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Tag: Events

Ignite Portland 3: Tips and Tricks

Rick Turoczy on June 18, 2008

Finally! It’s time for Ignite Portland 3. That’s right folks. Tonight! One night only! Tons and tons of pulse pounding action! We’ll sell give you the whole seat but you’ll only need the edge!

Oh, I’m sorry. I might have gotten a tad carried away there.

But, seriously, Ignite Portland is a great event. And I’m looking forward to seeing you there. But—like the presentation format—it’s quick. So I thought it might helpful to give you a few tips to get the most out of your experience.

First, the venue info:

Bagdad Theater
3702 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd.
Portland, OR 97214
7:00 – 10:00 PM

Ticketholders get in at 5:30 PM
General Admission at 6:15 PM
Admission is always FREE

Here are some “Do”s and “Don’t”s that will help you get the most out of your first, second, or third Ignite Portland experience:

  • DO rest up. You’ll need all the energy you can muster. Plus, there’s the after party.
  • DO read the tagging guidance from the Ignite Portland folks.
  • DON’T bring your laptop.*
  • DO bring your camera, your phone, or any other way of capturing the event. Then upload it and tag it using the guidance from the Ignite Portland folks.
  • DO get there early. Really early. I’m serious. Early. Did I say “Early”?
  • DO be prepared to give everyone and anyone your Twitter name. (Don’t use Twitter? Get on it.)
  • DO be nice to all the Legion of Tech folks and volunteers. (They’re all volunteers, actually. And they’re doing this in their free time.)
  • DO talk to Kelly Guimont/@verso/Banana Lee Fishbones (she’s working the door) about Star Wars. (If all else fails, “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for,” or “I find your lack of faith disturbing,” may work.)
  • DON’T be a wallflower. Talk to people in line while you’re waiting to get into the venue. Talk to people while you’re waiting in the food line. The Bagdad is a great venue for presenting, but talking to folks at breaks will take some doing.
  • Now that you’re on Twitter, DO try to tweet about the event and hashtag it #ip3.
  • DO try to get in front of Aaron Hockley and his camera. I swear, that guy even makes me look good. If not him, Kveton will make you look good too.
  • DO take the chance to introduce yourself to me and tell me about the cool side projects you’re pursuing.

It’s going to be fun. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

* Unless you’re Jason Harris.

Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4: Code name “Wieden + Kennedy”

Rick Turoczy on June 9, 2008

Update (June 10, 2008): The format for Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4 has been revised.

Details have just been released for Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4 and it’s going to be a little different than the “come one, come all” format that’s governed your attendance—or possible attendance—at the first three.

Hosted by Portland’s favorite advertising juggernaut—Wieden + Kennedy—on June 30, Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4 will come with a catch: It’s going to be a more exclusive gig, with a limited number of tickets available to those hoping to attend.

On Monday June 30th, 50-100 people are cordially invited to join 50-100 W+K employees for a “blind date meets grade school birthday party” ad/tech extravaganza. It’s going to be a fun, it’s going to be quirky, and it’s going to rock RockBand style (literally).

So how do you get behind the velvet rope? Don’t worry, gentle reader. We’ll make sure your name is on the list.

Well, if you show up on June 16, that is.

In order to get the most out of this event, we ask that you swing by the W+K lobby on June 16th (next Monday) between 6-9pm to pick up a ticket package. This package will contain information about your Lunch 2.0v4 “date”, directions/instructions, and a ticket to the event.

On June 16, I’ll hope to see you at the doors of the W+K home base in the Pearl, clamoring with the throngs hoping to get a ticket. And I swear, if you elbow me in the chops the way you did to get into the first Ignite Portland at W+K, I’m not going to be happy.

Interested in attending Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4? Well, you can RSVP on Upcoming. But as I’ve said, that’s not going to do you much good. It will, however, give you an idea of the competition against which you’ll be struggling for that coveted golden ticket to Portland Lunch 2.0 SP4.

Update: This format for Portland Lunch 2.0 has sparked some interesting discussion, starting with Aaron Hockley and continuing with Bram Pitoyo.

Greenlight Greater Portland: Startup delegation welcomes your input

Rick Turoczy on June 3, 2008

Greenlight Greater Portland is one of the newest economic development organizations in the Silicon Forest, focusing on Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington, region. All told, that covers seven different metropolitan regions.

Now, it’s not often that you get to see the development of a development organization. And, I was a bit concerned that the board governing the organization, currently, is composed of more old-school and big-businesses types than creative-class and small-business types.

So when I saw that Greenlight Greater Portland was having a launch party, featuring (ironically enough) Richard Florida, I thought “What better time to make sure that they’re aware of all the cool Web startups in Portland and what they need?”

And with that wild hair, I worked on putting together a little “startup delegation” to attend the Greenlight Greater Portland event being held June 4 at the Portland Art Museum.

