How AI Portland Built a 2,800-Person Community

What does it take to build a thriving community people actually want to show up for?

In this episode, we sit down with the co-founders of AI Portland, a fast-growing community that has brought together thousands of people around one of the biggest shifts in modern work and business: artificial intelligence.

But this conversation isn’t just about AI.

It’s about curiosity, community-building, networking, and what happens when two thoughtful people decide to start the thing instead of waiting until they feel “expert enough.”

We talk about how AI Portland got off the ground, what they’ve learned from organizing events at scale, how they source speakers, why diverse rooms matter, and what they’ve discovered about what people are really hungry for right now.

If you’ve ever thought, “Could I build something like that?” … this episode is for you.

In this episode, we talk about:

•  How AI Portland got started from a simple conversation over wine 
•  Why you do not need to be an expert to start a community 
•  What makes an event feel welcoming, thoughtful, and worth coming back to 
•  How AI Portland grew into a 2,800+ person community
•  Why people are craving in-person connection again 
•  How they choose event topics and source standout speakers 
•  What they’ve learned about building rooms with more diversity and intention 
•  Why having a “yes friend” can completely change your trajectory 
•  The importance of trying things before you overthink them into the grave 

Meet the Guests

Megan Notarte

Technology team leader and co-founder of AI Portland, a community focused on demystifying generative AI and its real-world business applications.

Connect with Megan on LinkedIn

Nicole Mors

Product design leader, co-founder of AI Portland, and co-host of the podcast Supercharged by AI.

Connect with Nicole on LinkedIn

About AI Portland

AI Portland is a growing Portland-based community focused on helping people understand and explore artificial intelligence in practical, human, and accessible ways.

They host events, conversations, and gatherings for people across industries — whether you’re deep in tech, AI-curious, or just trying to figure out what the hell any of this means.

Check out upcoming AI Portland events:
https://www.aipdx.info/

Keep in touch! 

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• Fat Cap Design
• PDX Spellbound

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• Sasquatch Media Grounds
• Sensible Woo

