The End of Mobile Portland

In December 2007, Lyza, Aileen, John and I decided to start Mobile Portland so we would have place to talk about mobile.

After eight years, Mobile Portland is coming to an end. Tonight is the final meeting.

Over the years we’ve had some amazing speakers and topics. I’m proud of the quality of the talks and the community we built.

We also inadvertently started a worldwide open device lab movement. It’s been amazing to see device labs spread and know they started in Portland.

I’d like to thank everyone who attended a meeting and those who helped out in any way. Every small contribution lifted a huge burden off the shoulders of frantic organizers.

I want to extend a special thank you to my co-founders at Cloud Four for helping get Mobile Portland off the ground and funding it; Matt Gifford for organizing so many meetings; Seth Shikora for recording nearly every meeting we’ve held; and to Elia Freedman, Dylan Boyd and Rob Mills for being the best board members I could have asked for.

But before Mobile Portland rides off into the sunset, we have one final meeting tonight, and it is going to be the best one yet!

I can’t think of a better speaker and a more fitting topic than Josh Clark talking about Magical UX and the Internet of Things. This is the next frontier of technology and mobile plays a bit part in it.

This will also be our largest meeting ever. We’ve had to create a waitlist for the first time so if you’ve already RSVP’d and are unable to make it tonight, please update your RSVP so people on the waitlist can attend.

Since we announced the end of Mobile Portland, people keep asking me two questions. First, “Why end Mobile Portland when there is still a lot of interest?”

Because eight years is a long time to do anything and instead of the group gradually winding down and losing relevance, we made the decision to go out on top.

The second, inevitable question is, “What’s next?”

I’m pleased to say that I can finally answer that question. Let me tell you about Responsive Field Day.