Category Archives: Downtown Roanoke

Oh, is this post 4 days late? Huh.

Alrighty. As I predicted, Day Three was Xpo’s best day. If you were there, you know what I mean. If you weren’t there, a recap would bore you anyway, so what’s the point? Isn’t all of life meaningless anyway?

Answer: yes. But to quote Wayne Coyne, “You still have to live ’til you die.” And, frankly, I’m pretty excited to see what Ariel Lev will be cooking up for next year. As much fun as Xpo is, and as good as it has been for Roanoke in its own small way, the thing has gotten a bit stale. A weird, eclectic conference can’t become a staid institution and remain relevant.

And another thing: after a year’s worth of Xpo Wednesdays, the “big, real” Xpo felt a bit…remote. Xpo Wednesday is often worthless from an informational standpoint, but it is always cool to see people who care about the community get together for an hour or two, and the fact that we’ve done that on a weekly basis for a year is amazing. It is like church. And Big Real Xpo felt, in comparison, like having an All-Star preacher ascend the pulpit for a special sermon: a cool experience, no doubt, but somewhat distant from daily life because it is actually intended to be separate and distinct. Like when a Mitt Romney or some other such goes a-preachin’ to the Southern Baptist Conference during campaign season.

Does that make sense?

As an aside, I’m not a “churchgoer” any longer, but one of my favorite-ish childhood (church) memories was when all the Christmas-and-Easter Catholics would show up to crowd the pews. It felt so exciting! Standing room only!

And now I’m done talking about that.

If you have been paying attention over the past couple of months, you’ll notice I have not written much or often. I truly, honestly, and sincerely have topics I have been meaning to address, I just haven’t had the time. Or, rather, I’ve filled my free time with other crap. Take heed, though, as I intend to alter that equation. I’M TALKING ABOUT MATH HERE, PEOPLE!

In other words, come back and check us out again reasonably soon. You might find something new.

Goodbye, CityWorksXpo! See ya next year!

I overheard someone in the middle of Xpo’s first day ask, “Has Xpo always just been a big commercial for Roanoke?”

Uhm…

Ok ok, the first day was a little bit ‘Noke focused,’ from Sara Wohlford to JD Sutphin to the Starcropolis dude to Mssrs. France & Ireland. But given that Wohlford and Sutphin were the two best speakers of the day, that isn’t such a bad thing.

From the perspective of a Roanoke-based start-up blog, Frank and Erin were best-in-show. Though most people probably think of apps when they hear “start-up,” biotech is pretty dope, too. And since Roanoke has way more doctors than coders, when a couple of research scientists take the stage to say that they left San Fransisco to come here because we have a great ecosystem in which to start a biotech company, that’s pretty exciting.

So that was Day One.

Definitely looking forward to hearing from local technology superstar Dave Epperly today. Not only is he a genius, he is also a sexy, sexy dreamboat. We ❤ Dave.