Transcript

0:00

This is The Awkward Handshake, a podcast about networking business and what really happens in the room. We're unpacking the good, the bad, and the awkward, so you can build better connections and get paid. Let's get into it. We have the co-founders of AI Portland with us today. so excited. Yes. Say we got Megan and Nicole to come on here because. You and I looked at who do we wanna have on the podcast? And they were really high up on our list. They talk about white whales in this episode too, which is hilarious because they were kind of a white whale for us on this season. Yeah. They have a really large list. They attract an incredible gathering of people. And you and I are always impressed when people are able to organize community in an excellent way, and they do that. it'll come out in the, in the interview, but like I attended their second event, ever. And I, I could tell right away that this is organized differently. These are people who care. I got to talking with them right away at that event, and I was struck by the fact that like, they're not experts. they wanted to have conversations and saw an opportunity. It just went from there. And I thought that was just so neat at the time. And it's, I mean, it's still neat, but I just, it blew me away that you could just do that. And boy, do we appreciate thoughtful people. Well, let's introduce our two guests today. Megan Notarte is a technology team leader and the co-founder of AI Portland, a 2,800 plus member community focused on demystifying generative AI and its applications, organizing monthly events that bridge the gap between AI technology and practical business applications. Megan's career spans roles in technology and management, including as a partner at Cloud four, a web design and development studio. Her partner in this is Nicole Mors, who is a product design leader. The co-founder of AI Portland, and co-host of the podcast, Supercharged By AI. She currently leads product design at Lithia and Driveway Motors. They are both a powerhouse together, they're incredibly intelligent, and we had a huge discussion. You kept looking at me like. Are you gonna call the time? Are you gonna call the time? And I was like, Nope. No.'cause it just kept dropping mic bomb after mic bomb. But we think it's really well worth it. I kind of wish we had been recording from the minute you walked in the studio. Could have been a Costco episode. Oh, one day. Well, Megan and Nicole, welcome and thank you for coming on The Awkward Handshake. This is great. Thanks for having us. Yeah, thanks. we have been attending some of your events. and we have watched your community grow so much. Super impressive. Yeah. I think I found you, two years ago. I'm like, OG, man. Yeah, you are. Are you're og You were the one when we first became friends, you were like, I've been going to these events with this group called AI Portland and I'm the one who always has a calendar problem, so I'm like, damn it, I can't go to that one again. Yeah, because I think my, one of my favorite ones was AI in job hunting. Oh yeah. That was an early one. I was like just eating popcorn in the back.'cause everyone's like, why am I not getting a job? And it was like these really specific questions and I was like, was that the one at Kiln? Yeah, this was the second one or the first one Oh, Wacom, Wacom. The og, the original one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did two because that was our second event ever. Yeah. Ever, ever, ever. How many people were that event? A lot. A lot. I don't fif, I mean, I have 60 probably. It was like a full, there, yeah. They ran outta chairs. Yeah, it might've been more than that. What's really funny is our first event was so modest, if you will. Megan and I bought. soda, water and chips. Like, I went to the WinCo and bought them and then, then we spent $60 and we're like, okay, we can't do this. We were just like, like, no, we can't. What are we doing? what is this even? and then our second event, you were there. There was cheese. Yep. Hummus. There was a wolf, well, at this point we had also bought like all the, serving stuff. Yeah. And there was a bartender with wine and Yeah, beer and like it would just, the scale of it, just, we were impressed. Yeah, I mean, that was a lot because of our, the people we met in between the first and second and the partnership with, Wacom at the time. That was really helpful. okay, so how did the whole thing form, like, how many people were at the first one? How'd you find that partnership? Megan and I are former coworkers, turned friends. we've been friends for a long time. We commiserate about everything, life, work, what have you. back to 2023. That year was pretty pivotal. You had ChatGPT, and both she and I were like, what is happening? What does this mean for our lives and our work? And one day I was just sitting in my living room one evening and Megan. think she, Marco ped me and she was like, what are you doing? Do you wanna come over and have a glass of wine? No one's here. Yes, I'm on my way. So on my way over there I was listening to a podcast and it was about, I'm a designer, so it was all about design and AI interaction patterns. And I was really excited when I got to her house, started talking about AI and all of our questions. And then we started thinking about all the groups that were around before the pandemic. And where did they go? and we started talking about community. And I was like, Megan, we need a community to figure out AI. and there isn't anything. We should start a group. We should start AI Portland. And Megan was like, no. I literally was like, no. I mean, at that time, right. I think it was like going into my son's se, my oldest son's senior year of high school. Younger son is very busy. Nicole has kids, like we have jobs. I was on the boosters like, I was like, when are we gonna do this? And then the next day I was like, but wait a minute, actually. Actually wait. We could do something really cool here. Yeah. Between our two skill sets, we're like, we totally could do this. Like we need it. We're pretty sure other people have these questions too. Let's just try it out. So. We got a meetup account for six months, like the six month period, and we just started asking friends like. Do you have a venue we could use? Will you be on a panel first? We thought it was just gonna be Megan and I talking about ai, which would've been not good. That was our baseline. We're like, if we can't get anyone else to talk, like we'll just get up there and be like, we'll do it. I dunno what's going on y'all Just, Megan, what do you think about ai? Between our two sort of, you know, networks or whatever, we actually do have a lot of friends who are grappling with the same stuff. A lot of professionals. Creatives developers. So we were able to put together a panel for that first event. people RSVP, we, had the first event at Gray Box. We hit like the capacity and so we opened up a wait list and it was a hundred people long. It was over that, I think it was like 160 people on the wait list. Yeah. 160 people. I don't even know how many. Wow. It was too many to count. And so, we're just like, no one's gonna come to this thing. Um, we had a goal. We were like, okay, success. What does success look like? Five people we don't know if five people who are not our friends. Show up to this event or like our coworkers or whatever, then like, we'll keep doing this. And I mean, it was mostly people we didn't know. People were like there. The way gray box is, it has like these upper areas. There were people up above, there were people off to the side. It was you guys Completely, really hit capacity. Yeah. Yeah. Because they give you a number at Gray Box. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And they're like, well, it can kind of maybe fit this. And then you think about it and you're like, where do they stand? You're like, you'd have to be like literally up. Yeah. They were up in the rafter. It was like, and Gray Box hadn't really done events since the pandemic, like ours was one of the early ones since they had kind of shut it down from the pandemic. Oh, interesting. So like things weren't. nobody knew what, what they were doing. Our av AV didn't really work. We didn't have it. Yo, the PA didn't really work. No, it was like there was nothing to plug into or something. There was no av. They have this little dinky little microphone box. I know this because I ran a bigger event there last year. Yeah. And Ben, our lovely friend. Oh yeah, yeah. Friend Ben, all love Ben who's, who's not there anymore, but shout out to Ben. He's not, but he was like, do you want av? And I was like. Yes, I would. And he's like, well, here's a little microphone box. And I'm like, Ben, what is that gonna do? It's not av. We didn't even have that. Like nothing. Nothing was set up or working. And we were like, I mean, again, our bar was pretty low, you know, we were just like, I don't know, figure out. We're just like in it. We're just gonna see what happens. And it was great. The conversation was great. you could just tell there was this energy in the room and that people were really excited. They wanted to. Say wild things, you know? And there just was like, that's right. There's just, they we're like, oh, there is definitely, like our hypothesis was true. there is definitely something here. Let's keep going. After that first event, it gave us something to talk to people about, right? So, um, people kind of took note and it opened the doors for us to