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Results for: mioworks

REMINDER: Portland Web Innovators Demolicious is tonight

Rick Turoczy on April 1, 2009

Interested in seeing some of the newest projects in the Portland Web scene? Then don’t miss Portland Web Innovators Demolicious. It’s a night of demos of some cutting edge projects from our peers here in the Silicon Forest.

Who’s up? Benjamin Stover with “I Need to Read This!,” David Abramowski with “MioWorks,” Jason Glaspey with “Black Tonic,” Sam Grover with “Avatari,” and Richard Forbes with “VoteFair ranking.”

The event will be held at Jive Software, starting at 7 PM. For more information (including how to get in the locked door), visit Demolicious on Upcoming.

Sweet Sixteen Lunch 2.0 at ISITE Design

Rick Turoczy on March 23, 2009

Update: The date has changed to June 24 to avoid a conflict with Open Source Bridge, which begins June 17. You’d think I could have foreseen this problem before setting the date. Sorry for any inconvenience. Please plan accordingly.

That’s right, Portland Lunch 2.0 will be having a Sweet Sixteen when ISITE Design hosts the 16th lunch on June 17 24.

ISITE is in Old Town, at least I think that’s considered Old Town, where we’ve had four other lunches. We haven’t been down (or up, depending) that way since September, and it’ll be good to return to the old neighborhood.

Andy Van Oostrum of ISITE is spreading the Lunch 2.0 vibe to another company. He also organized the 2nd Lunch 2.0 at eROI about a year ago.

He and the folks at ISITE are excited to give you free lunch and good conversation.

What does ISITE do? Glad you asked. In their words:

We are an interactive agency serving global clients from offices in Boston, Dallas and Portland. Our goal is to create and protect your competitive advantage online.

Check out their about for more. It also looks like they might be hiring here in Portland.

Here’s the skinny:

isite.pngHost: ISITE Design

Where: 115 NW 1st Avenue, Portland, OR 97209

When: June 17 24, 2009 from 12 PM to 2 PM

Please RSVP on Upcoming so the hosts can get an idea of how much grub to get. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, drop a comment on the event page for planning, unless you don’t want to eat.

Quick reminder, the Techshop Portland Lunch 2.0, originally scheduled for this week, has been moved to April 22.

Don’t forget these Lunch 2.0s, coming soon:

As always, big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

Geek Bat signal: Oregon entrepreneurs need to act now! No, really. I mean right now.

Rick Turoczy on March 20, 2009

Last night, an endless volley of entrepreneurs and would-be startups stepped up to a mic at Nedspace and provided a 2-3 minute pitch on what they would do with $250,000 over the next year.

And man, were there some incredible ideas—some incredibly cool, some incredibly wacky—but all incredible nonetheless.

There was only one problem: I didn’t see you up there.

I can watch the video again, just to be sure. But I’m fairly certain you won’t appear.

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I mean, sure. I got to see Ron Barrett, Carolynn Duncan, Dave Howell, Scott Kveton, Sasha Mace, John Metta, Chris Logan, Bob Uva, Ken Westin, and Steve Woodward. I love all of those folks. And I’ll applaud anyone who gets up in front of a crowd to speak, because I certainly don’t relish it.

Heck, somebody from the Office of the State Treasurer for Oregon even showed up.

But I didn’t see you. And that made me kind of sad.

But, then again, I’m all about second chances. So how about this? How about you take a few seconds to provide some details about one, two, or 12 of your current side projects? Take a moment to reflect on what you could do with $250,000 in the next year, to help bring your product or idea to fruition.

Don’t think you’re worthy? Not interested in getting funding? I’d still encourage you to take a few moments to respond. Really, what could it hurt?

The point is this: rising water floats all boats. And our state treasurer needs convincing that we have a viable entrepreneurial environment filled with viable startups just waiting to take form. What’s more, if these folks can pull off putting together a $100 million fund for Oregon startups, it’s going to help all of us.

