Lunch 2.0

In an undisclosed, all-stock deal, the Silicon Florist, Portland’s one-stop shop for all that is technology in the Rose City, Southern Washington and beyond, acquired the Portland chapter of Lunch 2.0 today.

This basically means all the Portland Lunch 2.0 related content, announcements and recaps mostly, that used to be posted here will now be posted over there.

This makes sense, since the Florist is quickly becoming the place to get information about Portland tech companies and the Portland tech scene. And not just Portland, the Florist covers Vancouver, down to Corvallis, over in Bend, all over Oregon and Southern Washington.

Rick’s posts about Lunch 2.0 usually garner way more comments than posts I do here, which tend to attract spam comments in high numbers.

Thanks to Joseph, Mark, Terry and company for letting me post here, and for helping me get the Portland chapter rolling. If you do come here for Portland information, please check us out over at the Florist.

You may have caught the folks from Zecco at a number of Lunch 2.0 events. It’s about time they decided to host one of their own! And they’ve got hot dogs! Not just any hot dogs - Top Dog hot dogs. And beer. And a $500 prize to a lucky Lunch 2.0-er!

Hosts: Zecco
Where: 500 Airport Blvd, Suite 320, Burlingame, CA
When: Wednesday, July 9th, 2008 12:00pm - 2:00pm
RSVP on Upcoming

Here’s a blurb about the event:

When Zecco first launched, we picketed on Wall Street with signs saying “There Is Such Thing as a Free Lunch,” and handed out free hot dogs to passers-by from the famous New York hot dog stands. The point was to prove to the Wall Street elite that a revolution was coming – one that injects community, transparency, and free services into an industry that is based on just the opposite.

Zecco has grown wildly since, and to stay true to our message about free lunch, we’re hosting a Lunch 2.0 at our offices. Come by for some free hot dogs (the good kind, catered by Berkeley’s favorite Top Dog), some beer, and to meet our team.

What’s more? There’re giveaways! A lucky Lunch 2.0-er will win a Zecco Trading account pre-funded with $500. And if you join our Lunch 2.0 group in the Zecco community, we’ll hook you up with some schwag.

Zecco’s offices are at 500 Airport Blvd, Suite 320. Burlingame, CA 94010. Meet us out back if it’s sunny - or in our offices if there’s a freak rainstorm in the middle of July. See you there!

For more info, check out Zecco’s blog post, or careers page.

From time to time we’ll reveal our group Silicon Valley Web Builder (SVWB) film making process to all the geeks out there. The documentary film is about Browsers and Web 2.0 in Silicon Valley. This film is to promote peace and freedom within Browsers as an effort to spark innovation and breakthrough technologies.

I am in charge of the Sound Editing, Sound Effect and Soundtrack. To bring the Web 2.0 collaborative and social networking spirit, I’ll need to recruit and assemble an Orchestra. One day I envision our iPhone Orchestra can perform at Oscar. This is where the iPhone Orchestra story begins.

To give you the confidence of my musical talent, I share a piece of interesting historical fact here. At the last Google Developer Day party, after the DJ left promptly with his music, frustrated with previous music played, I jumped in and started mixing music with Youtube videos. Party carried on without any problems. This demonstrated another good use of Technology.

If you are excited about participating a historical event, please come and volunteer yourself. We’ll need to brainstorm about turning iPhone as musical instrument in an innovative way. Hack ideas and compose.

iPhone Startup Camp
Event Details: http://www.barcamp.org/iphonestartupcamp
Date/Time: 6/28/08 Sat 1pm-10pm
Location: TIPS
Address: 1000 Elwell Court Suite 150, Palo Alto CA 94301
RSVP: http://iphonestartupcamp.eventbrite.com

To: Zachary Levi, Adam Baldwin, writers and producers
Apple pie Apple Pie. I would like to thank NBC executives assisting in ending the Writers’ Strike just in time for us to watch the Oscar, the memorable 80th Annual Academy Awards. It was cool to show our geek toys iPhone and Wii at Oscar. Did the Oscar writers find out our late night activities on iPhone and Wii from our User Experience Barcamp last year?