Here are some of the local folks who have been gracious enough to attend and help represent the startup angle:

If you were there, what questions would you ask?

As always, I know that you, gentle reader, have some really good ideas, too. And while I wish we could all be there, there is only so much room.

So, I’d like to hear from you. What questions would you like this group to raise? What concerns should be highlighted? How would you like to see this development organization supporting startups?

Please feel free to use the comments below to raise issues and questions. Or feel free to contact any of the delegates above to bend his or her respective ear with your opinions.

I’ll provide a wrap-up post following the event to let you know how things went.

Portland Lunch 2.0 SP3: Vidoop, hard hats, and bacon-wrapped dates

Rick Turoczy on May 30, 2008

Portland Lunch 2.0 Vidoop hard hats by Aaron HockleyContinuing its line of successful—and relatively bug-free—releases, Portland Lunch 2.0 launched its latest incarnation, last Wednesday, at Vidoop in Old Town. So I guess this one was a “security” release. Or maybe Lunch 2.0 now supports OpenID. Or something.

In any case, a well attended Portland Lunch 2.0 promises one thing for sure: lots o’ blog posts and other fodder. So, here’s your round-up.

  • Flickr photos tagged “Portland” and “Lunch 2.0“
  • Portland Chapter Completes Third Iteration, Teases Fourth
    “Bacon and OpenID were the themes at yesterday afternoon’s Lunch 2.0, graciously hosted by OpenID provider Vidoop.”
  • Lunch 2.0: Portland style
    “Since the ideas of a) free lunch, and b) geeks gathered were both good ones, Lunch 2.0 became an unofficially official thing. Since then the idea has spread all over the world, but taken a special hold in Portland where we have loads of tech companies.”
  • Lunch 2.0, the Vidoop version
    “I also noticed that the crowd seems to have expanded. From my standpoint, what started out as a mostly techie crowd now seems to include a lot of marketing folks as well as some of the general Portland Twitterati.”
  • Portland Lunch 2.0
    “Lunch 2.0 is one of the best way to meet people in Portland’s thriving tech scene—the other being BarCamp Portland and Startupalooza.”
  • Trails and Lunch 2.0
    “This afternoon I attended Lunch 2.0 here in Portland, OR. It was hosted by Vidoop, the creators of an OpenID product they say foils both phishing and key logging. I created an account, chose my 3–5 images, and logged in and out of it. It seems interesting, so likely more to come on that one as well.”
  • There’s no such thing as a free lunch
    “So Cami’s easy… a free hardhat and bacon wrapped goodness plus a room full of interesting people totally warrants a mention on my blog.”

Did I miss your post on the Portland Lunch 2.0 that was? Please comment. I’d be more than happy to link it up.

Photo Credit: Aaron Hockley. Used under Creative Commons license.

You’re invited: Strands demoing private beta tomorrow

Rick Turoczy on May 27, 2008

StrandsCorvallis-based Strands, the company that develops technologies to better understand people’s taste and help them discover things they like, is holding a Portland meetup to unveil some of the new stuff they’ve been building.

And they’re promising big things:

On May 28th, we will be opening up our newest service, Strands.com under private beta, a very early version of what we think will be something very relevant for people, very ambitious in the data portability space. We’ve organized a meet-up for the Portland community and would love for you to attend.

The event will be held at CubeSpace, Wednesday, May 28, beginning at 7 PM. To RSVP, visit the Strands Portland Meetup page on Upcoming.

Portland Startup Weekend: Five startup projects launched in 54 hours

Rick Turoczy on May 26, 2008

Portland Startup WeekendWhat did you do this past weekend?

Yeah, really? Oh? You don’t say. Oh, that sounds nice. Me? Oh, you know. The usual.

Say, you’ll never guess what a bunch of our peers did over the weekend, though.

Oh, not much. Just started five separate startup projects.

That’s right. The group that gathered for Portland Startup Weekend managed to launch five startup projects: Get Gathered, Life Grant, Mugasha, Startup River, and TreasuRecycle.

They’re all in various states of startupedness, currently. But, rest assured, I’ll be dedicating posts to each of these projects as they gain their footing.

For now, let’s focus on Portland Startup Weekend, itself, with a good ol’ fashioned Silicon Florist round up:

No doubt more posts will be emerging as the participants recover from the weekend. And I’ll work to capture them here.

If you’ve posted something that I’ve missed, please comment and I’ll make sure to link it up.

WebVisions 2008: Rounding up the posts

Rick Turoczy on May 26, 2008

WebVisionsWell, another WebVisions is in the books. And given that I wasn’t able to attend, I’ve been really happy to see a ton of write-ups on the event.

I can’t keep all this goodness to myself, so I thought I’d provide a round-up on all the comments and posts I’ve found.

Did you write something that I missed? I’d love to read it—and I’d love to link it up. Please add your post to the comments below, and I’ll add it to the list.

