Co-Working spaces and Social Innovation in Portland

Yesterday I toured around Portland looking at collaborative work spaces and programs that support social innovation with my friend Renata.

First, we met with Mark Grimes, co-founder of Ned Space, Ned.com and Ned Water. He graciously spent a few hours with us, offering his advice about starting co-working spaces, his experiences putting on Maker Faire Africa, and general musings on startup social enterprise.

Ned has two spaces in Portland and is open to creating locations worldwide. A few shots of their spaces:

Next, we had lunch at a hip art gallery/coffeeshop/event venue called Backspace. Some shot of the awesome art that was on the walls:

After downing a BBQ tempeh wrap and a bottle of kombucha, we stopped by a chic co-working space called Souk.

After Souk, we had to patronize the locally famous Voodoo Doughnuts. And yes, that is real bacon on top of a maple bar.

Then we hopped across the river and drank some hard cider with Sara and my friend Alan Rosenblith. Sara is putting together an Innovation Incubation Lab called Hatch! After a few drinks, we went to an event on social enterprise put on by Springboard Innovation, one of Hatch’s partners.

As usual, Portland is inspiring, fun and feels like home.