We have a lot of events here in Seattle that are so quintessentially representative of Northwest culture—Bumbershoot, Folklife, Bite of Seattle, SeaFair. And then there are all of the gaming conferences—like Casual Connect, and the Penny Arcade Expo—and way too many tech-themed meetups to count. Each and every event, no matter how different, is blogged, Tweeted, and talked about. I think it’s safe to say we’re a pretty diverse—and technologically inclined—bunch.
But I’d never heard anyone be so absolutely upfront about the nerdy nature of Seattle’s tech culture—that is until word got out of the first annual Seattle Geek Week.
The inaugural Geek Week—ten (not seven) days of tech-oriented “geeky” events, kicking off today—is the brain child of Seattle-area entrepreneur, technology consultant, author, blogger, podcaster, enthusiast, and self proclaimed geek, Chris Pirillo.
Pirillo, who founded content publishing network Lockergnome in the early ’90s and has been the man behind the Gnomedex tech conference for the last ten years, says Geek Week is an opportunity for Seattleites to wear their “geek” badges with pride. He says he’d witnessed other cities “rally around their own communities,” so why not do the same for techies, nerd, and “geeks” right here in Seattle?
“Geek Week is there to get people amped up and to raise general awareness for what I believe is a geekiness inside of Seattle,” Pirillo says. “I see all these art festivals, and that’s great because you see art geeks there. I see these food festivals, and that’s great because you see food geeks there. This is for technology geeks.”
At Geek Week, Seattle techies will have a chance to come out of the woodwork and commiserate on all things geeky on the Seattle tech scene. The next ten days will be filled with panels, conferences, meet-ups, and parties on a variety of techie topics—from software and hardware to entrepreneurship, cleantech, social media, startups, and demos. Seattle tech organizations sponsoring events during Geek Week include BarCamp, Social Media Club, TechKaraoke, Innovate100, TechCafe, and more. Some events are free, while others require registration. Check out the full lineup here.
They’ll be a little something for everyone, according to Pirillo.
“People like getting out, they like getting together with friends, they like meeting new people,” he says. “My hope with this is to get out to communities around town small and large, and cross pollinate—I hope to have the Medici effect.”
I asked Chris what he thinks are the events to watch for out of the 10-day lineup, and he listed off a handful of what he thinks will be the popular picks, including the two major conferences