But don’t just take my word for it. David Abramowski has some great insights about what funding Oregon startups could do for the local economy.

Come to think of it, I don’t even care if you live in Oregon right now. If you’d be willing to relocate to Oregon to start your business, you’re more than welcome to fill out the form, as well.

So maybe you’re trying to build a music service or a calendar aggregator or a niche social network or a new form of CRM or an iPhone agency or a mobile development shop focused on usability or a better support tool or charting where you’ve been or figuring out where your friends are or providing space for your peers to work and socialize or archiving the Web or finding happy hours or producing a weekly podcast or providing information about every Web site ever.

Maybe what you’re really interested in doing isn’t even geeky. Maybe you’re more interested in building out a photography business or covering the Portland scene or building some tangible product or creating a new kind of agency.

I don’t really care. We just need smart people like you to share their ideas about what could be done, if the money was there.

And I know you’ve got some ideas.

But here’s the catch: you need to respond, now. And I mean right now. The team pursuing the fund wants to get this information assembled by Wednesday, March 25.

So take a deep breath and dive in. I’ll keep this form open until Wednesday at midnight. Then, I’ll gather up all of the responses and ship them off to the folks working on this. They, in turn, will crate them up and dump them on the Oregon Treasurer’s, the Governor’s, and the various Mayors’ desks.

Remember, there were some cool ideas pitched, last night. But none of them were as cool as yours.

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OpenSourcery Lunch 2.0 Recap

Rick Turoczy on March 12, 2009

Update: Thomas collected some shots of the lunch. This one of Rick pointing, presumably at the bus as it bears down on him, is a hoot. Thanks Thomas.

OpenSourcey graciously opened the doors of its newish office yesterday to about 150 people for the 12th iteration of Portland Lunch 2.0.

Thomas King handled the hosting duties for OpenSourcery. Their open workspace was perfect for a large crowd, mingling and eating. I heard from several people that this was a really good event, and we’re on a roll because I heard the same thing after AboutUs last month. Large open spaces seem to be very conducive to fluid chatting.

Or maybe the format is evolving.

Nah, it was pretty much the same formula. Thomas did his welcome opening. I stumbled through the brief schedule of upcoming events; I’ve given up on explaining what Lunch 2.0 is, which is for the best. We are putting a Portland stamp on it after all.

Then, I got to throw Rick under the bus, a recurring meme, to talk about our pet project, the Open Source Bridge conference. Then back to Thomas for the unveiling of an OpenSourcery project, CLOVE. David Abramowski, our host for the next Lunch 2.0 on April 8, summarized it nicely:

Opensourcery (our excellent hosts for today’s event – a big thank you to them) told us about a new application they wrote called “CLOVE”. This application is planned to be made available under the GPL open source license. From the really short demo, it appears that the application helps you understand if you are giving your clients the love they deserve. (that was a paraphrase from the demo-dude) Although not ready just yet, Opensourcery will provide links to the application once it is out there for everyone to use. I’ll make an update when that information becomes available. It does however look like a rather interesting way to keep track of all that pesky email that it takes to keep a business relationship moving forward.

Finally, Bryce Yonker from the Software Association of Oregon (SAO) talked about the new healthcare program they are offering members for any size company, even single person shops.

A lot of good information, crammed into a short amount of time, and then, we were back to mixing and mingling. Everyone seemed to have a good time, at least, Twitter search for “lunch 2.0” said so. Apparently, the leftovers were donated to a soup kitchen too. Good on ya OpenSourcery!

Unfortunately, a large crowd is not so conducive to writing code; some of OpenSoucery’s developers bailed to find nearby wi-fi spots to GSD. Sorry to displace you all, and thanks for letting us take over your workspace.

Among those not in attendance was Amye Scavarda of OpenSourcery, who helped plan the event. She was home sick. Get better soon, and thanks for helping put on the lunch.

