Welcome To TechfestNW

There's a revolution going on in Portland.

For the first time, Portland's high-tech talent pool this year grew faster than that of both Austin, Texas, and Silicon Valley. Companies like co-working startup WeWork are moving across the country to be here—just as e-bankers Simple did four years ago. Google is expanding its office in downtown Portland. The face of Portland technology is changing faster than ever before.

So it's fitting that in its fourth year, TechfestNW will move into the new Revolution Hall on Thursday and Friday, Aug. 20-21.

This week TFNW hosts a wide range of innovators—the digital animators behind the onscreen monsters of NBC series Grimm, the smartest minds at the bleeding edge of video games and virtual reality, thinkers reimagining the future of robots and drones, and scientists at the forefront of mapping the weed genome.

As the Portland tech industry expands, it's no longer enough just to get our leading thinkers and entrepreneurs together in a room to network, party and trade ideas—although there'll be plenty of that, too, from cocktail hours to an arcade room featuring old-school games from Ground Kontrol alongside new-school games from the Portland Indie Game Squad that you can play right alongside their creators.

TechfestNW will also try to help local businesses find talent—and help young startups connect with investors who could help fund their bold ideas. A talent fair will match coders and content creators with companies that are hiring. And at a venture capital "speed dating" event, startups will pitch their ideas and maybe—just maybe—walk out with a check.

On Saturday and Sunday, Techfest will continue with a series of hands-on workshops, including a session with graphics pioneer Ward Cunningham, bitcoin sessions and courses on how to best pitch your ideas.

There's no way to know what the Portland tech scene will look like this time next year. But TechfestNW offers a state of the union on exactly where it is right now—and a road map for how to be a part of it. What follows is more information about speakers and events during TFNW.

GO: TechfestNW is at Revolution Hall, 1300 SE Stark St., 288-3895. Thursday-Friday, Aug. 20-21. Tickets and more details at techfestnw.com.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20

8 am—Breakfast networking

Before the day's programming, Whole Foods will provide breakfast for all attendees.

8 am–2 pm—Talent Fair

Free for TechfestNW attendees and $10 for job seekers.

Steve Brown—CEO, Possibility and Purpose LLC
Topic: "How Computing Will Change the World. Again."

As resident futurist at Intel, Brown envisioned the impact of computing for the decade to come. He regularly is sought by news companies from BBC and CNN to Wired for insight on what's next and has given popular talks for both TED and C2 Montreal. As CEO of Possibility and Purpose, Brown consults with a wide spectrum of companies and organizations spanning the transportation, retail, health care, media and entertainment sectors to help them decode the future of computing.

Latoya Peterson—owner and editor, Racialicious.com
Topic: "Rethinking Mobile: Beyond Devices."

One of Forbes magazine's 30 Under 30 rising stars in media for 2013, Latoya Peterson, deputy editor at Fusion's Voices, is best known for the award-winning blog Racialicious, about the intersection of race and pop culture. She has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Essence, Vibe and Spin, among others, and has worked with brands like NPR, Wikipedia, and Weber Shandwick to provide demographic analysis, ideas on improving user experience and specialized outreach. 

Brittany Laughlin—general manager, Union Square Ventures
Topic: "How to stop talking about diversity and actually do something about it."

Brittany Laughlin is general manager at Union Square Ventures (USV), a venture capital firm that manages $1 billion in assets. Its portfolio companies include Twitter, SoundCloud, Tumblr, Foursquare, Zynga and Kickstarter, among many others. Prior to USV, Laughlin founded Incline, which helped military veterans transition to technology jobs, and co-founded Gtrot, a social travel-recommendation engine. 

OGO Arcade Lounge

Attendees are invited to play locally made indie games courtesy of PIGSquad as well as old-school arcade games from Ground Kontrol.

Corey Pein—founder, Laborize
Topic: "The Dark Side of the Sharing Economy."

Corey Pein is a former Willamette Week staff writer who went on to crash and burn in startupland—twice. His forthcoming book,  tentatively titled How to Make $30 Billion the Silicon Valley Way, will be published by Metropolitan Books (Holt, New York). He also has written for the Santa Fe Reporter, Columbia Journalism Review, The American Prospect, Salon, Slate, CounterPunch, Foreign Policy, the Awl and The Baffler. Pein is also the founder of seed-stage startup Laborize, which offers strikes as a service.

Mowgli Holmes—chief scientific officer, Phylos Bioscience
Topic: "The Marijuana Genome Project."

Mowgli Holmes is a biologist trained in molecular genetics, microbiology and evolutionary theory, with a Ph.D. from Columbia University. As chief scientific officer of biotechnology company Phylos Bioscience, he is on the forefront of studying the cannabis genome. Holmes is a member of the rules advisory committee responsible for implementing the legal cannabis system recently created by Measure 91 in Oregon. He'll discuss the genome project with Lauren Terry,  a freelance writer for Willamette Week, Dope Magazine and Weedhorn Media. 