The latest storyline is Chuck sees Ruby in his vision thinking it must involve a diamond buyer who trade Ruby to fund illegal activities. Arrest the innocent business woman with no lead. Spot the latest developer book “Ruby” on the bookstore stand. Recall the Ruby code. Break into the Rails application code discovering the Ruby expert is kidnapped. Chuck must go East. Ruby creator is in Japan. The enemy head figure is hidden in the dragon, disguised as computer expert at Beijing Olympics. A Chinese journalist suggests Chuck to use Twitter to send alert like the last earthquake. Chuck uses iPhone Twitter to ask the public to escape but Twitter fails at the peak traffic again. Download the iPhone SDK App musical app. Start playing the world recognized tune “I’d like to teach the world to sing”. Everyone sing and stop walking while Sara disarms the bomb.

Bess
Founder
Silicon Valley Web Builder

Gearing up for Lunch 2.0v4 at W+K on June 30? Don’t look now, but the Portland Lunch 2.0 train is rolling on with another iteration coming soon.

This time, we’re back in Old Town at souk on July 16 and back to the (lack of) format.

Hosts: souk
Where: 322 NW 6th Avenue, Suite 200, Portland, OR 97209
When: Monday, June 30, 2008 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM
RSVP on Upcoming

We won’t stop until we hit every, single business in Old Town. This could take a while.

Here’s a blurb on souk:

Empowerment
souk understands the dream to say how and when you work - to work to live.
souk presents flex term office space and services, specially designed for
individuals and small teams to create. In hot desks,
unique meeting rooms and collaboration zones, souk members
brainstorm, present or simply hunker down and work.

Connection & Support
You never know who you might bump into at souk, a co-working environment for Portland’s creative class.
Make valuable business contacts or bounce an idea off
another member to crack that problem. Capitalize on many coordinated networking and learning opportunities.

Only need to meet downtown? Take your team away from the grind to meet for an hour or all day in our creative meeting rooms.

The Future of Work
souk believes space matters. Where and how you want to work has changed.
souk acknowledges its set-up is different because the world demands it.
With scarce natural resources, intense use of existing space is imperative.
With technology breaking down borders and fueling mobility, collaborating,
adapting and sharing are the future of work.

Upcoming Events

• Friday, June 27 - TBA, Fremont, East Bay
• Monday, June 30 - Wieden+Kennedy, Portland
• Wednesday, July 16 - souk, Portland <- This event.

As teased twice before, Wieden+Kennedy will be hosting the fourth iteration of Portland Lunch 2.0 on June 30. In true W+K fashion, this won’t be your average Lunch 2.0. First the skinny:

Hosts: Wieden+Kennedy
Where: 224 NW 13th Ave, Portland, OR 97209
When: Monday, June 30, 2008 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM
RSVP on Upcoming

Before you rush to RSVP, check out the details:

Updated June 10 around noon Pacific:

On Monday June 30th, the PDX Tech/Tweeple community is 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).

In order to get the most out of this event, we ask that those interested in a little extra fun swing by the W+K lobby on June 16 between 6-9 PM to pick up an event package that will contain information about your Lunch 2.0v4 “date” .

You DO NOT have to have an event package to attend, but it should be worth your time/effort should you choose to participate. (No worries, you will not be tied to your “date” for the duration of the event, only a brief introduction and escort to the lunch location).

Also, those who cannot make it on the 16th are welcome to ask a friend to pick up a package for them, or have it mailed directly by sending an address to gaia dot brown at wk dot com.

Please register on Upcoming so we get a general head-count and can adjust accordingly.

You guys totally rock and we’ve got a lot of W+Kers who are looking forward to meeting you!

Questions? E-mail gaia dot brown at wk dot com or tweet @gaeyia or follow wiedenkennedy on Twitter.

Never heard of W+K? Well, you’ve definitely seen their work. W+K, named 2007 Global Agency of the Year by AdWeek, created campaigns like “Just Do It” and “Bo Knows” for Nike and the “This is SportsCenter” campaign for ESPN. The agency’s vision:

Twenty-five years ago Dan Wieden and David Kennedy quit their jobs to start a different kind of ad agency. A place where people would come to do the best work of their careers. A place for creating provocative, interesting brands that people actually care about. That kind of advertising became known as “the work,” and everything else came second. Before ego. Before politics. Before sleep. Before “the prudent thing to do.” Wieden+Kennedy was created to be a place where the work came first.

Staying true to that mission, Wieden+Kennedy has helped create some of the strongest brands in the world  and, in the process made clients like Nike, ESPN and Miller High Life a part of popular culture.

This one should be a lot of fun.

Update: If this format isn’t your cup of tea, pencil in July 16 for the next Portland Lunch 2.0.