have a lot of conversations. That's why there was such a. Difference in scale between our first and our second event. Then we started talking to 52 Limited because it was a hiring event. Yep. that got us in with Brooks, who is an old time Portlander, has run lots of events, brought people into Portland. so he had a, a lot of advice and like mm-hmm. Introduced us to people. I think we got Whatcom just by like filling out a form on the internet. Did we? Yes. Oh, I thought I came from Brooks and Elaine. No, but then, yeah, Portland's so small, like PSA, do not burn a bridge in this town. So we're talking to Brooks and Brooks. I'm like, we already secured Wacom for our second event. And he was like, oh yeah, I know Megan. And so Brooks met us there and Elaine at that point was at Tao. And so all these people kind of knew each other. And as we were meeting people. The connections just sort of started happening and overlapping. And next thing you know, we are victims of our own success. Yeah. I mean it's, this is our third year, we kind of noticed two things from that first event. One was that like, there's a lot to talk about in ai and we had a ton of curiosity that we were chasing. that was a very easy track, but we also realized that people didn't know how to be in community with each other anymore. Like that was very obvious at the first event. People just. we're just kind of weird with each other, right? Like they just didn't know how to network with strangers. Well, well, we were weird too. Yeah. I mean, we are weird period still. I remember at the second event, I forgot someone's name that I knew really well. Happens to me. Oh, I forget all the time right now. All the time, and I'm just I am so sorry and like it was just like a momentary thing, but when you're in person, you're not used to being in person. You're not used to being with three dimensional humans. It was hard. And so yeah, we realized like not only are we doing, not only are we answering our questions and other questions about ai, but we're also kind of doing a public service of helping people reconnect and be together again. That's so beautiful. because your name is genius. AI Portland is easy to jump onto and recognize. You hit the zeitgeist around AI. You put AI in the name, props, win, win, win. Do you think that that has helped you grow, reach and visibility because people are searching for AI events? Yes. Yeah, and I mean, I think it also in general, when people are looking for anything, AI in Portland, like, not even AI events, but like, they're like, oh, we'll start with those folks. So like, we get a lot of, we're looking for speakers or workshops or hiring or whatever, like, or just like. I have a question about AI. Surely, absolutely. Someone behind this email address can answer my, can someone tell how to use Gemini? You're like, oh. we also get a lot of emails like AI, Portland, people Google it and they're like, I've discovered AI is sentient, and so people just email us about that a lot. So we get a lot of emails. you could publish a book of wackadoodle email. I would read that. Oh yeah, I would read that. Like a good romance novel. It is. I mean, it's always interesting. because even in the, the event that early one that I went to, and I've been to many others, I think you give people the space in some ways to ask those questions. Not necessarily of you, but even of like. The person sitting next to them. Yeah. because the job hiring one, you could, you could feel the tension in the room of people being like, but who's rating my job application? Yeah. And why can't I get a job? And you were kind enough to put actual hiring managers up there and they're like, I'm reading it. Yeah. I just didn't want you. it's not the robots that are rejecting you. Yeah. Mean that was a common theme even in the, when we did like the follow up event too. I know we might, it might, we might need We have to do another one yearly. yeah, we might need to do another one of those. I do think that it is important to us that like this space that we create is a space for sort of anyone on the AI spectrum. So like, the people who believe that AI is sentient or that they're like super techno optimists and you know, we're just gonna be making art needing grapes all day. Once we let the robots take over, you know, they're welcome and so are the people who think it's gonna destroy. The world. and because the truth is likely somewhere in the middle. Yeah. And Nicole and I try to maintain a really pragmatic approach. Like I don't wanna stray too far into, techno optimism as if this is the best thing ever. And I also don't wanna stray too much in doom because you can just. There's a buffet of despair out there for us right now. Totally. Um, we don't wanna play into that too much. Um, and I feel like at least us, we are in the middle. Like we believe it will fall somewhere in the middle. But then also we, we kind of vacillate based off of the day and like what we're working on, where we're like, this is great. Or like, What's going on here? It's all a lie. do either of you have a favorite AI right now? Claude. Yeah. I made the full transition to Claude a couple weeks ago, right before the whole, Pentagon thing. Probably a couple weeks before that and I was. Pretty glad that I had made that transition. I keep getting, hitting the, limit. That's the only, that's the only problem drawback, I would say. It just happened to me today too, and that's why I switched to ChatGPT because of the limit. It just, they're like, whatever you wanna do, you know? Yeah. For better or worse. I bounced back and forth between the two. Yeah. Oh, do you know? Oh, yes. I didn't know. Oh, yes. I've been doing it for a long time. because they both. Are built on slightly different models. Mm-hmm. It's totally different. And you, you need, one of them needs what the other one has. I made a YouTube video for my AI bot, like that list, so there's a YouTube video out there and I was like. This is gonna be the last one I do like. I am not an AI business. Like this took me way too long to make, but I, made a case for like, why you need to have sort of like your top trinity. Yeah. Mm. Yeah. I mean, I think it's important to not feel too locked into anything right now too. Like, I think as I was really. Using ChatGPT all the time. I sort of came away with this impression that it knew a lot about me. Yeah. Which isn't entirely true. It's not retraining, right. Like it does know some things about you. but I think it's important to realize that it's not like learning everything about you. And sometimes we're gonna go and pivot to like, it's just so much change right now. That's such a good point. I think I was slow to make the change back to Claude because I believe the same thing. Mm-hmm. Yeah, but actually it wasn't that big a lift to get back into it and have it feel like it knew me. And then some of the stuff that ChatGPT was doing was wild and I wanted it to forget and it never would. Like somehow it decided I only wanted to be talked to like, I'm Gen Z. I'm not even Gen Z. It was wild. Hilarious. That one was. That was wild. That was wild. That whole thing was wild. And then no matter how many times I told it, I'm not Gen Z and I don't want you to say that to me ever again. It just wouldn't stop. Yeah. I think that we have to be so nimble in this moment. Yeah, and that's what makes it really hard. Like even when you're adopting tools at work or whatever, it's very overwhelming. But I mean, I think we're in this moment where you have to try something and it's gonna work for you for a while, and then probably something new is gonna come along and you're gonna be like, God. Yeah. It's so hard for people to accept that I'm dealing with that at work right now. Just so much. is it cursor? Is it clog code? Same Is it, same duh. And I'm like, dude, the tools don't matter. Mm-hmm. Your mindset matters. Like it will all change. It cha. It's change changing and it does when you have to sign up for licenses all the time. Well, it matters at my work where it's heavily locked down and you have a procurement for any tool, you cannot just willy-nilly use tools. Yeah. But. I don't this moment calls for like, Hey, we have to be a little bit more nimble in what we're doing. I think that's such a great analogy for being nimble in network life and networking. It's true. you, you have to be able to understand like the foundation skill that allows you to use whatever the tool is, whether it's a networking group or an AI app. Or anything like there is a foundation tool. In AI I would argue it's query language and prompting skills. