While the moniker “PDX” is often used as shorthand for Portland, Oregon, it can admittedly be a bit confusing. Especially when the airport comes into the conversation. That’s why City Cast Portland — no doubt inspired by the revered erudite modern day poet and philosopher Pitbull, aka Mr. 305 — has decided to adopt an area-code-based moniker for their proposed new “totally real” Portland holiday, 503 Day. Plus, it’s kind of one of those date based things. May 3. Month 5. Day 3. Get it…?

While we’ve had a bunch of accelerator activity — off and on — in the Portland area for years, it’s amazing to see these sorts of efforts taking hold throughout the state. One of the new and most interesting accelerators in that regard is the Oregon Unmanned Aerial Systems Accelerator out in Pendleton — the drone one. They recently announced their first application period. And now they’ve announced a new executive director to guide the program, Joseph Wyno.

Yes. True. But what does that have to do with anything…? Well, it has to do with the fact that UpStart Collective hosts a First Friday gathering on the — you guessed it — first Friday of every month for the Portland startup community. And that means that you’re invited.

Of course there’s a company in Bend that’s building an EV dirt bike. I should have already known that. Especially after any number of Oregon forays into new types of motorcycles. (Remember Ryno…?) Now, we’ve got Dust Moto.

Free, as Tom Peterson used to say, is a very good price. Especially when it’s for a booth at CascadiaJS, the premier Pacific Northwest JavaScript developer conference. But free won’t last forever. If you want to apply for this unique opportunity, applications are due May 3, 2024.

Too bad. You missed the deadline. Oh wait. It’s been extended, you lucky procrastinator you. So if you want to propose a talk with the hopes of taking the stage at the largest event focused on WordPress in the United States, you’ve still got time. And if you live in Portland, you don’t even have to travel very far to participate. Because it’s being held here. So why not apply…?

It’s been almost a decade since the launch of Mayday! Deep Space. And while yelling at “intelligent” devices to get them to set timers or tell you the weather or recite random facts seems like commonplace now, it wasn’t really that common back in 2015. Which is what made the game so interesting.

As the in-person activity in our community continues to ramp back up to pre-pandemic levels, a familiar problem has returned: We have a number of folks wanting to host events who don’t have space to host them. That’s why it’s nice to see NedSpace raising their proverbial hand as a location for community events.

Portland isn’t big on “networking” events. But when I’m in other towns, I definitely encounter my fair share of them. I don’t do well in those environments. At all. And it’s really a skill that startup founders kinda have to have. So if you’re like me and feel like you could use a little glow up on your networking abilities, maybe consider the Equitable Networking workshop.