Portland startups, open source, and tech news, jobs, and events #pdx
If you’ve spent any time mucking around in startup ecosystems, you’ve no doubt come across the concept of an “innovation district.” The idea, briefly, is to artificially create a dense core of people, institutions, and companies that fosters innovation. Sort of like Portland’s urban growth boundary. But for innovation.
You may have caught the news that Jaguar Land Rover has recently repositioned its local startup efforts, shifting from the Jaguar Land Rover Incubator to the Jaguar Land Rover Innovation Labs. But what sort of changes does that entail? JLR gives us a glimpse with a a new video on the project.
There was a time, not so long ago, when Portland had a plethora of incubators and accelerators. Corporations, organizations, and venture capital were all part of the family of accelerators designed to help early stage companies in Portland. And while the number of accelerators is only a fraction of what it was, the learnings from those efforts are creating new and different entities. Like the new Jaguar Land Rover Innovation Labs.
Way back when, I started Silicon Florist as an attempt to raise the visibility of a bunch of amazing activity I was seeing Portland tech startup community. Then, I helped start PIE—and continue to run it—because I felt that we needed to do more than talk about the community, we needed to help it grow through mentorship and connections. My motivations to help start Built Oregon came from similar desire to help the consumer product industries in Oregon. And now, I’m bullish on a new effort designed to enhance collaboration and innovation across all of those industries—and more—in Portland. Meet the Portland IQ.
Never underestimate the value of peer support and connections. It’s one of the things that makes services like Switchboard so compelling. And now they’re using that same power of connectivity to help innovative folks get more connected to their peers—in the real world. Introducing the Switchboard Higher Education Innovation Fellowship, a structured year-long program with both real world and virtual collaboration.
Truth be told, I can’t even spell entrepreneurship. (I used spellcheck for that.) But there are many folks who can. Among them, there are even a few who understand all the ups and downs of the rollercoaster that is starting a business. And among them, are a select few who recognize and understand the potential impact government can have on startup ecosystems. And Business Oregon wants to talk to those folks.
One thing I love about Portland: When people get really motivated and passionate about fixing a problem and start going full speed to make something happen. One thing I hate about Portland: Folks who do that usually find themselves in a vacuum, not realizing that they have peers pursuing similar ends. That’s one of the reasons I started Silicon Florist—and any number of other dot connecting projects—in the first place. And it’s why I’m glad to see things like the Inclusive Competitiveness event, this Friday. Read More
When you think of the vending machine industry, you probably don’t think “innovation.” But two Portland companies are working very hard to bring some new thinking to a rather stagnant market.
One company is changing the machines from the outside. One is changing machines from the inside. Read More
Tonight, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) and the City of Portland will be hosting a Software Summit to discuss the economic growth strategy for our industry.
So you’ve responded to the surveys. You’ve heard about CivicApps. You’ve seen the City of Portland declare open source in government week. But you still don’t really have a clear idea about where we go from here. Or how the developers here in town fit in with the City’s plans.
Well, get ready for a little clarification. Tonight, the Portland Development Commission (PDC) and the City of Portland will be hosting a Software Summit to discuss the economic growth strategy for our industry. Read More
A conference that’s based on both entrepreneurial innovation and the age of those innovators. Introducing the official US Gen Y innovation tour, GenJuice.
There are any number of events and conferences and camps in Portland that work to get likeminded people in the same room. Generally, these revolve around a certain topic. Like a coding language or a blogging platform or cyborgs.
But now, we’re getting the chance to experience something a little different. It’s a conference that’s based on both entrepreneurial innovation and the age of those innovators. Introducing the official US Gen Y innovation tour, GenJuice.
The tour has a crazy schedule. We travel to 13 cities over 40 days. We will be in Portland for two days. On the first day, we travel around the city interviewing young entrepreneurs who we admire. We stream all of these video interviews and videos of us exploring the city on the GenJuice website.
On the last day in each city, we hold our “unconference” event and tweetup for approximately 60-75 attendees all between 17 – 29. At these unconferences, attendees will get a fun introductory performance from local artists, hear a keynote from a seasoned local entrepreneur and lead/contribute to attendee-led discussions.
What’s more, they’re looking for young entrepreneurs to interview. So if you’re one of those type of folks—which I think you may be—why not comment below and we’ll get you connected with the GenJuice folks?
Interested in attending a meetup with the GenJuic folks on June 23? You can sign up to meet with GenJuice on Wednesday afternoon. Need more info? Like GenJuice on Facebook or follow GenJuice on Twitter.