I wrote a post a few weeks ago about what was shakin' in the Orlando tech scene. One of the things I mentioned was the looming appearance of Hilary Mason at Urban ReThink. If you did not get a chance to check out her talk that day, here you go:
If you ask me, this was about 20% of the whole experience. Urban ReThink's core of Resident Creatives, as well as sponsors of the event, like our friends at Tawlk and DrupalEasy were treated to locally-sourced hamburgers at Pine22, one of my favorite places in Orlando, and I hope it's one of Hilary's favorites as well.
One of my favorite moments of that day was when I was given the opportunity to drive Ms. Mason back to the airport on her way out of town and just as she was about to leave the car, I said, in a very matter of fact way, "so how did you guys raise all that money for HackNY?" that required another loop around OIA's circle. :)
She said, "we got on the phone with the Kaufmann Foundation and didn't hang up until they agreed to give us the money". It was more complex than that, of course, but with that seed funding and their foot in the door, raising the second year's funding was that much easier. In fact, the students were charged with organizing a lot of the future fundraising because it became that much more possible, I guess.
I don't know how greatly I can emphasize the importance of the events of the past few years. All the groundwork has been laid. All the right people are here. The wind may even be blowing in the right direction. When I see people like Kathryn Neel, Dave Casey, and Lance Vick showing up on the scene, and so many others like my old friends Darren McDaniel and Jud French seeing their dreams of the past years crystalize and spark new growth, it just convinces me that now is the right time.
Who or what is interesting to you right now? I am gearing up to start pushing out some new podcasts, and I'd love to know who to talk to next.