Yesterday, it seemed, offered one event to follow the next. Stacked like cordwood were morning meetings, lunch appointments and the like. By late afternoon, we (which consists of summer intern Bowman Leigh, McIsaac, and your correspondent) found our way over to the Lucky Lab for the Substance Summit. Pinch pal David Lowe-Rogstad issued this simple challenge: If you don't like what's happening (in the creative community) around you, we challenge you to do better. Fair enough. The event, which reached out to a collection of writers, programmers, designers, coders and musicians proved two-fold. First, to get these folks in the same room, and then, to get the conversation started. I believe that happened. General concerns were well considered; this thing needs a little structure and the space needs to be more conducive to sharing ideas. Also fair but with that, we should keep in mind that the structure we seek is exactly what challenges the establishment; AIGA, PAF, ASMP, AMA, and the other alphabet organizations. Structure is the new black.
Following the Summit, we made our way to the Annual Meeting for The Forest Park Conservancy at KEEN's headquarters. Director Michelle Bussard provided her own call-to-action with regard to this most important Portland resource. Stories were shared by the Friends of Forest Park faithful, we managed to bag a raffle spiff or two, and raised an ale (or more) to FPC for a productive year. In all, we thought the gathering was composed of a strong crowd and was a fine way to cap an otherwise perfect Portland evening.
Obligatory shouts out to: Chauncey Canfield, Kevin Tate, Rick Turoczy, Barry Wall, Joaquin Lippincott, Ryan Smythe, Melissa Lion, Cory Duncan and many, many others. (Oh, and what the hell. Yes, Steve Gehlen was there, but you knew that.) Kudos to DL-R, Steven, and the gents at Substance for making the call. At KEEN, it was good to meet Rick Potestio, Andrea Schwartz, Jeff Hough, Carl Wetzel and the others for whom I've forgotten names but not faces. And always good to see Chris Enlow, CJ DeWaal, Terrie Thompson, Stephen Hatfield and of course, Michelle Bussard. Derek Smith? Anyone? Smith? We're proud of The Forest Park Conservancy and we would be remiss if we didn't provide a hefty shout-out to our very own Lisa Micek-Hillerns, who, at least in part, helped to bring this year's annual meeting to life. We're especially proud of you, young lady.
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