Portland Startup Weekend: It’s still a “Go!”… are you?

Rick Turoczy on May 20, 2008

Portland Startup WeekendRoughly six months ago, the Portland startup community put its collective effort into casting votes for “Portland Startup Weekend,” a local version of the successful Startup Weekend events designed to test our collective entrepreneurial mettle by challenging participants to form a company in a 54-hour period.

Thanks to that collective voting effort, Portland was among the first cities selected for the 2008 series of Startup Weekends. And those who were interested in the event—myself included—were, for lack of a better word, “psyched.”

In the following months, the Startup Weekend team expanded to support its rapidly growing popularity. Founder Andrew Hyde stepped aside to hand off the planning for Startup Weekend—including Portland Startup Weekend—to the someone who could focus on the events full-time.

Everything seemed to be moving in the right direction.

But then, things got quiet. Too quiet.

And now, Hyde has informed us that Portland Startup Weekend—scheduled for May 23-25—has fallen victim to some organizational issues:

Sorry for the lack of communication, the person that was in charge of putting together this weekend quit last weekend without notice, and the lack of communication was worse than I realized. If you have any questions, please email me at andrew@startupweekend.com and I will get right back to you. I am very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused everyone.

It’s unfortunate that any Startup Weekend encountered these difficulties, let alone our Startup Weekend.

But, Andrew and his team are working overtime to recover the fumble.

Jeremy Tanner, who has now taken the lead on Portland Startup Weekend planning, had this to say:

This is disappointing to the planning process, but not breaking the spirit of the event (This being Startup Weekend and all). This is an incredibly talented group, and I can’t wait to see what the group can accomplish in just 54 hours….

The real goal of Startup Weekend is community, and I can’t wait for SWPDX to show what it has. Plan on meeting some brilliant folks, working with those you have only known through twitter, and showing what you can do. Don’t expect to create the next Google, unless you are on my team, which, then it would be totally cool.

What now?

But now, comes the real question: How will this stumble affect attendance?

If you were planning to go, are you still going? Have you opted out? Never thought about participating?

I’ve heard some rumblings about attendance on Twitter—both positive and negative—but that’s far from conclusive. So I thought I would take the opportunity to launch a quick poll. Just to gauge the interest—and possible attendance—this weekend.

[polldaddy|626477]

Please take a second to respond, either via the poll or the comments.

I’d really appreciate hearing from you on this topic.

Same Portland Lunch 2.0 building, new Portland Lunch 2.0 host, also bacon

Rick Turoczy on May 7, 2008

Sad that you missed seeing the eROI space at the last Portland Lunch 2.0? Well, wipe away those tears, gentle reader. We can get you close.

The latest Portland Lunch 2.0 date and location have been announced. And, as luck would have it, it’s in the same exact spot, only one floor down.

Vidoop, one of the ever-burgeoning residents of the eROI-owned space in Old Town, has volunteered to host the next Portland Lunch 2.0, to be held May 28. Those interested in attending can RSVP via Upcoming.

This lunch marks a celebration of sorts for the Vidoop team, in a Welcome Wagon sort of way:

From what I hear, this will be a cool time for Vidoop. Apparently, their entire Tulsa office is transplanting itself to Portland this month, in an epic roadtrip. So, this will be a great chance to welcome them to Portland and give them a taste of how we do Lunch 2.0 here.

No word on the amount of bacon to be had. (Knowing the hosts, I’m assuming this is not an “if” question, but rather a “how much” question.) But, rumor has it that Ford’s on Fifth may be tapped to cater the event.

Jake Kuramoto, the energy behind Portland’s version of Lunch 2.0, has said he’s interested in squeezing a few more Portland Lunch 2.0 gatherings into the summer months. So, if you’re interested in hosting, please ping Jake on Twitter or feel free to comment below.

Future Portland Lunch 2.0 hosts include Wieden + Kennedy and maybe, just maybe, yours truly. But first, let’s all head on over to see Vidoop’s new digs.

I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

BarCamp Portland: The Weekend that was

Rick Turoczy on May 5, 2008

BarCampPortland 2008Another (dare I say “wildly successful”?) BarCamp Portland is in the books, thanks to the efforts of the Legion of Tech, the hosts, the sponsors, and—of course—the attendees and session leaders.

I could easily prattle on for pages about the wide range of interesting topics, the community building and strengthening, the learning opportunities both inside sessions and out, and the general just, well, geeky fun of the whole thing.

But, I always find roundups to be the best way to provide the most coherent and well-rounded picture of these kinds of events. There’s no possible way of covering the entire thing from one perspective, so only many perspectives will do.

That’s what I’ve seen so far.

No doubt, many people are still recovering and gathering their thoughts.

If I’ve missed you or if you’ve just posted your thoughts, please by all means, comment below with a link to your post or resource, and I’ll be happy to add it to the list.

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