[Editor: I received news late last week that one of Portland’s original coworking spaces, Souk, was launching a new $8/day drop-in incubator. At first blush, I didn’t really understand how it constituted an incubator. So I asked for some clarification. What I received from Alex Linsker at Souk seemed like a damn fine guest post. With permission, I’m sharing it here.]
Coworking (at least at souk Jellies and other special programs here, and at some other spaces and Jellies I’ve worked at in other cities) can work as an incubator program that’s self-led, peer-to-peer. Read More
Several vintage Portland buildings have been renovated recently, blurring the line between co-working and traditional offices. Small creative entrepreneurs have office doors, but they share common areas and, sometimes, business.
Among the folks mentioned are some of our favorite coworking spaces in town.
CubeSpace hosts evening events, including tech clubs and Beer & Blog gatherings. Schweber and Kominsky sometimes sweep through at 9:15 — quarter-past quitting time — and urge the crowd to move to a bar.
When Julie Duryea opened Souk 2 1/2 years ago, cafes were the only choice for most freelancing Portlanders. She couldn’t find many co-working spaces beyond New York and London.
Now, her Old Town operation hosts an eclectic crowd: a footwear and apparel consultant, a strategic planner, a retail designer. Plus, Souk has company in the Portland market.
They recruit tenants through online networking, word of mouth and a startup event they hosted last month. Early residents are developing iPhone applications, an online rental payment service, board games, interactive music content and more. Some have started companies; others are first-timers.
If you haven’t checked out these coworking spaces, you should. Not only are they do they provide an amazing resource to our startup community, they serve as the warm little hub around which many of us gather.
And their continued willingness to support our events—often pro bono—is without a doubt a key to the burgeoning startup community with which we find ourselves enamoured.
Lunch 2.0 happened yesterday at flexible workspace provider souk in Old Town, and even though I didn’t make it, the accounts I’m hearing are overwhelmingly positive.
Dawn and Todd graciously agreed to MC the event, in my absence, and approximately 75 people came through during the two-hour lunch. Julie, the gracious host, had Thai food for everyone with lots of vegetarian options. The food was well-received and completely gone by the end.
Dawn tells me souk’s space was great for conversations, the wheeled tables and chairs allowing for spontaneous rearrangements to accommodate the constantly morphing threads of discussion. While people sat to eat, they had in depth conversations, but as eating finished, people stood up to mingle, cocktail party style. Apparently, the chatting went right up to the end, which is awesome
Sounds like a great time. I’m bummed that I missed it.
If you hurry over to Summize, newly acquired by Twitter, you can catch the tweets from yesterday about Lunch 2.0 to get a running chronology of how it went.
I caught a few “what is Lunch 2.0” tweets in the mix. So, we still have some collective education to do. Dawn reported that in addition to the usual suspects we see at Lunch 2.0 (and Beer and Blog, Barcamp, Ignite, Legion of Tech Talks, you know the hardcore community people), there were a lot of new faces. This is good.
As of now, there aren’t any solid plans for the next iteration of Lunch 2.0 Portland. I have a few leads, but nothing definite. If you want your company to host one, or you know a place that would love to have the Portland community in for lunch, let me know in comments.
Photos courtesy of Aaron Hockley used under Creative Commons.
[Editor: Like PB and J, so long as you like your peanut butter on one sandwich one week and then like to have your jelly on another sandwich the next week.]
If you’re planning on attending OSCON—and have accidentally shown up a week early or just happen to live in Portland—and have some time on Wednesday, why not get out and see the Rose City a little. Just head over the Burnside Bridge and into Old Town, the Lunch 2.0 hotspot. As with previous Lunch 2.0s in Old Town, if you decide to drive, have a good time looking for parking.
If you think you can make it, head over to Upcoming and please RSVP. Julie from souk needs as accurate a count as possible, so no one will go home hungry. Also, if you’re vegan or vegetarian, please leave a comment on the Upcoming event; I’ve failed to remember that too many times when planning these things (sorry).
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, both Rick and I will be out of town for work that day. I know, how rude of work to intrude on our Lunch 2.0 plans.
