Lunch and Unexpected Careers at the Art Institute
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.
Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for October 15
Geek of the Week: Selena Deckelmann
Portland Tech Twitter
Legion of Tech Happy Hour Meetup with Waffles Oct. 23rd
Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for October 14
SLL: An Interview with Oregoniansteve | Our PDX Network
Cami Kaos writes “But first, an introduction. I’m CamiKaos, and with my husband DrNormal as my co-host we record a weekly podcast. Strange Love Live is something we’ve been doing together for almost a year. It’s recorded right here in Portland every Friday night, and thanks to Betsy, I’m going to be posting a new episode here each week. “
WorthWorkingFor | Inspiring the Inspirers, and because work doesn’t always have to suck.
A new blog from Elliot Swan covering inspirational workspace designs.
Gail Ann Williams on Community from Love@First Website at Fast Wonder Blog: Consulting, Online Communities, and Social Media
Dawn Foster writes “I’m spending the morning at iSite’s Love@First Website Conference here in Portland. I was impressed with Gail Ann Williams’ presentation about building online community. She was an early participant at The WELL and is currently the Director of Communities at Salon.com. Here are my raw notes from Gail’s presentation. In other words these are my notes about her words (not my words), so hopefully, I managed to get most of it right with only a few typos.”
Coffee with Likemind, October 17th at 8am – Substance
Via the Substance blog “As the title states, it’s this Friday, October 17th at 8am. Stop in the Stumptown Ace (1026 SW Stark), grab your beverage, then make your way over to the lobby of the Ace Hotel to meet other likeminded folks.”
DrupalPDX November Meeting | groups.drupal.org
Via DrupalPDX “We’re now meeting at the offices of OpenSourcery at 711 SE Ankeny St. Portland, OR 97214. Steve Edwards will be doing a presentation on using Ãœbercart to build e-commerce sites. After the meeting we’ll probably head to the Green Dragon for a food and drink.”
Vidoop banks on, well, banks
Many know Portland-based Vidoop—yes, they DO have a new look—as purveyor of OpenID provider myVidoop and home to the DiSo Project, “an umbrella project for a group of open source implementations of distributed social networking concepts.”
But Vidoop also has a number of revenue generating tricks in its bag, from the advertising that comprises its ImageShield to the enhanced security products that it sells.
Today at Finovate, Vidoop launched a new suite of those security products targeted at financial institutions, healthcare organizations, and corporations. And for banks in particular, Vidoop highlights that they offer “three options for providing strong authentication for accessing Web sites.”
The announcement appears to be striking a chord. According to Banktastic, “Your bank or credit union NEEDS to look into this.”
Of course, the real magic of Vidoop’s easy to implement, tough to defeat, advertising-supported security is that it not only reduces implementation and maintenance costs, it actually provides another way for businesses to generate revenue.
The ImageShield provides advertisers the opportunity to sponsor images within certain categories. Customers who choose to enable advertising-supported logins can obtain Vidoop’s increased security at little or no cost, and in some cases, generate revenue through the sponsored images.
“Not only can financial institutions potentially make money using Vidoop, but they can also realize substantial savings through customer service,” said Mitch Savage, Vidoop’s Executive Vice President, Business Development. “The number one call to most customer support centers is login issues. Vidoop provides an easier way for users to remember passwords with images, and now we have two additional ways they can authenticate without requiring expensive call center support.”
For more from Mitch on Vidoop’s new offering, here’s an interview from Finovate:
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For more information, visit Vidoop.
[Updated] Sadly Jive Software layoffs confirmed
[UPDATE 4] Portland Business Journal “Jive layoffs are ‘market response'”
[UPDATE 3] Mike Rogoway of The Oregonian talks to Sam Lawrence about the layoffs.
[UPDATE 2] Sam Lawrence, Chief Marketing Officer at Jive, via Twitter:
[UPDATE] Chris Kalani provides insight, confirming that there were layoffs today at Jive.
I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings, but in this case, I feel an obligation to report it.
I’ve been hearing rumors about Jive Software for a few weeks now. Enough so that I’ve asked for comment from Jive on what’s going down.
They haven’t been at liberty to respond. So I haven’t written anything.
Well, I just wanted to let you know that the rumors have escalated exponentially today.
Something is going down. And it doesn’t appear to be good. But I can’t confirm that.
I’ll let you know when I hear more. Again, I’m not looking to further the rumors, but there’s too much activity for this to be a coincidence.
If you have any insight, it would be appreciated.
In the meantime, I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for the folks at Jive.
GadgetTrak goes mobile
[HTML1]Portland loves mobile. And, clearly, Portland-based GadgetTrak, the company that turns your stolen electronic devices into a sentient Neighborhood Watch for nabbing thieves, is no different.
That’s why they have just announced the launch of GadgetTrak’s thief-thwarting technology on mobile devices:
GadgetTrak® Mobile Security enables device owners to send remote commands to wipe data from their device and back data up to another phone. Additional commands for Blackberry devices can be sent to lock the device, signal an alarm that cannot be disabled by the thief, get the current location of the device, send a message to the main screen, and initiate a remote call back.
Simply install GadgetTrak on your BlackBerry or Windows Mobile device, and you gain remote access to destroy the data on the device, backup contacts, lock the device and signal an alarm, get the location of the device via GPS, call a predetermined number, and—perhaps my favorite—taunt the thief with a custom message that appears on-screen.
For more information on the mobile solution and GadgetTrak’s other products, visit GadgetTrak.
Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for October 13
A Field Guide To Coffee Shops Around Northwest Portland, Particularly The Pearl District Neighborhood
PortlandTechTwitter – AboutUs Wiki Page
Last Chance to Submit Your Talk Ideas for IP4!
Lunch 2.0 at the Art Institute is Wednesday
It’s been a while since this Lunch 2.0 was announced, but the big day has nearly arrived.
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.