I’d love to share pictures of the gathering, and I know they’re out there. There were a bunch of people shooting stills and video, but alas, my tweet for help garnered nada. I think everyone is either off to SxSW or on some other mission. Twitter has been a bit quiet today.

Don’t forget these Lunch 2.0s, coming soon:

  • April 8 hosted by MioWorks at the Green Dragon
  • April 22 at TechShop Portland in Beaverton
  • May 20 hosted by WebVisions at the Oregon Convention Center

Big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

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Opensourcery Lunch 2.0 is Wednesday

Rick Turoczy on March 9, 2009

It’s been a while since it was announced and a lot has happened since then, but Lunch 2.0 at Opensourcery is finally upon us.

It’s this Wednesday, March 11 from 12-2 at their relatively new digs at 1636 NW Lovejoy Streeet. Look for this sweet plaque.

Image from Thomas King

The last time I was there, they were putting the finishing touches on a conference room, and I think that may all be done by now. So, come on, come all and chow down with us. Just please make sure you RSVP over on Upcoming so they know how much food to get and drop a comment there if you’re a vegan or vegetarian.

This coming Wednesday is shaping up to be another busy one here in Portland, right before a horde of locals head off to SXSW.

Checking Calagator, there’s a squareup over at Pioneer Courthouse Square, home to the newly opened Studio on the Square, at 4:30, which overlaps a bit with the monthly game of Portland Werewolf at the Lucky Lab on Hawthorne (Upcoming).

You’re on your own between Lunch 2.0 and the squareup, but I’m sure you’ll find something to keep yourself busy.

In other Lunch 2.0 news, TechShop Portland has moved its Lunch 2.0 date from March 25 to April 22. I’ve updated Upcoming and Calagator accordingly.

Don’t forget these Lunch 2.0s, coming soon:

March 11 at OpenSourcery
April 8 hosted by MioWorks at the Green Dragon
April 22 at TechShop Portland in Beaverton
May 20 hosted by WebVisions at the Oregon Convention Center

I say this every time, and I mean it: big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

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Road Trip to Seattle Lunch 2.0

Rick Turoczy on March 8, 2009

Friday, Kelly, Rick, Selena, and I headed up to visit the Emerald City’s version of Lunch 2.0 for a diplomatic mission.

Rick was kind enough to handle the driving duties, which left the rest of us free to chatter and OH all the pearls of wisdom on Twitter. After about 20 minutes, Rick went into shock from being surrounded by people tweeting, but unable to do so himself.

This spawned a discussion about a steering wheel keypad with a heads-up display that would finally allow Rick to see all his TweetDeck columns without scrolling.

Our meandering discussion went on like this for about three hours, producing conversations about giant robot arms shredding cars, Teamsters, not stopping for bio-breaks,  brachydactyly type D (a.k.a. murderer’s thumbs), kittens for lunch, food touching, and much, much more.

But you already knew that because you were following our road trip on Twitter.

What? Oh.

Even though we started off a bit slow, we arrived with plenty of time to spare and then quickly wasted it looking for a coffee shop with a restroom.

Josh Maher, the organizer of the Seattle Lunch 2.0 chapter, holds happy hours as well as lunches, and Friday’s was a happy hour. Since we were on a diplomatic mission, and it was a happy hour, Rick brought a gift, Portland beer. He’s such a thoughtful guy, and that’s such a Portland thing to do.

Axios Law Group hosted the happy hour at their offices in downtown Seattle, and TalentSpring, whose office is in the same building, co-sponsored the event. Dawn wasn’t there to get a count, but I think there were about 30 to 40 people spread throughout the office. Then again, I’m not very good at counting, so it could have been more.

In classic Portland style, we included our Twitter handles on our name tags, which drew attention from several Seattleites, many of whom were just making the jump into Twitter. There were also funny references to how happy were were to get out of depressing Portland, alluding to that recent Business Week article.

