Connecting 200+ Portland startup community dots, live and in person
In my mind. I have an excuse. I spent my formative years in the shadow of Evel Knievel’s ramp. You know, the one he used when he tried to jump the Snake River Canyon strapped to a rocket? Yeah. Not exactly the most sane — or, honestly, successful — pursuit. So, I’m going to ask you to forgive me if I try some crazy stuff from time to time. But I really want to try this.
My current crazy idea? Connecting 200+ Portland community dots. Not with a happy hour or some form of cursory small talk. But, instead, with truly interesting and meaningful connections — live and in person.
But in order to do that, I could use your help. Actually, I absolutely need your help. Because this isn’t so much one of those personal goal things. It’s a goal thing that requires your participation. You know, so I have at least 200 people to connect.
Because that’s the challenge.
It’s all part of the Patreon experiment I’ve been running. Where you set goals and rewards. And here’s the gist for the current, albeit somewhat crazy, goal:
I’m all about creating connections in our community. The more connected we are, the better. When we reach 200 patrons, I’d love to try to gather all of my amazing patrons together, again. But this time, I’ll do a bunch of homework on each of the attendees so that we can make the gathering less a game of chance and more about intentional and meaningful connections among folks. So less happy hour. More connect-a-thon. With beverages. And snacks.
So if this sounds interesting to you and you’d like to participate. Or if you’d simply like to challenge me to pull this off. Maybe consider kicking in — quite literally — a buck. To help nudge that number up to 200 or so. (We’re currently sitting at around 100 patrons.)
Or maybe you think there’s something more interesting I could be doing. If that’s the case, I’d love to have your feedback and ideas on this quick Patreon survey.
Whatever the case, as an added bonus you’ll also get the random stuff I share on Patreon. And you’ll also gain access to exclusive content that I create specifically for Patreon folks. Whether they like it or not.
And you don’t have to even consider yourself part of the startup community to participate. Because that’s often better. To create more divergent connections. To expand the community. And to knit together that fabric that makes that entire ecosystem stronger.
But please note, this isn’t a requirement, a paywall, or a way of gating access. I’m still openly slaughtering the English language on this blog, as often as I can. With the hopes of highlighting what’s happening in the Portland startup community. And I’m still collecting and connecting dots around these parts, every single day.
This is just an experimental concept trying to better determine the potential value of that ad hoc community maintenance. And maybe, just maybe, a way to figure out how other folks in similar roles doing this work might find ways to support their efforts, as well.
So if it sounds interesting, great. If not, let’s just keep on keeping on. (But secretly, I’m hoping you participate.)
For more information or to participate, visit Rick Turoczy on Patreon.
Originally published at https://siliconflorist.com on May 2, 2019.
