The Internet Partner Forum is proud to sponsor the next Cre8Camp Portland, a low-cost half-day unconference for creative industries professionals, happening on Saturday November 15th from 10:00am to 3:00pm at souk.

The first Cre8Camp Portland in July was a great success and a lot of fun.  Here are some photos from that event courtesy of Hockley Photography.

This is an ad-hoc gathering for participants to learn, network and share in an open environment with discussions, demos and interaction all led by the attendees.

As with most unconferences, the event starts with a blank schedule and some breakout rooms. The participants decide what the topics are and sessions are scheduled into the breakout rooms.  Any attendee can lead a session and all will participate in the discussions.

For more info visit http://www.cre8camp.org/Cre8CampPortland

The Internet Partner Forum is sponsoring 2 upcoming back-to-back conferences:  Inverge: the interactive convergence conference on Sept. 4+5 and the Portland Creative Conference on Saturday, Sept. 6th.

Inverge takes a look at the convergence of media platforms, physical+virtual and corporate messaging+consumer content.  Among other things, it takes a look at what is beyond Web 2.0 and into the Web+Everything.  Featured speakers are from MIT, Nike, Disney, Nokia, USC, Wieden+Kennedy, JupiterResearch, DigitalKitchen, etc.

The Portland Creative Conference dives into the creative process across various industries and also into the head of some creatives at the top of their game.  Features speakers are from LAIKA, Dark Horse Comics, Wieden+Kennedy, Nike, Michael Curry Design, etc.

The Internet Partner Forum is sponsoring a panel at the 5th annual Internet Strategy Forum Summit.  The panel is called “Adventures in the Internet Presence Ecosystem: ROI for Enterprise Tools & Platforms”.  Panelists are featured from ISITE Design (IPF Founding Company member), Covario, Site9 and StrongMail.

The Internet Partner Forum (IPF) has agreed to be one of the cash sponsors of the first Cre8Camp Portland, a nonprofit unconference for creative industries professionals happening on Saturday, July 26th from 10:00am to 3:00pm at souk in downtown Portland.

Cre8Camp is a creative twist on the BarCamp unconference concept that technical professionals have rallied around over the past few years.

This is a natural way for the Internet Partner Forum to support our core agency constituents.  If your company is interested in supporting the Cre8Camp Portland nonprofit community effort, additional sponsorships are available.  See the Cre8Camp Portland site for more information.

Cre8Camp was co-founded by Steve Gehlen, founder of the IPF.

The next IPF meeting in Porland, coming up on May 29th [revised date], will be a roundtable discussion about comparative busnes benchmarking needs for companies within the Internet presence ecosystem.  During the series of IPF formative meetings in 2007, feedback from those in attendance indicated a desire for this.

Details about the meeting, which will include a special guest, will be sent via email to the IPF Portland list.  If you would like to be included in the invitaton, you can opt-in to the list via our interactive dialog courtesy of IPF Founding Company member i-OP.

Today I launched my personal blog called “Internet Presence Ecosystem“, which will feaure insights and observations on the people, companies and business relationships that enable and facilitate Internet presence for medium-to-large organizations.

A panel of Internet strategists from Umpqua Bank, LaCrosse Footwear, Mentor Graphics and the Portland Trailblazers (all members of the Internet Strategy Forum) answered key questions about what makes great agency and vendor partners at the February meeting of the Internet Partner Forum.

IPF Founding Member companies ISITE Design, OakTree Digital and Volt Techncial & Creative Communications were joined by representatives from several other companies including Summit Projects, HMH, SplashCast, viaLanguage and EasyStreet.

Below you can listen to MP3 audio of the 4 panelists answering the question “What separates great agencies and other vendors from the rest of the pack?”(IPF Member companies receive the entire podcast of the event).

> Audio clip of answer from Dan Harbison of the Portland Trail Blazers

> Audio clip of answer from David Hawkins of Umpqua Bank

> Audio clip of answer from Ron Fuller of Mentor Graphics

> Audio clip of answer from Katie McDonald of LaCrosse Footwear

We have finalized the panel for the meeting on February 20th at 6:00pm with the addition of Umpqua Bank’s David Hawkins, VP of Brand.

This is part 2 of our series “What Clients Really Want from Partners”.  At the meeting in December the group consenus was to do the same topic, but this time invite some mid-size companies on the panel vs. the very large companies on the December panel.

So the final panel is:

Early bird pricing ends on 02/12. 

I this looks interesting and you would like to attend, you can register here.

By popular request at the end of the Internet Partner Forum event in December, the next meeting will cover the same topic: ”What Clients REALLY Want from Vendors”, but this time will have panelists from mid-size client companies.

The meeting is set for Wednesday, February 20th at 6:00pm at the Living Room Theaters with the following panelists:

Once again the client-side panelists will discuss candidly with the product and service providers in the audience what they think separates the great partners from the rest of the pack.  This led to some great dialog at the last meeting.

 You can add this event to your Outlook or other iCal-compliant calendar and register to attend here.

OakTree Digital, a full service interactive firm in Portland, OR, is on-board as the first Founding Company Member of the new Internet Partner Forum.  We invite others to join OakTree in supporting the start of what could be a unique and valuable organization in the industry.   Special thanks to John Schmitt and the rest of the crew at OakTree Digital.

For more information on the limited-time opportunity to be a Founding Company Member, see the interim IPF site.