I’ll Be Speaking at WordCamp: Las Vegas

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at WordCamp: Las Vegas in January, presenting Beyond Beer and Blog: How WordPress and Social Media Exploded the Portland Tech Scene.

A few years ago, Portland had a tech scene but it was mostly quiet with various groups hanging out in their own little silos. In the past two years, social media tools including blogs and microblogging have enabled a vibrant, public tech scene where online relationships have gone real-life, with crowds now meeting for a variety of events.

I’m going to explore how the local blog scene and other social media have brought folks together. Over the next couple of months, I’ll be talking to all sorts of Portlandy-types about their thoughts on our social media usage. Yes, that includes the Portland Twitter scene and of course #bacon. A big focus of my talk will be about how online activities have led to offline gatherings including group events like Ignite Portland, Side Project to Startup, and the Portland edition of Lunch 2.0. In addition to the formal events, services such as Shizzow and Twitter facilitate impromptu meetups.

The growth of the Portland social media and tech scene has been a fun ride, and I look forward to sharing it with the attendees of WordCamp: Las Vegas.

WordCamp: Las Vegas is January 10-11, 2009.