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That it doesn't really matter what platform you're on.'cause they all have something that you need or don't need. Yeah. And you've gotta use them right now. You could really use any of them. Mm-hmm. but we see people struggle going between groups, so they get really locked into groups and Yeah. And I kind of feel like, uh, especially the size of town that we're in. Yes. Like you've got to be able to meet people in all sorts of different groups. Yeah. Like, you can't just go to the one 'cause you'll just know all of them then what. Mm-hmm. And now what happens? And you end up in this, like, ever, never ending loop. We've walked into a few of those rooms. Where we were like the new kids on the block, and then you like watch everyone else interact and you're like, oh, you all know like. What grade your kids are in? Is that like everything and you're like, okay, our favorite was the one we went into and they looked at us like each of us had three heads and it was a business group, but they, nobody talked about their businesses but us. So they were like, oh, who are you? And they're like, well, I do this. And they looked at us like, why are you talking about us? We don't business. Talk about that. We were like, oh, there's cultural norms here that I didn't know about. Read the room. I guess. How do you read the room? That is so interesting. Yeah. We make such a point of making sure we welcome each person. Whether we remember their name or not. Oh, I have so many tips around that. learned so many things to deal with my, like, inability to remember people. I'm not gonna call this person out, but, one of the best ones, I was working like a sign in table with this person and she turns to me and she says, if I don't introduce you to someone, it's not because I'm being rude. It's literally because I don't know their name. That's a good, right, that's, you gotta have a homie. You gotta have a wing man. Well, my good friends know Megan here knows that if, because I'm terrible with names too. Like I'll do all the things you're told to do. Shake their hands, say it it back to them, look them in the eye. Think about the like, it doesn't work. It's like in one ear out the other. I since learned it might be a genetic trait. like for real because my dad can't remember names. And then my sister was visiting and she was like, I have the same problem. And I was like, it's not just me. Oh. I just like constantly feel like I might be having like early dementia or something. Same like literally saw someone today and I know this kid, I've known this kid. I was at the high school. I've known this kid since he started school. I cannot. Remember his name even right now, cannot remember this guy's name. Mm-hmm. And you can feel it, right? There's like a wall and you're just like, it's like right on the other side of it. Yeah. Y'all have dated people and I can't remember them. It's a problem. you do both though. You are. I, I think the only really, the only ones besides Ben, who introduced yourself at events that we've been to when I came to the second one. I think you were like, I will remember your name because Megan, and you, you do it every time. Yeah. You are always there to meet and greet. Yeah. And you remember, this's also part of like, we are trying to know people. We are, it's a selfish pursuit, but also like if we meet someone and they're like, Hey, I'm so and so. Even if you don't like immediately log their name, you can kind of remember their story. for example, there was a gentleman who came to our. Happy hour. And he's like, I'm not in tech. I'm here for agricultural. I'll never forget. I mean, what did he call himself? I can't even remember. It was like this term. And both Megan and I were like, what? But as people start to show up, we can connect those people. Mm-hmm. Right? Like we, that person's a food scientist working in AI, and then we can make that introduction and then people have. A lot more of a meaningful, experience that way. So we're kinda working the room and someone will be like, I need to know someone who works in ed tech. And we're like, like, who's there over there? Yeah. Yeah. That can be helpful. Oh, you're connectors be there. It is the joy of my life. Like I enjoy it a lot. We both are too. Yeah. Yeah. It makes me so happy when people like connect and then they have like whatever happens something. Like synergistic something magical and you're like, oh, I did that. We've had episodes we've recorded. I don't know that they've all aired yet, but we've had this conversation about connectors and super connectors and it's amazing how many of us talk about the joy of connecting. Like it brings a supreme joy to see the right people get the connection together. So we're like, don't be shy. Like tell me what you need. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people, You know, people underestimate how much people wanna help other people. And so like, if you're the person in need of help, sometimes you don't wanna make the ask or like say what you're looking for. But then there's so many people like us who are like, oh, you're looking for this kind of person or this kind of job, or whatever. And like we're just like. sometimes I feel like we need to take our own advice. We could do a better job. Well, we had a burning question for you because you do source some pretty amazing speakers, and yes, you've been doing it a while, but you also have really great networks inherently to begin with. So how do you source your speaker? So we didn't start out with like super great networks. I would say like we've built it over. I mean we had like a baseline, but like Yeah. Certainly not what it is today, not what it's now, today. When we, I mean that was one of the goals Yeah. Was to build out our network. Yeah. One of our, like our personal goals, when we started, we would kind of get an idea of what we wanted to cover. So the first year we al we had a roadmap of the kind of topics we wanted to cover. and then we would literally. go looking for people who could speak to that. So that was one thing, like outreach, we don't have to do as much of that now. Right?'cause a lot of people come to us when we, first of all, we never say no to a conversation. We talk to everyone and those people we ask, Hey, we're gonna be having an event in, healthcare. Do you know anyone? so we're talking to everyone and we're asking those people who we should talk to. Yeah. And truly the first year, so we did a ton of outreach, just like cold outreach to people on LinkedIn and just trying to find that. I remember seeing those. Yeah. Does anyone know? Does anyone know? Yeah. Yeah. Um, and then like Nicole said, every person is interesting for like, I think the, the rule is like an hour, I would argue like 15 to 30 minutes. Yeah. You know, um, I have a shorter, shorter attention span. I dunno. but you know, like we'll take a 15 minute meeting with anyone to hear what they're up to. And it's just, it is truly fascinating. All the different things people are doing and sometimes. Those will like fit into something we kind of have already been pulling threads on, or we hear that another group is doing something and we like refer them out. but sort of those two things have pulled together most of our events. And now because we have somewhat of a reputation, we get a lot of people sending us their talk ideas our general rule of thumb for when we talk to someone is if we get excited by what their idea, their talk, their passion is, then we're pretty sure that other people are gonna be really excited too, if we're just like, oh, that's so cool. I have so many questions. if I have so many questions, that's great. Yeah. a lot of times we have to seek out women in underrepresented groups. usually the inbound people are white men, that are ready to speak. And so we have to put in effort to go out and be like, I know you have an idea. Yeah, I mean, women we're women, right? women won't just, generally speaking, like submit the form for their talk or like say that they have something cool to say. Like we have to go and be like, I saw your post about that thing. That sounds so interesting and we're doing this thing. but I think that is true of women, but I also think that's true in general. people don't know if you are the kind of person. You know, if they're not already on the circuit. Yeah. You know, like you wanna hear from someone that they, are interested in you and like you might have something interesting to say. it is a lot of Serendipity of who reaches out. But there's also a lot of intent as well. Mm-hmm. Is there anybody you would really love to have that you haven't had yet? Uh, so we have a list. We have white wills. They're like big people. They're big people though. Like they're not here necessarily. They're not here. I mean, shout out Ethan Molik. we're gonna be friends someday day. I sound like a stalker. Really. Like anytime you get a mic, you're like, Ethan, are you listening? Ethan's assistant for you has emailed us back before I sent them this. I'm gonna send on this episode. You like started at this timestamp, but I have so many questions. Ethan Molik. he would be very cool. I think that's our biggest white whale. I mean, also unexpectedly, Becky Chambers, who's an author, a sci-fi author Yeah. With a new book coming out in October, so she has a book called. part of the Wayfinder series. I'm about to get real nerd. We're gonna nerd out for a second. Go for it. Do it. She has a book as a part of that series that's called A Closed and Common Orbit. I know you were gonna mention that one. It has like one of the most beautiful stories about AI I have ever read. I literally cried. It is so beautiful. My literal favorite book. Is Psalm for the Wild Built, which is one that she wrote. Becky, so I Will you be our friend? Yeah. I just imagine this really cool event with her where we're discussing how pop culture, contributes to how we feel in this moment about ai, all the stories and imagery and things that we've ingested about robots and artificial intelligence and how. That could be. I know Becky paintings, how this really pivotal moment. I might be able to help you with this. Do you know Becky? No, I don't know her. Oh shit. But I am planning a creator economy event. Yeah. I was gonna run a pilot event at the end of this year, in the fourth quarter. She might be on book tour and she'll be on a book tour. Mm-hmm. And