VanPortlander

If you give a Portlander a camera, and set them loose on the city, you’ll find a great set of images as a result. Last weekend, Bay Area photographer Thomas Hawk was in town and led a photowalk for several hours on Saturday afternoon/evening. Our group started out around 30 folks as we started at Pioneer Courthouse Square and dwindled to around half that number by the time we split up near the Coliseum. I had a great time, it was good to meet Thomas as well as several local Flickr folks such as Squid Vicious - that’s his shot of one of the beams on the Broadway Bridge up above. Everyone was asked to tag their photos on Flickr, you can see a bunch of the shots from the walk.

One of the great things about the Portland area is the number and quality of tech startup businesses. What if a bunch of those startups (in varying stages of development) got together to share ideas and talk about business, tech, and Portland? That’s the idea behind Startupalooza, a gathering on March 29th billed as “an interactive forum for the Portland tech startup community” in a “candid, no-BS environment.”

Meet local entrepreneurs, view panels and participate in discussions about startup life in the area. The event is free to attend. Head over to the website to find out more about who will be there, and if you’re going to attend be sure to RSVP on Upcoming.

I had a great time on Tuesday at Ignite Portland 2. If you weren’t there, you missed a great evening of ideas, networking, and fun.

I shot a couple hundred photos and have put around 50 of them online via Flickr. Check it out. It’s wrapped in bacon good.

View all of my Ignite Portland 2 Photos

Five minutes. 20 slides that advance every 15 seconds. Burning ideas from bright Portlanders.

That’s Ignite Portland.

The first event in October drew a full-to-capacity crowd to listen to some smart local folks talk about a bunch of random topics. Ignite Portland 2 is being held February 5 at the Bagdad Theater. They’ve announced the lineup of presenters and topics include imagination, rockets, biodiesel, and how to be an undercover hooker. Head over to the Ignite Portland website to learn more, or RSVP for the event.

It’ll be an awesome evening of ideas and networking. Thanks to some generous sponsors, attendance is free. I hope to see you there!

The first Ignite Portland event a couple months ago drew a full-to-capacity crowd (literally… the room was filled exactly to fire code capacity) full of Portlanders interested in great ideas.

Ignite Portland is a fast-paced format for sharing ideas. Topics at the first Ignite event ranged from technology to chickens to proper TXT dating etiquette. From the event description on Upcoming:

If you had five minutes to talk to Portland what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Launch a web site? Teach a hack? Talk about recent learnings, successes, failures?

Come join us for the second Ignite Portland! It’s free to attend or present. We hope to have food and drinks, but we need sponsors for that, so check out http://www.igniteportland.com for details on attending, presenting, or sponsoring!

What is Ignite Portland? A bunch of fast-paced, interesting presentations - 20 slides for 15 seconds each. Our mantra is “share burning ideas” - just about any topic will do, as long as it’s interesting. From tech to crafts to business to just plain fun! There will be time to network and chat after each series of presentations.

I hope to see a bunch of you there! For all the details head over to the website and find out how to attend, present, or sponsor!

I was a bit surprised to see mention of a Vancouver PC Users Group meeting yesterday on The Columbian’s website.  A PC user’s group?  In 2007?

Did we enter some sort of 10-year-backwards time machine?

I did a bit of checking and came across the group’s website.  Which I believe answers the question that yes, we are in fact looking at a 10-year-backwards time machine.

A couple days ago, I was at Pioneer Square and wondered “WTF is Wordstock?”

Today, A Girl in Stumptown offers a bit of insight…

I love the geek factor in the Portland area.  I love that we do geeky things.  I love that there are a lot of geeks here.

One of those geeks is Scott Hanselman, a software developer.  He happens to have diabetes, and he occasionally blogs about it on his website.

A couple of his friends have setup an interesting geeky event coming up on October 11th.  They’ve got two theaters at Cinetopia booked to play Halo 3 as a fundraiser for the Fight Against Diabetes.

Head over to Scott’s blog to find out more, including how to register for the event.

Looking for something interesting to do this weekend?  On Saturday from Noon until 4:00pm there will be an open house at the Public Safety Complex near the Clark County Fairgrounds.  The even is hosted by the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, along with Clark County Fire Districts 6, 11, and 12.  Sounds like it could be interesting… from the press release:

Activities at this year’s open house will include fire equipment demonstrations, including automobile extrications, fire extinguishers, and technical rescue skills, a bomb unit demonstration, tours of the Hostage Negotiation Team van, and a Lifeflight helicopter (weather permitting).

Bomb demonstrations?  Cool.  The Public Safety Complex is located at 505 NW 179th St.

This weekend is the annual Sausage Festival at St. Joseph’s Church in Vancouver. Put on by the church, the event features a carnival, some arts/crafts booths, live music, a beer garden, and of course sausage (and other food).

If you’re looking for something to do this afternoon, check it out. Looks like temperatures are supposed to approach 90 which would be great weather to get out there and have some fun. Need to cool down? If the beer garden isn’t your style, go get one of the ice cream cones. They are giant. Information and directions are available at the website, and the event is open from 1pm to 8pm tonight.