“Virtual Reality—Will It Be as Big as Smartphones?” Panel 

This will be a panel discussion on the future of virtual reality with three people at the forefront of the new technology: Justi n Moravetz (ZeroTransform), Gabe Paez (Wild) and Thomas Hayden (360 Labs). Moderated by Rachel Metz of MIT Technology Review.

Zoe Quinn—founder, Crash Override Network 
Topic: “They Told Me I Could Be Anything I Wanted When I Grew Up, So I Became a Cyborg.”

Zoe Quinn is an independent game developer, author, artist and activist. After being a target of GamerGate, she went on to co-found the Crash Override Network, an online harassment help line and resource center.

Keynote: Clark James—president, HIVE FX
Topic: "Crossing the Uncanny Valley."

A former animator with Portland's legendary Will Vinton Studios, Clark (with Gretchen Miller) is the co-parent, creative director and president of HIVE, a Portland visual effects and animation studio that employs 35 artists in the creation of complex visual sequences for films, national commercials and the original children's program Firehouse Tales, and the digital creature effects for the NBC series Grimm.

eBay party

Attendees are invited to enjoy drinks, Smokehouse Tavern barbecue and networking on the rooftop of Revolution Hall.  DJ, music, games and fun.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 21

8 am—Breakfast networking

Before the day's programming, Whole Foods will provide breakfast for all attendees.

8 am–2 pm—Talent Fair

Free for TechfestNW attendees and $10 for job seekers.

John Markoff—The New York Times
& G. Pascal Zachary—School for the Future of Innovation at Arizona State University
Discussion: "Robots and the Future of Jobs."

The coming robot revolution and the vital importance of keeping humans in the loop with our "machines of loving grace" is the subject of a blunt conversation between New York Times science writer John Markoff and technology historian G. Pascal Zachary.

Rian Van Der Merwe—product design director, Jive Software
Topic: "Why Enterprise Software Sucks (and How to Unsuck It)."

Rian Van Der Merwe is a software designer and author of the book Making It Right, dedicated to helping teams make their strategy real by designing and building products that deliver measurable business results.

Dave Sanders, M.D.—CEO and founder, ZoomCare and ZOOM+ Health Insurance
Topic: "Using Technology to Disrupt Health Care."

Dave Sanders, M.D., cofounder and CEO of ZOOM+ Performance Health Insurance, will describe how he's disrupting health care as we know it by building a proprietary, full-stack tech solution from the ground up.

Vidya Spandana—chief growth officer, Popily
Topic: "Shifting the Power—Using Tech, Data, Storytelling for a Stronger Democracy."

Vidya Spandana is a tech entrepreneur, an adviser to city and federal government, and an advocate for partnerships between the private and public sectors. In the early days of the Internet, she co-founded one of the first successful government tech companies (DMV.org) while in college and turned it into a multi-million-dollar business by the time she earned her computer science and engineering degree. 

OGO Arcade Lounge

Attendees are invited to play locally made indie games courtesy of PIGSquad as well as old-school arcade games from Ground Kontrol.

Jonathan Evans—CEO, Skyward
Topic: “Silicon Skies Over Portland: Drones and the Next Era of Aviation.”

"Geeky pilot" Jonathan Evans was a professional pilot for 18 years, a three-time startup co-founder. He was an aircraft and air mission commander for the Army's 236th Medical Company, and part of the Army's 12th Aviation Battalion, an aviation unit charged with protecting the Washington, D.C., area and flying presidential cabinet members, congressmen and top Pentagon officials. As CEO of Skyward, Jonathan and his team are powering the global aerial robotics network and ushering in the next era of aviation.

“The future is here: How Augmented Reality Will Transform Everything.”  Panel

Panel discussion on augmented reality—views of the world augmented with additional digital information—with Ryan Fink (OnTheGo Platforms), Milos Jovanovic (SpaceView), Raven Zachary (Object Theory). Moderated by Rachel Metz (MIT Technology Review).

Ryan Grepper—inventor, the Coolest cooler 
Topic: “Life After Kickstarter.” 

Oregon's own Ryan Grepper is the founder of Coolest, whose multifunction cooler became the most-funded Kickstarter campaign of all time in 2014, raising $13.2 million from 62,000 backers in record-breaking time. He'll talk about what happens after you get the funding—and the challenges that come with the opportunity of sudden success. The Coolest cooler started shipping to customers in July 2015, just 10 months after the Kickstarter campaign closed.

Keynote: Jesse Schell—founder, Schell Games
Topic: “Practical Techniques for Predicting the Future.” 

Jesse Schell is CEO of Schell Games, the largest game-design and development company in Pennsylvania, and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Schell has worked on a wide variety of innovative game and simulation projects, and is best known for his award-winning book, The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses.

PIGSquad GameJam Premiere

After a weeklong hackathon, the teams of the Portland Indie Game Squad will premiere the games they made on the big screen at Revolution Hall.

WWeek 2015