Upcoming Events

• Friday, June 13 - gWave, San Diego
• Friday, June 20 - TBA, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 27 - TBA, Fremont, East Bay
• Monday, June 30 - Wieden+Kennedy, Portland <- This event.
• Wednesday, July 16 - souk, Portland

Bacon and OpenID were the themes at yesterday afternoon’s Lunch 2.0, graciously hosted by OpenID provider Vidoop.

Vidoop’s new office space in Old Town held about 100 or so people who milled in and out, tasting culinary delights, including bacon, from Fords on 5th, which is conveniently located on the ground floor of the same building.

Mitch Savage and Scott Kveton kicked off the event with some swag giveaways, Vidoop hardhats, and then the eating and networking began. Joel Norvell, CEO of Vidoop, and I chatted about the epic roadtrip their Tulsa office is making out to Portland, which apparently will be broadcast, a first of its kind.

Thanks to everyone at Vidoop for the hospitality, especially to Kevin Fox, who organized the event, and then got stuck manning the door for half an hour.

Aaron Hockley has a recap and great set of photos (including all the ones on this post) on Flickr from the event. His notes that the crowd attending has shifted from purely geeks to include more Twitterati and other non-geeks. Jason Harris also noticed the shift. Kelly Guimont has also beaten me to the punch with a recap.

I love the diversity of Portland in general, and it’s great to see it reflected in our Lunch 2.0s. All the hardcore geeks are still coming, and now, we’re cross-pollinating with people who are new to the tech scene. If you don’t know, Portland is happening place, e.g. last night there were three events at night, LiSA08, Strands private beta meetup and GoLife Mobile’s open house, and today, RailsConf 2008 starts.

Lunch 2.0 gives people who can’t attend evening or weekend events a chance to be part of the scene.

Looking ahead, Wieden+Kennedy has set a date for the next Portland Lunch 2.0, June 30. The brainchild of Gaia Borgias Brown, this one will be a little different and a little more fun than your average Lunch 2.0. This is just a teaser; watch this space for full details in early June.

I’ve also got a few leads for July and August, so it looks like the Portland chapter will live on for a few more months.

Upcoming Events

• Thursday, May 30 - Wishingline, Toronto
• Wednesday, June 4 - Topix, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 13 - gWave, San Diego
• Friday, June 20 - TBA, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 27 - TBA, Fremont, East Bay
• Monday, June 30 - Wieden+Kennedy, Portland

Hey-o! Topix is hosting us for lunch 2.0 in a few weeks in sunny Palo Alto - and they’ve got a taco truck. That’s right. Unlimited taco truck action. Need I say more?

Hosts: Topix
Address: 1001 Elwell Court, Palo Alto, CA 94303
Date: Wednesday, June 4th, 2008, 12:00PM - 2:00PM
RSVP on Upcoming - they’ve got space for about 150 people, so RSVP soon!

For more info about topix, check out their about section, their jobs page, and their blog!

Upcoming (and some past) Events (since the last time I bothered posting)

• Friday, May 23 - XS4ALL, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Wednesday, May 29 - Vidoop, Portland
• Thursday, May 30 - Wishingline, Toronto
• Wednesday, June 4 - Topix, Silicon Valley THIS EVENT!
• Friday, June 13 - gWave, San Diego
• Friday, June 20 - TBA, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 27 - TBA, Fremont, East Bay

A year ago I had a dream.

The dream was to bring Lunch 2.0 to San Francisco, saving all that carbon necessary to make the long trek down to South Bay.

In short, my dream was to save the world (and my pocketbook) one free lunch at a time.

And so, the weather in San Francisco turns warm(ish) again and it’s time to kick off another Summer of Lunch. And who better than a Lunch 2.0 alumnus and soon-to-be-part-of-CBS CNET who graciously opens up their BNET Speaker series:

Hosts: BNET
Address: 235 Second Street, (Liquid Hot) Magma Conference Room. San Francisco, CA 94105
Date: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 10:45AM-1PM
RSVP on Upcoming

Note the time: that’s because it starts with a Q&A between News.com Editor-in-Chief, Dan Farber, grilling Mary Jo Foley about her new book on Microsoft. Seating is limited so be sure to RSVP on Upcoming.

