Hilary Mason will be giving a talk at Urban ReThink tomorrow.
This is definitely a defining moment in the history of Orlando's creative / tech / entrepreneurial scene. This is something I've been working on personally, along with hundreds of others, for what feels like forever now. That, or 7 years, whichever comes first.
Interlude:
Our charity Drupal coding event, Coding for a Cause, made it to the local paper earlier this month. It's always nice to be worthy of a picture in the paper.
Credit: Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda, Orlando Sentinel
This video just makes me want to run. Far far away from Ft. Lauderdale.
If you can't tell, this is a bit of a theme on my blog this year. Ever since I started listening to Tummelvision, I have really started to identify with this label.
Edit: If you're interested in hearing more about the practice of Tummeling, definitely watch Heather Gold's Tech Talk at Google about Designing for Conversation (How to be a Tummeler).
I gave a talk at Rollins to an MBA class about Technological Entrepreneurship, taught by a friend of mine. The bulk of it was about how I have brought my career to where it is, and the things I use to sell myself.
This is something I have been trying to articulate since the first BarCamp Orlando almost 4 years ago. The whole idea behind FooCamp and its bastard offspring BarCamp was to use Open Space Technology to create order in chaos. Our events have had both order and chaos, but the order is not ordered toward much of anything productive. Some people have started new events to achieve this: I think our BarCamp can be better on its own, but these other purposeful events wouldn't be bad either.
I just got a phone call from my brother Stefan who asked me if I had read the Orlando Weekly - it turns out I was mentioned in a Live Active Cultures column by their passionate arts contributor Seth Kubersky. Random trivia: I actually ended up supplying one of the bottle s of wine referenced in the article. Just trying to do my part!
I also want to correct one thing: I believe Seth meant to say "opened" at the end of this line:
A few weeks ago, I was visiting Cocoa Village, working out of the Ossorio coffee shop with Mike, when I got a phone call from Orlando Business Journal reporter Anjali Fluker. She asked me several questions about Coworking and what I do working out of home, coffee shops and other spaces. I told her some of the benefits of coworking, and a bit about the Urban ReThink project.
One year ago, I was approached by Julia Young, the President of a local nonprofit organization called the Urban Think! Foundation. She was charged with transforming a soon-to-be out of business local bookstore into a Coworking space, event space, and a program to support local creatives. There were hazy thoughts about having a cafe, putting in a loft, and creating a versatile space. She found me because of my numerous blogs posts about Coworking, and my involvement in the local community.
Today the Orlando Sentinel wrote a short, one-dimensional piece about our as-of-yet-unopened space at Urban ReThink in downtown Orlando. I really wish we could have a website today - one exists, but with no styling. Ugh.
