A Portland Excursion in Review

Holy crap, what happened last week?

I’m not even sure if I’m equipped to write about this yet. Not to sound overly dramatic, but I don’t know that I’m fully recovered enough to recall the specific details that I am dying to share. And I want to do the events of the past week justice.

Where to begin? Well, maybe I’ll let the photos do the talking this time.

Here’s a Friday before the conference &yet snuggle to begin:

@danielchbarnes @fritzy & @hjon share a team lunch snuggle

That’s a Sugarfree Redbull (office staple), our intern Daniel, the infamous Fritzy von Fritzinstein and office conductor, Hjon.

The next day, five of us (Adam Bro, Bladwin, Henrik, Fritzy & myself) drove over to Portland to meet up with Miss Mel, conference director.

Hotel HQ

This was our room (Mel & I) which also doubled as Grand Central Box Station/all things conf warehouse.

It was here/on the phone with Mel that the coffee/grinding/Chemex idea was born just hours before RedisConf.

First night, before the delirium set in. Thanks @theone1lee for my specially delivered glasses.

Sunday it was pouring rain. Literally buckets. And people were running around downtown in a marathon. I guess that would have motivated me to get to the finish line too, or where ever dry towels and hot drinks were being kept.

That created some curious obstacles for us to get to the venue for the training, Urban Airship. After some illegal maneuvering by Miss Felony herself, we made it. And we got to meet Internet Luke.

This was also the day we had the pleasure of having Eric Holscher as an excellent host. He’s the best, FYI.

Shared this on Twitter before, but this was what greeted me when I opened the box of RealtimeConf passports from Pinball Publishing. So awesome.

Other members of the team arrived that day, during the training, to help with the assembly of the boxes. Mel and I did a bit of crazy running around due to coffeeconf and dietary needs!

But we came back to the hotel and split lunch at The Original where I got to snap this shot of my hero, Miss Mel Brown.

Mel was the conference director, whereas Adam was the conference visionary. Mel had the people, products, food, placement, everything planned out. This lady worked out the timing of events for 4 days with insight that I am wholly enamored with!

I was basically a PA running around just making sure that her hard work and Adam’s vision went as planned.

Anyway, Sunday night was spent divided in two teams – box team and RedisConf setup at The Cleaners team. Wish I had taken more photos there.

Here’s one from the sound check of Sicilian Rhapsody:

That’s Gar, famous for HeyTrophy.com, on lead vocals. Wish I had a video to post for this, but I don’t think it’s quite ready yet.

Or maybe you’re not quite ready yet. I know I’m not ready yet.

Anyway, much work was done (like crazy, unimaginable, back-breaking loads of work) behind the scenes. If you appreciate any of the swag, make sure to send a shout out to Amy, Julie, Shenoa, Isaac, Luke, Gar, or Lance. They made it happen.

We ended the night at Sizzle Pie, home of some ridiculously delicious vegan pizza. This is also where I got to meet Max Williams of Pusher and Ben Arent of Redis To Go. The best part is that Julie could not tell them apart for the rest of our time there, even though they looked nothing alike and had different accents. I think she had a temporary case of foreigner blindness.

Monday was RedisConf! Although Mel and I spent very little time there. Clyde Common did an amazing lunch with the best grilled goat cheese sandwich I have ever had, and at the very end I took this photo:

Can you spot the Fritzy?

That night was spent frantically moving stuff around to prep for the tear down of RedisConf and the setup of RealtimeConf. Bear, Bladwin, Gar & Hjon were pretty crucial in making that happen.

What would we do without these guys?

Later that night, we wound RedisConf down and kicked RealtimeConf off with a party at The Cleaners. I took this photo of Mel and her famed portrait by Robbie Augspurger.

The next day, Tuesday, was RealtimeConf. One group headed out early to the venue, to prepare for the opening ceremonies. The rest of us stayed at the hotel to welcome attendees with a mini flag and table number.

And then, the buses came.

Here’s a shot of Adam Baldwin that he won’t like. Note the Redbull.

There’s Adam.

The buses, though behind in schedule, transported attendees to a nearby parking lot where a hipster marching band awaited.

They were super cute.

The marching band marched us into the venue and it was about one of the coolest fricking things I have ever been a part of. <3 <3 <3

March, march, march.

Past these dudes with some awesome signs. (Secretly painted by @missfelony and myself)

Here’s a video of the entry, the drumline part is my fave.

http://youtu.be/OLdIBVOwTyw

That’s Adam opening the door, and Bear is perfect at the entry :)

Pure Space is what attendees walked into.

It’s a pretty amazing spot for events.

There’s part of the dream team, below:

Hjon, Nate VW, Henrik & Adam

Day One went awesome, between the food truck outdoors (not tacos) and the secret children’s choir at closing…it was pretty awesome.

Here’s a short video of the Shine Children’s Chorus’ performance of the Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dVzqYPbE2g

Thankfully it cuts away so you don’t hear me audibly crying. That was a crazy cathartic moment where everything came together and was just so perfect in all of its seemingly disastrous imperfections that led to that exact moment.

End Day One

Later that night – D.O.C. Dinner Party

There’s Internet Luke again, savoring some fine Italian cuisine. I think Mel and I were both at our wits’ end but wanted to participate in the overall experience of the conference.

Meanwhile, others were at BEAST and the open bar at The Original. I’m pretty sure everyone had an awesome time Tuesday night.

Day Two, or Wednesday, as everyone else in the world affectionately called it, was a lot more low key. I mean, we did kick it off with kazoos and banjo music, but other than that low key.

See Miss Mel just overseeing things?

See yetis just peacefully doing work?

See people entering Ben Michel’s old school computer contest?

It was weird to change gears like that, but in retrospect, I suppose it was good to begin winding things down.

Los Gorditos catered lunch (again, not tacos) and later we surprised attendees with a very authentically realtime and Portland snack – Rocket & Robot VooDoo Donuts.

They were soo pretty.

Note the maple bar.

The final talk of RealtimeConf was Adam’s. I found a video of it here.

I wish I had been able to catch and invest in the whole thing. The photos of Katie and Ephraim, when flashed on the screen, absolutely devastated me. It’s something crazy, being a parent…how you can be running about frantically and still have something so small cut you right to the core, crazy. Thankfully I was able to squeeze in a hug from Julie :)

And then it was over!

I’m not sure what else to say about that. It felt like all too soon I was back at the hotel, eating dinner with Mel and her awesome friends Leah and Amy, wondering what comes next?

Later that night, I got to talk to a newly clean shaven Adam and Mel. I love this photo. Especially how we all look a little bummed that it’s over. Don’t get me wrong, I had a blast, but I wasn’t anticipating the empty feeling that night of “Oh man, it’s over.”