We mixed and mingled, and as always, Kelly’s LED name badge garnered a lot of attention. I’m pretty sure John DeRosa wants one of his own. I chatted with John, Matt Woodward and several other people. My pea brain doesn’t do well with names, so apologies for not calling out all the good people who chatted with me.

After about an hour of mixing, Josh introduced the gracious hosts, Adam from Axios and Bryan from TalentSpring. Then I stumbled through a “hello from Portland” and threw Rick under the bus to talk about Open Source Bridge, the other reason we headed up there. As usual, he did a great job despite the tire tracks.

Brian Westbrook and Danielle Morrill streamed the event live to Seattle 2.0, and I’m hoping to get the recordings of the interviews he did with Selena and Rick. If/when I get those, they’ll be added to this post.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get many pictures of the event. All we had were our iPhone cameras, and Rick’s nice camera took a header into the CubeSpace parking lot before we even got on the road. In hindsight, I guess we should have brought Aaron or Mark along to snap photos.

After the happy hour ended, it was back on the road; six hours in the car for a two-hour event. That’s dedication.

Thanks to Josh, Adam and Bryan for having us. If you’re up in Seattle, check out the Seattle Lunch 2.0 schedule and the Seattle 2.0 events calendar if you need something to do.

Maybe Josh and company will take a trip down for one of our lunches. Speaking of which . . .

Don’t forget these Lunch 2.0s, coming soon:

  • March 11 at OpenSourcery
  • April 8 hosted by MioWorks at the Green Dragon
  • April 22 at TechShop Portland in Beaverton
  • May 20 hosted by WebVisions at the Oregon Convention Center

As always, big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

Lunch 2.0 at WebVisions

Rick Turoczy on February 22, 2009

As previously teased, WebVisions will be hosting a Lunch 2.0 on May 20, the first day of the conference. WebVisions runs May 20-22 at the Oregon Convention Center.

This Lunch 2.0 will be free to all, even if you’re not planning to attend the conference. Of course, if you are interested or are attending, this will be an excellent opportunity to get a sneak peek at the conference.

May 20 is the workshop day of the conference, so this will be a chance to rub elbows with the workshop attendees and presenters, e.g. Jason Grigsby and John Keith of Cloud Four who are presenting “Performance Optimization for Web and Mobile” in the afternoon. Assuming they show up early for Lunch 2.0.

Now I’ve guilted them a little, accidentally. Did I mentioned that Jason’s presentation at last year’s WebVisions was outstanding? He even brought Voodoo Donuts, which tipped the scales over Scott Kveton‘s session, which had to be at the same time.

Anyway, these are the types of speakers you’ll get at WebVisions.

Here’s the official conference about:

Discover the future of Web design, user experience and business strategy for three days of mind-melding on what’s new in the digital world. Get a glimpse into the future, along with practical information that you can apply to your Web site, company and career.

wv.pngHosts: WebVisions

Where: Oregon Convention Center, 777 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, OR 97232

When: May 20 from 12 PM to 2 PM

Please RSVP on Upcoming so the hosts can get an idea of how much grub to get. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, drop a comment on the event page for planning, unless you don’t want to eat.

This will be the first Portland Lunch 2.0 hosted by a conference, and it should be an interesting mix of conference attendees, many from out of town, and Portlanders.

This crowd mix should provide some interesting conversation, as well as an opportunity to network outside your normal crowd. Of course, if you want to see the Norms of the Portland tech scene, I’m pretty sure they’ll be there too, next to the Cliffs.

Don’t forget these Lunch 2.0s, coming soon:

As always, big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

AboutUs Lunch 2.0 V2 Recap

Rick Turoczy on February 12, 2009

Yesterday, we ended the first year of Portland Lunch 2.0 at the place it all began in February 2008, AboutUs.

I didn’t get a very official count at either event, but I think we went from about 50 at the first Lunch 2.0 to well over a 100 yesterday. I saw a lot of familiar faces, along with new ones.

