Refresh Portland a success

[Michael Sigler]

Last night was our very first Refresh Portland and I have to say I
think we did great! A huge thank you for the generous turnout we had.
It was very exciting to see so many people gathered around the same
topic.

You probably know this by now but Refresh Portland is a monthly meetup
and presentation where we bring designers and others interested in
design together. We hope to teach them something they didn’t know and
give them something to use in the real world. We packed the house with
somewhere between 50-60 people. We just barely had enough chairs for
the space that Jive graciously lended to us.

First off, Tyler’s presentation was awesome. Major props to Tyler for
being our guinea pig and giving the first presentation. His energy and
passion really came through. He kept things simple, relevant and to
the point. The key message I brought home was to remember, “Stop
designing websites and start designing experiences.”

Of course we’re still working out the kinks. The elevator broke down.
We almost didn’t get ustream working. I accidentally stole John’s
Refresh introduction. Next time we hope to get free access to the
elevator and side door for everyone during the Refresh hour. We’ll
also try and do a better job of greeting everyone and making them feel
welcome. In general we were running around like chickens with our
heads cutoff. It was a great time and we look forward to improving
it.

I’m really thankful for the support of everyone who came. I can’t wait
to convert more visitors to presenters in the future. Someone in our
audience has something really interesting to say that I know we’ll all
want to hear.

You can catch the recording here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/refresh-portland-(9.10.08)---tyler-sticka
Ignore the first 4 minutes of my nervous rambling and just jump to
Tyler being a badass.

Also be sure to check out Tyler's site at: http://tylersticka.com/

We're very eager to hear your feedback. Any designer worth their salt
can take criticism to heart and turn it back into something awesome.
So what did you think? How can we do better?