Minnesota Technology Scene
Just behind family, the #2 reason that I stay in Minnesota is the amazing tech scene (both the people and the companies). I'm not alone in thinking it is amazing, in fact one person made a documentary on the Minnesota Technology Scene.
Although a large chunk of the greatness comes from the people and the companies, I wanted to take some space to make recommendations about my favorite parts of the community.
Minnesota Technology News
- Tech.MN - I firmly believe that the current wonderful state of the Minnesota community is largely a result of this news resource. Like a TechCrunch dedicated to Minnesota, this company's visibility and involvement in the tech scene brings us all together in critical ways (and when it is -20°, staying connected has to happen online)
- minnov8 Podcast - A weekly podcast, posting since early 2008, offers a great commentary on the community from some people in the know.
My Favorite Minnesota Technology Communities
I recognize that all of these are Meetup.com groups, but that's just how we've organized.
- JavaScript MN - "This is a group of Minnesotans getting together to discuss programming JavaScript in the browser, on the server, on mobile devices, and everything in between."
- Hackers & Founders MN - "Hackers and Founders is part of a global network of casual meetups focused around bringing together like minded people working on cool things."
- DevOps Minneapolis - "This is a group targeted to engineers (both dev and ops), tech professionals, managers, leads, architects and entrepreneurs coming together to learn about and share information on DevOps processes, tools, practices and benefits."
- NodeMN - "A group for anyone interested in Node.js regardless of skill level or experience."
My Favorite Minnesota Technology Events
- MinneDemo happens 3 times a year and I've spoken at it twice. 7 geeks each have 7 minutes to give a live demo of their projects. It is fantastic!
- MinneBar once a year there's a free all-day technology conference, hosted at Best Buy, where you can learn about everything from 3D-printers to venture funding to new programming languages.
- Twin Cities Startup Week is an action-packed full week that covers the gamut of everything about being a startup in Minnesota.
Think there's more greatness that should be mentioned on this page? Tell me!