then we can have a little I discussion. Oh my God. And there would be something very great. Cool about that. That would be really cool. I feel like just saying these things out loud as so silly as it is, say, manifest or manifesting. I mean, we did that at the beginning of AI Portland. Like we literally made a whiteboard of like all of our hopes and dreams and a lot of them, like we made happen and maybe all of them that year. Yeah, it's true We're manifesting this year. That's a thing. Say it louder on the mic. It's a magical microphone. Well, we touched a little bit on, the diversity of speakers, which I'm so glad you pointed out because we also, I think it's part of the female experience. Like we just know what it's like to be shut out of rooms. Mm-hmm. Or just kind of overlooked. but we also have noticed that you have a lot of audience diversity. And so I'm gonna kind of bring it back, like, is it just the subject matter? Because AI topics are drawing so many people. Yeah. And so we, like, we know there's a diversity in say, profession or industry. like not everybody who's coming to you is say, an entrepreneur or in the startup community. Like they might just have a regular job job and they wanna learn more or be a hobbyist. But, how are you feeling about like the diversity of. your audience that shows up. Like, do you notice it leans heavily one way or another? it really depends on the topic. so because AI is everything and everywhere, like we take different slices of it. So you'll get a different demographic for an event, like a technical event about MCP, then you do about like a design event. but I think even so, we've been pretty proud of the audience that we have been able to include, and I think that comes back to like the speakers that you have mm-hmm. That kind of representation that you have. our ladies have not shown up this year much. Yeah. This year. This year's been a little strange. I know. Interesting. That's really interesting. I know. We're like, where are trying lady first figure it out. it's, it's skewed a little, uh, a little male, little dude, heavy dude, heavy lately. so that's fascinating. So we just gotta do, we just gotta, you know, hit the ground a little bit, I think, on that and make sure that just a ladies night, just, oh, hey, now ladies night, AI. That could be interesting. Yeah, there's a, yeah, there's been talks. I have noticed at least, I mean, I frequent so much of like the founder entrepreneurial spaces. But especially this past summer, summer of 2025, there were so many online summits. I mean, those are making a comeback. Mm-hmm. But there were so many, and they were focused on AI for women. Specifically. And I was honestly kind of disappointed and I was a lot disappointed in the topics. Mm-hmm. Because it was like, how to not be afraid of AI. Here's how I optimize my day with ai. And I was like, you guys, and they're like. Have AI be your assistant. And I was like, there's so much more this. This is not it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Megan and I have really purposefully stayed away from being the Lady AI group. Like that is not our intention. It really is AI for everyone. And at first it was just following our own curiosities and none of that was using it to make a shopping list, although I guess we do that. I mean, I might do that. Yeah. It can be, I did have to use it for hair care. Ooh, well I discovered, yeah, like I have like really. A, a unique curl type. And so I was like, help, what's it like perfect for that to be curly? Yeah. Yeah. I was like, I have no idea. And it's like, okay, here's the products you need. And I was like, cool, cool, cool. what should it feel like? What should it look like? I've definitely used it for fashion choices, so it's not that I don't, we use it for lady, it helps style bot. She's a style bot. It helps me get dressed. I've been doing Paid speaking. Yeah. It picked up perfume for you. It picked up perfume for me and nailed it. I mean, some of this is also just me playing around dinking around figuring out like how I push it, what can I use it for, what can I do with you? Mm-hmm. What, where do you fail? Mm-hmm. Like how far do the boundaries of the room go? Spoiler. The boundaries keep expanding. Yeah. Yeah. And, and like I've uploaded pictures and I'm like, help me figure out the colors I should wear. Or the clothing I should wear, or I'm about to speak on a stage that has this kind of person, like, I need to dress appropriately. Yeah. Like, I'm about to speak at South by Southwest. And I was like, why do I fuck? I don't know what to wear. Yeah. So, and it's gonna be 90 degrees on Austin the day I speak. Mm-hmm. So I'm like, I, I need to figure out what to pull from my closet. Do I need to order something? And it has nailed it every single time. Yeah. It's really weird. Yeah. I used it for that too. Yeah. Megan and I have a speaking engagement on Saturday, and I haven't even thought one second about what I was gonna wear. In fact, before, we even wrote the talk, I had already been using it to help me figure out what to wear. I was like, what am I gonna wear? It's a real visual event. this event is very like, big. I feel like I'm dropping the ball. No, dude, we had already figured out what you're wearing. We already figured it out. That's why you didn't have to do it. Anytime I like, I get. Figure it out in five minutes. You're fine. Just throw that green blazer and touch it to you. You'll be fine. I'm wear the green blazer. Well, I wouldn shout. for my birthday we ended up at an art gallery. Yeah. And you were like, I need earrings. And I saw the maker that makes most of my earrings. I love Megan's earrings all the time. And so you were like, you took a picture and you're like, hold on, let me ask my butt if these work for my next editor. And you're like, they do. Okay. I totally did that with earrings too, by the way. I think we might be the same person. I'm not really sure. I like to see a Costco date in the field. No, I just find that like I, I have really been experiencing founder life in the last year since I got the keys to those. To the studio space, and I'm just so out of, I have so much decision making fatigue that for simple life things like this, or I'll feed it like I've got this mishmash of ingredients left. I don't wanna go bad in the fridge or in the pantry. And I'm like, make me a meal plan. And, and it has done it and it's, man, I picked up some good recipes. That's awesome. Out of AI. That's great. We did a, supercharge Your Life event in January of 25 and we thought it was gonna be all stuff like that, which is what made me think about it. Like we thought everyone was gonna come with all these really practical like stories of how they're using AI and it, we did an open submission. Yeah. So it was like, hey, community. How are you using it to supercharge your life? Let's start off the year and we'll, curate some folks to talk about use cases. And we were like, oh, it's gonna be like fitness and shopping, shopping and vacation and stuff like that. It wasn't, it wasn't at all it was deeply moving. In some cases someone was talking about, using AI to process the grief of losing their spouse. Wow. Um, and that was like. Beautiful. And like someone talking about how they, they're using AI to generate custom dinner invite, like they do a monthly dinner with their friends they like make custom invites for their friends and like it was all augmentation or like uplifting of the human experience, like using AI to uplift the human. Experience. Yeah, it was, I mean, in really meaningful ways. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. This was different. It was different. It was really cool. It was great. It was so much better than what we could have expected. Yeah. Yeah. It was very cool. okay, so we know that you had a super cool outcome on something. Is there anything where you're like, oh, hell no. We're not doing that again. So many things. I mean, where do you start? We can't, yeah, it's harder to like talk details 'cause sometimes there's like people involved in this, but I mean, I never burn a bridge. We're staying away from pure social parties, right? Parties. We're not doing parties. We're doing social events. We're doing coffees and networking events, but we're not doing parties right now that like we had a, vandalism incident at our summer party and It is what it is, but it did really impact us. So we're like, we don't have to do that right now. and like the party, we've had two parties. The first one was at that six month mark. And it was supposed to be our last event. That was the whole genesis for it, was that we were like, oh, that was fun, moving on. and then we just kept going and we're like, well, that party was fun. Let's have another party. And then, yeah. So then no more parties. Yeah. We were like, all right, now why does, why do we have to throw parties for people? Yeah. They should throw. A party for us. Yeah. Let's, where's our party? We'll go to parties. Don't get me wrong. We love parties. Yeah. Yeah. So not so much that anymore. What other things do we like learn? Um, Megan and I planned a half day conference. I think we've been very weary about doing that again. Mm-hmm. Although I think it was successful. When you talk about, people coming to our events A lot of people came to that event. it was meant to be sort of a foundational half day, small to mid-size business. Come bring your team or yourself and everybody gets on the same page about AI together. Right? That generated, like