Proud and grateful to live in Portland

January 23, 2015

This week, I am particularly proud and grateful to live in Portland. Why?

Wednesday night, I attended an event co-sponsored by the Portland Development Commission and leading technology companies in the area that have joined together to promote and enhance Portland’s tech environment.

One highlight of the evening was a video, produced by John Waller’s fabulously talented Uncage the Soul Video Productions, that featured people who moved to Portland from other cities to work in the tech industry here.  Aside from the fact that the work from Uncage the Soul is always superb, what set this one apart was that the techies featured in the video were not predominantly white-and-male!  You can see the video here and learn more about TechTown Portland here.

After the video, representatives of several of the key sponsor companies made brief remarks.  The best comments came from Sam Blackman, CEO of Elemental Technologies, who said, much more eloquently than I, that Portland is the best place in the world to live and that Portland truly welcomes and values diversity!

John Waller and Sam Blackman are two examples of exceptionally bright, talented, thoughtful people who value the most important things in life.  It is a privilege to know them and to live in Portland with them!