think the secret is already out). Big things are happening here in Portland. When I say big things, I don’t mean some major Internet company is going to be opening its doors, and I don’t mean there will be some huge announcement of some grand Oregon based product. The magic of what’s happening here is that it’s a million little exciting things that all add up to a very significant and flourishing community.”
  • I survived WordCamp Portland (My Whim is Law)
    “Yesterday, I met other people who are in the business of changing lives – their own, or those of the audiences or organizations or causes they represent. I added several more people to my Twitter stream, or shared my knowledge with them (and vice versa.) My life is immeasurably richer because I blog. It’s immeasurably easier because I use WordPress.”
  • WordCamPDX Wrap-Up (Critical Games)
    “The short of it: it was a REALLY fantastic event, and I’m very glad I went (it would have been worth coming down from Seattle for were I still in Seattle, let me put it that way). As can be gathered from my previous post, there was a virtual wealth of information regarding blogging, and thats not even getting into the deluge of tweets on Twitter regarding it — at several points in the day, we were anywhere from the number one to the number three item in Twitter Trends, even beating out the political stuff the day after the debates. And the attendance was just 150 people(ish), so that should be saying something on just how much everyone was tweeting. I about doubled my Twitter Follows/Followers.”
  • #wordcampdx Changes Lives (TechnoEarthMama)
    “Today I attended the excellent conference/unconference WordCamp Portland, and was amazed.”
  • WordcamPDX (Vin Thomas)
    “If you don’t know by now, I use wordpress for this blog. I love it! It is really one of the great developments in open source web development.”
  • I learned a little something (Moody Meow)
    “Entering Wordcamp I was almost overwhelmed by the sheer number of people. They announced that they would let more people in, and I’m glad. I almost registered too late, intending on going, but trying to convince myself not to go because I wouldn’t know a soul there.”
  • chrysalis (Cami Kaos)
    “On Saturday I attended WordCamPDX which answered a lot of questions that needed answering and raised about 6,000 more that I’m looking in to. I’ll have an entire post on my experience at word camp later in the week but for now I leave you with this picture of Verso and I taken by Jane Wells.”
  • At WordCamp Portland 2008 (BoxedTofu)
    “Yes, I am a tech / blogging geek. That is why I’m spending the day in a sketchy part of Portland, listening to people talk about WordPress (an awesome blogging platform). If you’re looking to start a blog, it is what you should probably use (open source, plugins, community support, so good).”
  • Wordcamp PDX is over… time to go home (BoxedTofu)
    “Wordcamp PDX was a smash hit. I made some new friends, learned a few new blogging-related things, and saw a lot of people with iPhones. Although I dont’ have much else to say, I did want to show a couple of images.”
  • Josh’s Lifelog for 2008-09-21 (Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls)
  • Tying your tubes (Steel Bridge Rag)
    “Just joined FriendFeed. Now we’re onto LifeStream, which sends anything I do to one place. These geeks move FAST! Overload!!!!”
  • What is it about blogging platform conferences? (Develonizer)
    “I’ve been to many tech confrences, the only two that have really creep-eeed me out have been Drupalcamp and now wordcamp. I think that they evangelizm is all with good intent, and I’m not trying to be cynical, but think about it. Everyone who has payed $10, and showed up @ 840, so I think that we can assume that there is some level of love for the topic of the day, wordpress(wp).”
  • Unlucky in photo competitions, lucky in radishes (Gwyn’s Blog)
    “It was cheap, cheerful, informative & well-organised. I am proudly wearing my free T-Shirt today. More conferences should have kegs of beer available from lunch time onwards too. Talking of which, I learnt about a Portland institution called Beer and Blog with weekly Friday meetups in PDX, so I might investigate that too.”
  • At Wordcamp Portland Today (Viper007Bond)
    “13-14 hours later I’m home. What an awesome day. I’d write more, but I’m burned out and not big on word anyway. See me on Twitter as well as the #wordcampdx tag for a summary. So totally going next year.”
  • WordCamp Portland Wrapup (Thieves Like Us)
    “More than any nugget of information I got during a talk, I think the most valuable thing I took away was a general sense of what is possible to accomplish with the framework in general.”
  • Finding voice (Art Wells)
    “I went to Wordcamp Portland yesterday. Though I couldn’t stay for the whole event, and I’m far from a wordpress power user, it was still quite inspirational. I met good, positive people and saw some shining examples of people doing what they loved with good tools.”
  • WordPress Presentations from WordCamPDX (Webmonkey)
    “WordCamp wrapped up in Portland over the weekend and all signs point to it being a success. Apparently the #wordcampdx hash tag made the front page of Twitter, if that’s any indication. Perhaps a better measure is the huge list of presentation wrap-ups, including slides, notes, videos, and more.”
  • The Fairy BlogMother Lorelle (Liz Strauss)
    “On the Worldwide Day of Play, Lorelle VanFossen gave her Keynote at WordCamp Portland as the Fairy BlogMother. Amazing in every way!”

That’s what I’ve got, so far. Did I miss your post? Please, by all means, link it up below.

(Psst! If you’re among those who just couldn’t get enough WordCamp, I’ve got a little secret for you. Don’t tell anyone. Let’s just keep this between you and me. But, word around the campfire is that there may be a Portland contingent making the trip down to WordCamp Las Vegas in January, where Matt Mullenweg and Lorelle are already on the agenda. There might be a Portland-type speaking there, as well. Stay tuned!)

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