WebVisions and PyCon may be the obvious heavy hitters of this month’s tech events, but there are plenty of others to attend before those conferences roll into town. Want to get into the weeds of tech issues? Check out Kelsey Hightower’s presentation on Kubernetes 1.2 or the Technology Association of Oregon’s discussion of intellectual property laws. Interested in talking about startup strategy and watching product demos? Portland State University and Hardware Massive have you covered.
Portland State University Business Accelerator Showcase, 4-7pm, May 4
Portland State University boasts a 40,000 square feet space for incubating technology, bioscience, and cleantech companies. Visit on May 4 to hear more than 30 of these innovative startups share their experiences and showcase their products. Attendees will also have the opportunity to tour the facility and its “brand new wet labs.” A keynote address will be given by Eric Winquist, CEO of Jama Software.
Cloud Native PDX, 6-9pm, May 4
Cloud Native PDX is a relatively new addition to the Portland tech meetup circuit. Sponsored by Google, Red Hat, and Dreamhost, Cloud Native PDX hosts presentations and discussions relating to the container stack. At May’s meetup, Kelsey Hightower of Google will talk about the new features offered by Kubernetes 1.2.
Startup Happy Hour PDX, 7-10pm, May 6
Swing by Commons Brewery at 7pm on the first Friday of each month to trade startup stories over pints of beer.
Stories from the Hardware Startup World, 6-9pm, May 11
Hardware Massive will sponsor a presentation by Joe Grand on May 11 at the Jaguar Land Rover Tech Incubator. You may know Grand by his hacker alias, Kingpin, or recognize him from the Discovery Channel show, “Prototype This!” He will provide some advice on how to market, finance, and develop hardware startups, and share stories from working with companies like MakerBot and Crowd Supply.
Digital Creativity: Culture Reimagined, 5:30-6:30pm, May 17
In celebration of World IP Day (April 26), the Technology Association of Oregon will host a discussion about the impact of intellectual property laws on digital professions.
WebVisions PDX, May 18 – May 20
WebVisions is a worldwide event series that hosts workshops and discussions around topics related to “design, content creation, user experience and business strategy.” The Portland conference includes keynote addresses from Mike Monteiro, Douglas Rushkoff, and Mark Wyner, and workshops by Paul Backett and Aaron Draplin.
PyCon May 28 – June 5
A weeklong conference about all things Python. Presenters include Parisa Tabriz of Google, K Lars Lohn of Mozilla, and the author of Python, Guido Van Rossum. PyCon consists of two days of tutorials, three days of talks, and four days of sprints. Registration for PyCon is now closed, but you can still follow it on social media.