Aside from opening up their sweet renovated warehouse office space to us, AboutUs provided chotchkies (cell phone charms featuring the universal edit button and AboutUs buttons), grub and cupcakes as big as a fist. They had a projector broadcasting a stream of their pageviews, which attracted a lot of attention; Lunch 2.0 still is a pretty geeky crowd after all.

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Case in point, someone suggested that we watch the list to see if there were repeat IPs, but this quickly made me dizzy and disoriented.

Another nice touch was the arrangement of cinema displays (color me jealous) along the western wall of the office that read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUNCH 2.0”.

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We skipped the talkie-talkie this time. Everyone was happily chatting around the office, which is kinda the point. No need to interrupt everyone to listen to me mumble, and AboutUs had all their people mingling and answering questions about what they do.

Big thanks to the whole AboutUs crew for hosting, especially to Steven for organizing.

Likewise, thanks to Aaron Hockley who provided excellent photos of the event. All photos in the post are by Aaron and used under Creative Commons. Incidentally, check out Aaron’s Lunch 2.0 – Portland set on Flickr; it provides a great history of the event. Aaron has been to nearly all the Lunch 2.0s, and he usually has his camera to document the festivities. His photos also pop up on Flickr widget on lunch20.com, the home of the original Bay Area chapter because of how awesome they are. OK, it’s also because they’re tagged “lunch2.0”.

Anyway, let’s peer into the future of Portland Lunch 2.0’s second year.

Upcoming Portland Lunch 2.0s

Save these Dates

These haven’t been officially announced yet, but they are happening. Stay tuned for details.

Big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

Lunch 2.0 at TechShop Portland

Rick Turoczy on February 10, 2009

Update: TechShop had to change the date. It’s now April 22. Please plan accordingly.

If the lucky 13th episode of the Portland Lunch 2.0 series needed a name, I would call it “Back to the ‘Burbs: Welding for Giggles at TechShop Portland”.

I don’t have to name them, but how else can I inject pizazz into a simple event announcement?

Anyway, we’re heading back to Beaverton for an off-cycle Lunch 2.0 on April 22 March 25 at the recently opened TechShop Portland. There’s no official schedule really, but as you know, we usually do this once a month. After the OTBC Lunch 2.0 in January, Denney Cole, of the TechShop, wanted to get on the calendar as soon as possible to get people excited about the TechShop.

Maybe you remember the excursion he and Wm Leler organized during the OTBC lunch, or maybe you were too busy chatting up new people.

Well, if you missed it, Denney’s opening the doors to show everyone all the cool stuff he has in there.

Sorry, I made an assumption there, i.e. you also think large power tools and welding equipment are cool. I know I do. In fact, the phrase “welding for giggles” came up when I was trying to understand what the TechShop does. Turns out they provide equipment, space and tools that members can use for all kinds of projects, even if you’re just welding pieces of rebar together and giggling to yourself.

That’s what I’d be doing.

Here’s the official about:

TechShop is a membership-based DIY workshop that gives you access to a huge variety of tools and equipment, tons of friendly and easy classes, and a community of amazing people who share your interest in making things.

Oh, and Wm will soon be opening an Open Tech Space there soon, which will be free to anyone. So, if power tools and arc welding don’t do it for you, there will also be geeking out available.

techshop_logo_portland.pngHere are the details:

Hosts: TechShop Portland

Where: 10100 SW Allen Blvd. Beaverton, OR, 97005

When: March 25April 22, 2009 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM

Please RSVP on Upcoming so the hosts can get an idea of how much grub to get. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, drop a comment on the event page for planning, unless you don’t want to eat.

Upcoming Portland Lunch 2.0s

Save these Dates

These haven’t been officially announced yet, but they are happening. Stay tuned for details.

Big thanks to all the hosts who have hosted or plan to host Lunch 2.0. Drop a comment (or tweet @jkuramot) if you want information about hosting one. It’s easy.

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