people are still coming to our events based off of that conference and it's not necessarily, there were technical people there, but it's not necessarily like Tech Bros. So having a variety of content offerings mm-hmm. I feel like feeds into the community, all those different kinds of people. That was a successful event. It's just a lot of work to put on a half day conference, even a half day of, we haven't been eager to do that. Okay. That part, and it was also that that happened at a time when we were doing 47 other things. So like that's a lesson we have learned and we continue. Truly to make that mistake over and over again. It doesn't seem like we can avoid it. Um, did we learn? I don't know, but we do learn that lesson. I mean, I do think like we would never do all the things we did in April, may, and June of last year all at the same time. Like that lesson has been learned. and we've made some very intentional choices with our planning for this year so that we don't get in that situation again. And this is our own situation. We said yes to all this stuff and some of it was our own making. but We continue to push on that. Well, it seems like you have really grown your networks by being organizers of something. Yeah. That's impacted the local area. Yeah. Helping a lot of people. It's pretty cool. Yeah, it's really, really cool. And like it, if you are, you know, people are out there and trying to figure out how to grow their network, You could start a group, Like you could start a group for six months and see what happens. We were just talking about that on a recording earlier today. Yeah. And it doesn't have to be perfect, Like Megan has this great article about the first pancake philosophy. Mm-hmm. It's like whatever your first thing is, our first event, it was not perfect. It was just like, let's get people in a room and see what happens. So it doesn't have to be this. Complicated over-engineered thing. it can be just whatever that MVP version of something is. I know this isn't the main thing either of you do during the day for work, so like do you want it to be more or do you like AI Portland being as it is and seeing where goes? I think if we could, generate our salaries doing the kind of work that we do with AI Portland, yeah, that'd be awesome. And I think if we did, that'd be great. Wait, so for your half day conference Yeah. Did you charge charge tickets for that? Mm-hmm. Because you don't charge tickets for your regular We don't regular ones. Yeah. No, we did and we charged a$45 ticket price or something. which was kind of low and accessible. Yeah. And that included lunch though. You got a sandwich? Sandwich and coffee. Mm-hmm. Uh, no half and half, but you know, there was plenty of, that's a story for another day. Oh no, there was creamer all around. Sorry. We had an event where the coffee was just brown water, so we had been doing private invite only like these curated coffee mornings here. Which you came to one. Yeah. And we go to Starbucks on the way and I pre-order the traveler pack. didn't think anything of it, picked it up, came into the studio, everything's good. I'm like, Mary needs coffee. Like, before everyone walks in the door, I need my coffee. Yeah. So I pour it and I'm like, that looks weird. That looks like tea. And I, I was like, and, but it smelled like coffee. And I thought, oh, oh no. Oh, no, no. Oh. And it's five minutes to when people were told to come. And we can already hear early birds. There's always somebody who's early. Mm-hmm. Oh, always. Always, and I'm like, oh no, it's coffee, water. This is not coffee. And we do that because A, it's more cost effective and easier. And I have a Keurig in here, but like, you have to hit the button and wait for the Keurig. Yeah. Yeah. And it's a, it's a mini one 'cause. I just work with like one or two clients at a time. I don't have parties in here regularly, so it's not like a coffee pot. Yeah. And so everyone was like standing at the, and then they're like, it's out of water again. And I'm like, damn it. It's so funny because hearing that, I'm like, oh, that doesn't seem like a big deal. But like I know what that's like when everyone, when you're just like watching everybody and you're like, God. Damn. And you did everything. You did it all right. It's not like you just didn't care. Coffee, water, what, what, what happened? And then we took it back. They were so embarrassed. Oh, that Starbucks. I, I just walk into that Starbucks now and that morning manager knows me and like, so sorry. Everything is right. And they like, let us taste it like it's a wine tasting before we walk out with it. Like it's hilarious. Running out of coffee and coffee related issues are truly, truly major. Yeah, we have had this problem as well. We have run out of coffee, we have run out of creamer. I was just like, I don't know. How am I supposed to know? Like, sometimes we go through a lot of coffee. I don't know. People are very particular about their things. Oh my gosh. They are. We put disclaimers in our invites. We're, we're like, especially for the breakfast or morning ones, and we say we will have all kinds of things. And to Megan's chagrin, I'm like, I'm gonna feed them damnit. She's like, but they're not eating anything. I'm like, but it looks bad. If there's not. I feel that things out and it just doesn't feel right. we told them that they should be, have allergies like for your own or eat before, like if you're really hungry for breakfast you should really, this is not the eat before if you coffee special. Yeah. Well I used to work catering and the secret with catering or I used to do weddings, is you go around with the two crafts of coffee. They're both decaf. We just, Megan, they're both decaf, at least for ours because we want them, it's like eight o'clock at night. What do you need the caffeine for? We are, well, and you don't wanna like accidentally give someone caffeine the other way. So they're both decaf and we just remember which one we've said is which. I feel like I might have drunk a decaf in my life and I didn't know it like a lot. Yeah. Personally, I like it's placebo. I feel like I've been interesting personally victimized by a decaf crash. You didn't know. I didn't know it. It makes sense. I understand the simplicity of that for sure. That's good. That's really funny. We actually did not start social events just to have social events. It was like a very per, I always forget about this, but this is true. This is 100% true. So we got to a point where everybody wanted to talk to Megan and I, and we were having trouble fitting all the conversations on our calendar. So we're like, let's just have a coffee that way as these things come up. We can just invite them to the coffee and then we'll just like go talk to people and of course we'll invite everyone else. Um, but that's how it started. That's what Mary does. Yeah. But you don't get a room full of people because Most No. I use it tend to show up. I use a filter. I use it as a filtering mechanism because. I'm like, unless you are actively trying to like, have a package do work in the studio, there's only so many hours in the day. I, I can't have oodles of coffee chats. Yes. Like I am a little too busy for just coffee chatting anymore. And, and I don't need that anymore. And so when people make the requests, I'm like, if I get enough of them, I'll say I'm gonna have a coffee chat open house. Mm-hmm. Because I'm like, you're also seeking connections with people. And good people usually know other good people. So I'll create a day, I'll tell everybody where it's at, and I'm like. Go forth in rss VP come if you don't come. It's amazing how many people do not come after, like blowing up my dms and my like, you must not have been, I need to talk to you that serious. and I'm like, I guess your question wasn't that serious. Indeed and I, I do find that it works really well, but then when they come around later and they're like, I need things, and I'm like. That's so interesting. Megan and I are now offering a, pay what you can networking workshop would you like to attend? Good. I like that. Yeah, I, I forget about that because we also did. Putting more social events in, just because we did notice that like people clearly needed it. Mm-hmm. foundationally, what we're trying to do with AI Portland is do our part to create like an innovative and exciting, community. So like when we saw that people were struggling with just being in the same space with other people, we're like, well that is something that meets our foundational goal that we can do. We can set up a happy hour. Migration loves having us. Yeah. You know, like, cool, we'll see who shows up. And then I think people are really also really appreciative of the fact that we don't just like have happy hour drinking n neither Megan or I are big drinkers. And so being able to offer a morning coffee, like maybe that works better for someone's schedule. Also vibes, is more humane. Mm-hmm. Giving people the ability to show up in different kind of spaces. Yeah. I forgot our selfish goal though. I always forget about it. We always have one. Right? There's usually a reason. I mean Sure. we're women of the people. We do it for the people, but also ourselves. It's true. But you have to do something for yourself in all of this. Yes. Otherwise, what's the point? It is a lot of work. It's a lot of work. A lot of work. It is. You know, lots of nights, lots of weekends. Megan and I do planning at the Panera close to Megan's house. So if you go there sometimes you'll see