Lunch 2.0

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

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.

. . . did Portlanders chomp at the second installment of Lunch 2.0 yesterday afternoon at eROI?

Before the answer, here’s a recap. About 60 people wandered in and out of eROI to enjoy the good company and grub. I had to head out early, but when I left, the place was buzzing.

I saw a lot of new faces, in addition to some I’d seen at the first Lunch 2.0 at AboutUs. It helped to have huge name tags, with plenty of room for name, company and most importantly, Twitter handle.

Twitter is our communication channel of choice here in Portland. According to TwitterLocal, Portland is number 14 on the list of the top Twitter locations. So, here in PDX, it’s best to introduce yourself first by handle first, then by real name.

Andy Van Oostrum kicked off the lunch with a short bit about eROI, and then the eating began. After some chomping, Andy picked winners for eROI swag out of the business card fishbowl, and even if they didn’t win, everyone went home full.

Since I didn’t stay long, here are some reactions I collected from Twitter.

harrisja : @jkuramot lunch 2.0 was really great today. great venue and great company. the food totally rocket too

ryanbuch : after the fact, but Andy did an awesome job w/ Lunch 2.0 at eROI today. Great to connect w/ a bunch of tech twitter geeks in P’town.

vidoop : Portland Lunch 2.0 was lots of fun… such a long walk back down to 2nd floor *whew* check out http://calagator.wordpress…. for mo’evnts

bobuva : Met some great people at Lunch 2.0! Portland is where it’s at if you’re technical and want to make the world a better place

xolotl : thanks @eroi for a fantastic lunch 2.0!

dodeja : just got back from lunch 2.0 @eROI meet a few cool people

simBateman : Back at the office after meeting a ton of people at Lunch 2.0. That was a good time

donpdonp : at backspace cafe for the afternoon after a fun lunch 2.0. thanks @eroi!

pixelmatrix : back from lunch 2.0! was fun guys

grigs : Had fun at Lunch 2.0. Thanks to eROI and @voostru for hosting. Thanks to @jkuramot for organizing.

alexcwilliams : Good crowd, good coversations at lunch 2.0, looking forward to the next one. Who wants to host?

Big thanks to Andy, Ryan, Alex and the eROI crew for opening their offices to Lunch 2.0 and providing tasty food from their neighbors, Good Taste Restaurant.

Plans for the next installment have already been hatched. I spoke to Gaia Borgias Brown about bringing Lunch 2.0 to Wieden+Kennedy next.

If you’re in Portland and are on the fence about Lunch 2.0, check out Rick Turoczy’s 5 Reasons to Attend.

Portland has a myriad of other activities, if you want to mix and mingle. As proof, the monthly Portland Werewolf session was last night, just hours after Lunch 2.0.

If you made it this far, here’s the answer: we downed 100 pounds of tasty Chinese food yesterday, w00t!

After about 50 or so people showed up at the first Lunch 2.0 in Portland, we decided ad hoc to keep the ball rolling. So, without further ado, here are the details for the next Lunch 2.0 in Portland:

Hosts: eROI
Where: 505 NW Couch, Suite 300, Portland, Oregon, 97209
When: Wednesday, April 9, 2008 from 12:00 to 1:30 PM
RSVP on Upcoming.

If you’re not in Portland, but know someone who is, please spread the love. Everyone is invited. EROI’s offices are in historic Old Town Portland, home of the “Made in Oregon” neon sign, the only neon sign in downtown.

Here’s a blurb on eROI:

We Do Everything OnlineThe core of our services is firmly rooted in email marketing and interactive, combining compelling design services with innovative online marketing software. Our proficiencies lie in establishing powerful brands online through email marketing campaigns, e-commerce websites, blogs and social networking sites. It’s no mystery that users actually rule the web, whether through web applications, user-driven content, shopping online, using email, or simply that much of what we do is based on getting visits, capturing leads, and converting sales.

Therefore, we aren’t looking for subjects. We want partners.

Upcoming Events

• Wednesday, March 12th — familienfreund, Leipzig, Germany
• Friday, March 14th — Byte, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Friday, March 14th — Parker Technical, Seattle
• Wednesday, March 20th — Blue Lava Technologies (ilovephotos.com), Honolulu, Hawaii
• Wednesday, April 2nd — TBA, FiDi, San Francisco
• Wednesday, April 9th — eROI, Portland, OR <– This event

Yesterday, about 50 geeks and non-geeks gathered at AboutUs.org in their sweet, newly-remodeled space in the Olympic Mills Commerce Center for the inaugural Portland Lunch 2.0. The event felt very Portland with no formal agenda and no presentations, just a good lunch with good people.

Ray King kicked off the lunch with an introduction. Then Ward Cunningham, the wiki-father, took the chair for a few minutes. Finally, Mark Dilley talked about the Portland chapter of Wiki Wednesday, and we were off to mingle, chat and chomp on pesto sandwiches and pasta. Oh yeah, and Josh Bancroft had an Eee PC to show off to the gadget-hungry.

Check out some pictures from Eddie Awad and Aaron Hockley.

One of the few I took was of Web Worker Daily blogger Jason Harris and his classic geeky name tags. Only at a Lunch 2.0 would you have attendees identifying themselves by name and Twitter handle. Portland has embraced Twitter and has a very active group of tweeters, so I guess this makes sense.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the event, and lots of people asked when the next one was. We’re hoping to keep a regular pace, not every week though. This is Portland. We like to take it easy. Maybe every six weeks, maybe more often if we get lots of requests to host.

Speaking of hosts, Andy Van Oostrum wants to bring the next Portland Lunch 2.0 to eROI. We’re ironing out the details now, probably early April.

If you’re in Portland or interested in the scene here, check out these sites:

• Fast Wonder: Dawn Foster has a hand in just about every techie gathering or event in Portland, including Lunch 2.0 which she helped organized, natch.
• Silicon Florist: Rick Turoczy knows all about the startup scene in Portland.
• Portland on Fire: Raven Zachary set out on a quest to profile a Portlander every day in 2008, not just geeks, but anyone. Very cool stuff that highlights the diversity of the Rose City.

Again, big thanks to Ray, Keith, Mark, Ward and the whole AboutUs crew for their hospitality and swag. Everyone knows you can never have too many coffee mugs, and I’m enjoying this morning’s coffee in my brand new AboutUs mug, w00t!

Upcoming Events

On the heels of the highly successful Ignite Portland 2 and just before Startupalooza, Portland will host its first Lunch 2.0.

Hosts: AboutUs.org

Where: 107 SE Washington Street, Suite 520, Portland, OR 97214

When: February 27, 2008 from 12:00 to 1:30 PM

RSVP on Upcoming.

If you’re not in Portland, but know someone who is, please spread the love. Everyone is invited.
Here’s a blurb on AboutUs:

AboutUs is a wiki whose goal is to create a free and valuable Internet resource containing information both about websites and other community created topics/information. The site was pre-populated with information about many different websites and thousands of updates are now being made by people each day.

For more information, check them out here.

Update: The venue can only hold about 60 people, and we already have 43 attending on Upcoming. So, the guestlist is closed. Never fear, there will be more, bigger, and better Lunch 2.0’s in Portland. 

Upcoming Events

• Tuesday, February 12 - TBA, Mountain View, Silicon Valley
• Thursday, February 14 - Blurb, San Francisco
• Friday, February 15 - blist, Seattle
• Wednesday, February 27 - AboutUs.org, Portland <- This event!
• TBD - Blue Lava Technology, Honolulu, HI