I'm in Portland teaching the first-ever Portland Plone Developer Bootcamp. We're in the Portland Buillding, a modernist building designed by Michael Graves (you may know him from his funky design stuff at Target stores). It's a nice space, with great coffee and good catering.

The most fun thing about the space is that in back of the auditorium we're in, there's a to-scale wooden reproduction of downtown Portland, about 15-feet by 20-feet across. It shows all the buildings, from storefronts to skyscrapers, and it's entirely done in machined wood blocks, so, as new buildings get planned, they can "test them out" here first easily, to see how it affects the city. It's very compelling--I think practically every student has spent some of the break time just looking and touching these wooden block buildings.

The sense of community among the Portland Plone people is palpable. Look out, San Francisco--we've got some serious competition up north!

I'm staying with Jon B. from ONE/NW, Plonemeisters extraordinaire, and hosts for the October Plone Conference (Thanks, Jon, for the great place to stay!) Last night, Jon S. and Andrew from ONE/NW came down to meet the class members, and the local Plone users group. Also there were prominent Plonistas like Richard Amerman (fifer in #plone), Aaron Vanderlip (aaronvanderlip, a generous and very cool developer!), and many others.

So, thanks to everyone who came out to Portland, and everyone who's made this possible. It's really been a great week so far.