us huddled in a booth together. scheming, probably emailing like we're probably emailing somebody. Yeah, that's a lot of emailing. has been nice since getting the keys here.'cause I'm like, do you want me to meet me at the studio? Just, and then we carpool'cause we live Five minutes down the street from each other. Oh, you could literally just, and so I'm like, I'm gonna swing by and pick you up. I'm like, I'm, there's so many tension. I'm like, I'm putting on real pants coming. I feel like you two are married. I know. I, I dunno how I have a life without her sometimes. I'll be honest. We found our like, like, I don't know, do, it's your mirror. It's like that episode of Seinfeld where they're walking down the street and they see the versions of each other. They're like, wait, what's going on? There's also a Megan in each one. I know. Interesting. This is. Very interesting. But you can't do it alone. No. You know, like we, we talk about that a lot. Like it's a lot of work first of all. And so it's hard to try to do that all on your own is a lot. but I think, you know, we like have different strengths and like, I don't know, push each other in different ways. I also feel like the good cool stuff that has happened wouldn't have been as good or cool if I was just experiencing it myself. Like when I look over something cool is happening. I look over at Megan's face and I'm like, oh, this is happening. Right. Or also weird stuff. We're like, oh my God. Yeah, we're the masters of like across the room weird looks. Mm-hmm. And there's like a rescue be look in her eyes. So it'd be like, I have to go rescue my friend now. Oh man. I use that a lot actually. Oh, I need to, I'm so sorry. I need to go check with Nicole about something. Yeah. Also like the, there's someone to celebrate too. Yeah. Also like when you're just like, oh my gosh, you can't do this anymore. Or This is hard. I'm overworked. I have no time. You have someone to be like, you can do it. Yeah. Just wear the green blazer. Wear the green blazer. You have to wear it now. Yeah. I mean, she will wear it. Yeah. It's a good blazer. It's a good blazer. But I think also it's good to have someone who sees your accomplishments that's not you, So like, I can go. Tell, like be a mirror to Nicole and say like, look at all these things you have done in the last year that you might have forgotten about because we are all just like within ourselves and have our own insecurities and whatever. And that can be very helpful. I know selfishly well we wanted to grow our networks and when we met we both realized how a kindly neurodivergent we are. And so then we were like, yes, yes. We can go do things together. And both of us just kept saying yes. When the other person was like, I found this thing. Do you wanna go? I found this other thing. Do you wanna go? And it was always, yes, yes, yes, yes. And then we just kept doing the things. And before we knew it, we were like, oh yes, you are my yes friend. Yeah. And I think a lot of people are like, looking for what, what you two have, and it'll be interesting. Listening to this, how many will start something with someone? That is our goal this year. It is, is to inspire people to do, there's so much need here in Portland for folks to come out, to start things, to build businesses. Like we need that. We need everyone. To follow their hopes and dreams well, and try things, you know, find a friend, try the thing. I mean, I think in our first year we said yes to almost everything. you know, like as you're building something, you kind of have to say yes, yes, yes. And then at some point you'll be like. Okay. I said yes to too many things and like now we need to say no to things or we need to get real clear about what we're trying to do so that we can align opportunities with what our mission and foundation goals are. but at the beginning, you're trying to figure out what all of that is. So like, yeah, it's a lot of work, but it's also like so cool, like if you love what you're doing, that first year we did too many things. But also, holy shit, how many things do we do? You like, oh my god, remember the fractals? Like, oh my God. Yeah. What color is your heart today, Megan? What color is, it's always green. Always. I love that that description is so what we were talking about in using AI, where you have to try it and push the boundaries of it and figure out what are the boundaries of this room. And we have said that with networking. We're like, how do you know too much is too much until you actually attempt to try these things? I mean, we did. We, there's one week in particular from 2025. and Megan made me add up how many things I had gone to. It was our very first episode on this podcast, and when we looked at the numbers we were like, holy shit. Like so many, but we've, we got so much data out of it, like about ourselves, about the community. Yeah. So many things. I think that some I don't know. Sometimes we're a little too cautious about like saying yes. And I like give that a little asterisk because like, yeah, you can get overwhelmed, but we're also resilient people who can, who can say no after that, But you can't really know your limit until you approach your limit, right? You don't know failure until you fail. and you have to kind of go for it and then be like, oh. Now we need to readjust. Yeah, we, we've definitely failed. Oh yeah. We've definitely made some mistakes for sure. I mean, we make mistakes like every week. I keep thinking of the, scene from. Mean girls where she's like, the limit does not exist. The limit does not exist. I kind of feel like Portland needs a little bit of that pep talk though. I love that we're having it right now. Yeah. Because we meet people who are like, I have a limit. And we're like, the limit does not exist. Mm-hmm. And, and there's a few of us weirdos who are like, the limit does not exist. And I think the more they hear it from us, the better. And that maybe we'll start seeing more women coming out to AI Portland and coming back into the fold. Yeah. People saying yes to more things, seeing more diversity show up in all the other founder startup spaces that we go to. Yeah. Where we're like, where, where are the women? You gotta invite your friends. I super agree. Like, I mentioned this before, but like we just have this buffet of despair and terrible things that we could eat and just eat on every single day. and it's all real, but like, we can't live. Like that. And we have this amazing community and this amazing place that we live that needs us to show up in whatever way we can. So if it means starting a group or like going out, inviting your friend to go to a, thing like that, energy is what we. Desperately need around here. It is tough times in our region. Yes it is. But like we can impact that. Like we can do things, we can create that energy. Mm-hmm. Ooh, that's my pep talk. Oh wow. That's good. Chill. Yeah, chill, chill. I think that, I think that really embodies everything that you do. I mean, you gather wonderful numbers, a diversity of people, and it really shows. Oh, thank you. Thank you. That was a heavy duty episode. There was so much in it, not just Costco Love. Yeah. There was so much Costco. Love. Before we hit record, I was so mad I didn't hit record. well what you and I gleefully discovered. Is that we are not the only weirdo pair out there. I love that we talked about how you can't do things alone. Mm-hmm. You need your yes friend and that having a work wife is totally appropriate. Yeah. And that you go places outside of work together and you build things together and you just have fun. I loved the way that they come up with things is, this something that's gonna excite us? And that's how they measure if they should do something. And I think you and I do a lot of the same where it's like, Ooh, I'm really excited about this. Do you think we should do it? Yeah, let's go. and I think it's encouraging for other people, like we've, you know, we've had our episode on how to get a yes friend, and I think it would be cool if, after. It took us like two years. Like two years with your Yes friend. Just think where you could be. You too could be hosting an event series or have a podcast. You two could go to 52 events in a year. The sky's the limit. I love that they pointed out how much you do need a voice that's outside yourself. And we hear that a lot in our business journeys in general. Like you can't operate in a silo. People hire coaches because of this, or they join masterminds or communities because of it. But I think something a little more local and closer and frankly cheaper is just the ticket that having this person who will maybe just go to things with you, which is how you and I started, or who will actually start a whole ass massive community gathering like Megan and Nicole did, can also happen and. they have really leveraged something in this local area that was just completely missing from the market. Yeah. They had perfect timing for it. Yes, But they were smart too, because they looked into, is anyone doing this? Yes. So they didn't duplicate, They saw a niche, they saw a need, and they built, they tested. It grew so fast. that is where you and I differ from them slightly because, the first, networking series we did together did not, we did not sell out the room right away. We did not have standing room only. We did not. I can't imagine wine hot. We did not then walk, come and be like, yeah, here's the space. nobody wanted to talk about their weird thing in this very highly structured