Never fear, Dawn Foster has graciously agreed to MC the proceedings. So, if you were hoping to hear me ramble on about “what is Lunch 2.0”, sorry. Next time.
Speaking of next times, if your company wants to know more about hosting the pageantry that is PDX Lunch 2.0, please drop a line in comments. I’m always looking for prospective hosts to keep the lunch train rolling.
Photo courtesy Thomas Hawk used under Creative Commons.
Update: As Rick has kindly pointed out, I have lost my mind and confused myself about what week it is. My only excuse is I’ve been sick as a dog all week and have lost track of time. Sorry.
Given the dearth of posts this week, you’d think nothing had happened in Portland, at all. Or that I simply wasn’t paying attention.
Luckily, neither is true.
As you’ve likely noticed, I’ve been heavy on the link round-ups, this week. And I’ve been holding back some of the major news.
Why? Well, I know folks are taking time off, enjoying the Portland weather, and *gasp* actually getting out from in front of their machines.
The stories will wait. And I want you to around to read them. I’m funny that way. So, they’ll be here next week, when you’re back at your machine and looking for the latest and greatest.
What kind of stories? Well I’m glad you asked.
Did you know that the inimitable Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV was in town, this week? That’s right. And he helped the Legion of Tech launch their first Legion of Talk. That’s news. And, hopefully, when I run the write-up next week, we’ll also have video. Because, honestly, you don’t really get the full effect of Gary unless you get the full effect of Gary.
And Portland Web Innovators held their fist Demolicious event, featuring five local developers and their current projects. Not only were all of the projects cool, there’s one in particular that I found so compelling that I thought it deserved a write-up of its own. Which one? You’ll just have to wait and see.
As always, there are a couple of top secret stories that may (or may not) break next week. That’s exciting, isn’t it?
Oh and that’s not all, my friends. I’m sure there’s some news that I haven’t even learned about yet. Like why were Gary V and Loic Le Meur both in Portland at the same time? Inquiring minds, inquiring minds.
So, take some time off. Relax. Celebrate your independence.
And may you and yours have a safe an happy Fourth of July.
Rick has kindly agreed to let me do Lunch 2.0 stuff here on the Florist. This makes a lot of sense, since this is the place to get the lowdown on technology companies and the tech scene here in Portland and nearby.
Oh, and the people who go to these lunches actually read and comment here, big plus.
So, my first post-acquisition content is the recap of Monday’s Lunch 2.0v4, held at Wieden+Kennedy, and a reminder that the next iteration is coming up soon at souk.
W+K Recap This Lunch 2.0 was a little different than usual, which ruffled a few feathers, at least initially. Everyone has since hugged and sung Kumbaya.
Gaia Brown, the mastermind behind the W+K format, put together an ice-breaker activity that paired attendees with W+K people. From what I observed, people took the advance packets in varying degrees of seriousness, but the conversation flowed freely, regardless.
The lunch was held in the atrium at W+K in the Pearl, and I’d guess the attendance was probably more than 100, but less than 200. Yeah, I’m not a very good estimator. The raffle of swag went over well; gift baskets from several W+K clients were given away, and the final prize was several tickets to Inverge.
After chatting as pairs for a bit and listening to the raffle, people got up and milled around and talked, others played Rockband.
Next up, souk As Rick previously mentioned, the next Lunch 2.0 will be held at souk in Old Town on July 16, so pretty soon. RVSP on Upcoming if you plan to make it, and yes, we’re returning to the old format, with no work and no packets, just free grub and good company.
Old Town has been very good to Lunch 2.0, thanks to eROI and Vidoop and now souk. I guess this begs the question, are you a real company if you’re in Old Town and haven’t hosted a Lunch 2.0?
Your thoughts?
After four Lunch 2.0s here in Portland, I’m pretty happy with the progress. The event is dominated by Tweeters, which (sadly) is the primary means of promotion, yet another reason why I wanted to move here to the Florist.
So, fellow Florists, what do you think of Lunch 2.0 so far? Sound off in comments and stay tuned for more Lunch 2.0 action here on the Florist.
Rick has kindly 
This Lunch 2.0 was a little different than usual, which 
As Rick previously