And just so you know that Lunch 2.0 is still alive and kicking…

Upcoming (and some past) Events (since the last time I bothered posting)

• Wednesday, March 12 - familienfreund, Leipzig, Germany
• Friday, March 14 - Byte, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Friday, March 14 - Parker Technical, Seattle
• Thursday March 20 - I Love Photos, Honolulu, Hawaii
• Friday, March 25 - Microsoft, San Diego
• Wednesday, April 2 - Ogilvy & Mather, Financial District, San Francisco
• Thursday, April 3 - Vysr, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley
• Wednesday, April 9 - eROI, Portland
• Friday, April 18 - Nulaz, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Friday, April 25 - Ontela, Seattle
• Tuesday, April 29 - Experian, Santa Monica, Los Angeles
• Wednesday, May 7 - SocialText, Palo Alto, Silicon Valley
• Thursday May 8 - cellity, Hamburg, Germany
• Friday, May 9 - IDG Netherlands, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Friday. May 9 - Yahoo!, Burbank, Los Angeles
• Wednesday, May 14 - Citrix, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Thursday, May 15 - Xoriant, Sunnyvale, Silicon Valley
• Wednesday, May 21 - BNET, SoMa, San Francisco <– THIS EVENT!
• Friday, May 23 - XS4ALL, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Wednesday, May 29 - Vidoop, Portland
• Thursday, May 30 - Wishingline, Toronto
• Wednesday, June 4 - TBA, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 13 - gWave, San Diego
• Friday, June 20 - TBA, Santa Clara, Silicon Valley
• Friday, June 27 - TBA, Fremont, East Bay

I want you to eat my lunch!

Apparently, we’re hard to contact. Whoops! That’s because we’re flakey engineers. Heck, while you are enjoying a discussion on Microsoft and free Lunch on CNET, I’ll be delivering a snooze-fest seminar on internet architectures of consumer-facing websites using just about every buzzword I can find on my Web 2.0 bingo card.

So in case you want to host a Lunch 2.0 in the Bay Area (especially San Francisco, because I think I forgot how to drive my car), contact terry chay at tychay [at] php.net and Mark Jen at markjen [at] tagged.com, and we’ll hook you up!

Hurry up, the summer will be filling up fast!

When: Friday, June 13 @ 6:30 PM

Where: San Diego @ gWave Consulting

RSVP: on MIxergy invitation

(There’s limited space, so if you’re coming RSVP early.)

Instead of lunch, Melanie Gordon of gWave is inviting the San Diego tech community for drinks at her building’s sky box. If you’re in SD come join us. If you know someone in SD, invite them.

About gWave:
gWave has 10 years of experience building and managing exceptional online success stories. Our multi-faceted team knows how to drive your brand awareness, convert prospects to clients, measure / monitor responses and create profitable Internet marketing results.
http://gwaveconsulting.com

I spent some time at BarCamp Portland last weekend recruiting hosts for Lunch 2.0 here in Portland and talking to people about why they should host and/or attend.

It looks to be a busy summer, based on the positive reactions, and Open ID provider Vidoop will be kicking off the summer’s festivities on May 28, 2008.

Hosts: Vidoop
Where: 117 NW 5th Ave, Suite 210, Portland, OR 97209
When: Wednesday, May 28, 2008 from 12:00 to 2:00 PM
RSVP on Upcoming

Good news if you attended last month’s lunch at eROI, Vidoop is in the same building in Old Town, so you’ll know how to find them. The address is different because they have a separate entrance.

Gaia Borgias Brown from Wieden+Kennedy is planning something really great, which will take a little time to organize, so while we wait with baited breath, Vidoop has stepped up to fill our stomaches and minds with bacon.

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.

Here’s a blurb on Vidoop:

Our Mission
One username. No password.

When it comes to identity and security, the Internet is a crazy place. In real life, you don’t change your name at every store you visit. And you don’t protect your house with a front door made of cardboard.

But online, that’s exactly what we see happening. Users have separate identities at each site they visit, translating to dozens, perhaps hundreds, of usernames and passwords they have to remember. And companies spend fortunes securing their servers against attack only to have their users’ accounts compromised by passwords that can be easy to guess or steal.

For more, check out their site, and definitely take time to mouse over their corporate photo for an Easter egg. Good stuff.

If you’re wondering about the bacon meme, make sure to ask Scott Kveton, VP of Open Platforms at Vidoop, Chair at the OpenID Foundation and Chief Portvangelist.

Upcoming Events

• Wednesday, May 9th: SocialText, Palo Alto, CA
• Friday, May 12th: Yahoo!, Burbank, CA
• Monday, May 15th: Xoriant, Sunnyvale, CA
• Wednesday, May 28th: Vidoop, Portland, OR <-This event.