format. What? But we learned. but all four of us kind of, we, we roll with the punches. I love that they had things they won't do again. Yes. Because you and I also have the, some of the things we won't do again, I think all business owners should have it. I had one because I would forget and then it would do it again. So I made a never. Never ever will I again list. And I like printed it out and I like had it right next to the computer so I wouldn't forget. but I think it means you tried everything. Yes, you do have to. And we love, we talked about that you have to try all the things you do not know what you need to know until you try all the things. And it's not the same to just think about it and wonder about it or even research about it, or read other people's reviews about it or talk to someone. You have to go yourself.'cause you and I have been to things where people are like, that was the best thing ever. And we're like. Did you hate that? As much as I hated it. And then we talk about in the car ride home, we're like, that is not the community for me. Like that is not the thing for me. No. And then there's other things where people have really dogged on it. They poo poo it and they're like, oh, that thing. And then you and I are like, well, let's go check it out. And then we go and we're like. What is wrong with them? Yeah. Like those people were amazing. I got these great connections. I learned so much, and we go back again and again. I'm just really mostly impressed by how much they think about what the community needs and how to give it to them. And it's all born out of, they're curious about AI, like that's where it all comes from. I remember the days when they used to put out the call. on LinkedIn and you'd see it and they'd be like, we wanna do, you know, the next month is about this topic. We need speakers who can help us. And I don't see anyone else do that because you wanna like, I'll put in quotes, professional, like put together, you know, like, oh, I already know all of my panelists. But they were like, no, like we need you. Who do you know? And I think that's such a cool way to leverage your network. Well, there's a humility in there. a lot of people are looking to create community because they're trying to build an authority. And not that you don't know that when you start offering something, but that wasn't their initial driving force and factor and I love that. Yeah. It wasn't to be an authority in the field. It was just purely curiosity. I wanna learn more. I have a place to chat O to you. And I love that, especially for the topic for AI specifically, and we do nerd out about AI a little bit in that conversation, but I love that. They don't pretend to be the authority and they don't try to promote that anybody is a bigger authority than someone else. Yes, they do get guests who come in who have impressive careers or come from certain companies, and the authority is there for certain reasons, but it's not because they have some magical insight into AI and this is, you know, there, there's none of that. It, it is just purely like, can we figure this thing out together? Because it is a disruptor and it has entered all of our lives, and we have to make sense of it one way or another, and it changes so rapidly that if you don't do that, you kind of end up with a problem. Yeah. I think it's uniquely positioned that it's hard to be an authority on it because whatever you make, wait three months. It won't work. Oh, even faster. Yeah. Oh, well, you were shooting a video and you were like in the shooting of the video, you had to go back. God, it, it was so frustrating. I, I have this library of custom GPTs. It's not a big thing. I put them out there. I had a talk that I made for summits that we were all in last summer called You, Me, and ChatGPT. It took off. I was like, wow, okay. I did not expect that. And then because I use AI, I would say differently than most. And I teach how to use it differently because I'm a librarian and I use query language and it's just different. And so it really took off and then the questions kept coming up and I was like, oh, I have to like deliver another training. I'm gonna update it. And it took me fucking forever to update this stupid training because the landscape changes so fast. I am not an AI business. I am busy running a media studio. Like I don't have time to make a training on a dime and put it out today. Like, sorry, Mary's got her ears in cans and she's doing too many things with audio files today. And so. it took me a lot longer to put that together and then while I was recording it, there were political business things going on between anthropic and OpenAI with the US government. And I was like, motherfucker, it changed again. So, you know, I did my best and, and I ended up just sort of making a disclaimer at the top of that training and I was like, I think this might be one of the last. Trainings that I do, and it's not even really a training, it just ended up having a conversation with my primary ais, there's three of them, And then I fed the conversations to each of them to facilitate a discussion between the ais and that is the training.'cause I was like, the best source is the AI. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm gonna go to the AI. I'm gonna ask you about yourselves. They talked about each other. To each other. It was fantastic. It's fucking fantastic. And I was like, this is so much more useful than all of these trainings that are so out of date that people keep making videos about. And I'm like, I wanna know how this thing functions. I love that. Our friends from AI Portland approach their 2,800 plus member gatherings in the same way. Yep. Where they're like, we gotta figure this out together. Family like, yeah, we gotta do this. And the only way is to actually do it and get together and learn some cool things and connect. Yeah. Play, be curious and they cover such a wide range of topics because AI touches everything. So their events are actually one of the most interesting to go to because people are anywhere from like startup founders to I have an nine to five to like, I only do AI. Like this is my thing. And so. I always feel like if there's a subject you're interested in and they're having an event, just go, because you're gonna meet so many different people. Then you would find in a normal like quote unquote networking room. Yes. I think that there's something to be said about that. And you and I went to a happy hour recently. Yes. The room was very loud. No, that is not Megan and Nicole's fault There. their appetizers were banging. Yeah. Oh, that was some good hosting. I appreciated that. But there were so many people in that room who genuinely needed to connect with other people. And, you know, it was, it was a very wide range of different types of industries and personalities. There were a lot of faces we'd never seen before. A few that we had. Yeah. I'm really excited to see what they do in the coming year. I feel like they have also found their bounds a little bit more Yeah. As organizers. So they'll start dialing it in and we got it like a front row seat to watch them do that. Yeah. I think that our observations have been very much in line with their observations. And I love how blunt they were with us. So they were like, where are the women? Because you and I have been wondering the same thing too, in different spaces. Yep. And in slightly different ways. But we have noticed a shift in the way people are showing up. And not that everything has to be gendered, but diversity is really important. And I love that they are thoughtful about their diversity. Mm-hmm. You and I think about it when we do our private invite only networking parties. We think about it a lot. Mm-hmm. And we talk about it a lot. A lot. And we talk about a lot on this podcast as well. And you are like, we don't want this podcast being a giant sausage fest because it could so easily be a sausage fest. Or the opposite. Or the opposite. I think that it's important for anyone who's thinking, oh, I don't have an authority in that. Or maybe it's too techy, or maybe it's not what I do. Or maybe you're afraid of it. I mean, they made it really clear, yeah, you should show up. So I think we would encourage people to get the tickets. They're. Free. Yeah, they're free they will greet you at the door. Well, I can't wait to see Megan and Nicole more. I mean, I'm sure we'll have like a Costco date at some point. Yeah, because we need to, because apparently all of us like to, so that will probably happen, you know, I'll probably bring microphones along and be like. Everybody talk while we walk around. Costco, I thought you were gonna say being your Costco sweater. I will wear my Costco sweater. The question is, which one? Because I have three. You have three? You do. I didn't know that. I didn't know this was gonna be a Costco appreciation episode. That's it for today's episode of The Awkward Handshake. We record at Sasquatch Media Grounds in Vancouver, Washington. I'm Megan, co-founder of Fat Cap Design and creator of PDX Spellbound, and I'm Mary. Founder of Sasquatch Media Grounds and Sensible. Woo. You'll find links to everything we mentioned, guests, resources, and ways to connect with us in the show notes on your favorite podcast platform. That's also where you'll get updates on where we're headed next, and when we're inviting listeners like you to join us for guided networking in person and online. Don't be passive. Click the links. Pick better rooms. We'll see you there.