The Black Keys played the Portland Civic Center Tuesday night and it’s fair to say that Maine was rocked. Beyond being another inspiring duo that shows how much you can do with so little, the band is a great example of a “minimum viable product” gone viral.

Minimum Viable Product (MVP for short) is a tech term usually associated with apps that, in the words of Seth Godin, is “The thought is that you should spec and build the smallest kernel of your core idea, put it in the world and see how people react to it, then improve from there.” There are many good things about this approach. You don’t sit around thinking and perfecting in isolation. You try to distill your idea to its essence, build the best version of it you can quickly and put it out there. The downside, as Godin points out, is that, “With enough patience and push and consistent enthusiasm, these products have a shot at crossing the threshold [into viability]. But if the mindset is ‘see what works and do it more,’ you’ll often discover yourself giving up long before that happens.”

The Black Keys didn’t give up. Childhood friends from Akron, Ohio, Dan Auerbach plays guitar and vocals and Patrick Carney play drums. Up until this tour, that was it, just the two of them on stage. They formed the group in 2001, and recorded their first album in Carney’s basement the following year. They toured frequently, playing small venues and building a fan base. They also started to make some real money licensing their rough, riff-heavy tunes for advertising. In 2006 they signed with Nonesuch (either a minor major label or a major minor label depending on how you look at it), but it was not until 2010 with their album Brothers that they really sold a lot of records.

Assuming you do stick with it, the minimum viable product model has many benefits. The immediacy of The Black Keys’ music comes from them having identified the irreducible components of rock and roll (the beat, the guitar, the rough vocals) and pushed them hard. There’s something refreshing and direct about their approach. There are no blind alleys or self indulgent solos—everything is in service of the song. Along the way they’ve updated blues vocals and redeemed heavy metal guitar tone for a new generation of alternative rock fans. The music before their set was Otis Redding and after Led Zeppelin. This says a lot about the intergenerational nature of their appeal, but the crowd on Tuesday night was heavy on twenty-somethings.

And although Auerbach is singing all the songs, it is Carney that is responsible for their propulsion. A tall man behind a standard rock drum kit, the effect is of an oversized child at play. It’s like on the web, all the great content in the world won’t get you anywhere without traffic, and in rock and roll, the drummer is the traffic.

At the end of their set, Auerbach (not long on patter, but verbose compared to Carney who wasn’t even miked) said, “We’re definitely coming back. You guys are great. This has been our best show in a long time.” We’re sure they say that to all their “minimum viable cities,” but Portland will hold them to it.

Ballet dancers and machine automation? A reference, perhaps, to the famous Dada film Ballet Mécanique? Nope, just the next networking mashup that is 2 Degrees Portland.

Calling all artists, professionals, entrepreneurs, and locals of all kinds invested in Portland’s creative economy. The place to be this coming Thursday, February 16, is Kepware, 400 Congress Street in Portland. That night, from 5:30-7:30 pm, the Maine Technology Institute (MTI) is sponsoring the first 2 Degrees Portland event of 2012. And dancers from the Portland Ballet will be there previewing excerpts from their upcoming production of Giselle.

If you’re not familiar with MTI, you should be. Since 1999 they’ve been promoting and supporting Maine’s technology sectors with grants and assistance. From start-ups to established innovators, companies throughout Maine—many right here in Portland—have grown and flourished because of MTI. (One of those local companies, by the way, is Kepware itself, a leader in automation software, helping sophisticated machines talk to one another.)

And just what is “2 Degrees Portland”? It’s a year-old program that connects people already living here with those who want to live here, or are newly arrived. As Creative Portland’s Jen Hutchins notes, “One reason people love this community is because it’s two degrees of separation, not six.”

On the 16^th, Portland newcomers will have the opportunity to connect with the creative community, and those who are established here can network with each other.  So, if you’re an engineer or a designer or a chef or an actor or a programmer or a photographer or a scientist or a…  you get the point.  The way to cross-pollinate is 2 Degrees Portland, and the place to do it is at Kepware on February16.

In a world of uncertainty, why celebrate risk? Why put everything you have into a crazy idea with only the barest beginnings of a plan? Ask that to Corey, Tyler and Seth, above, when they leave Love, The Bus in LA and fly back to Camden to be among the keynote speakers at the Juice 3.0 Conference in Camden on November 4 and 5th. In the case of Tyler Dunham, Seth Brown, and Corey McLean, these three “lifelong friends, filmmakers, and adventurers from the coastal town of Lincolnville, Maine (pop. 2,042). …[are] brimming with optimistic energy and a desire to accomplish something epic.” So they converted an old schoolbus into a grease-powered, web video road trip mobile and have been travelling around the country raising money to fund projects for community organizations and uploading the results in real time. If they can do all that, what else can they do?

And that’s just the point. The creative economy, the innovation economy, the experience economy—these are all expressions of the fluidity required by this crazy world—call it the improvisation economy. The Juice Conference is dedicated to bringing together a wide range of creative, innovative thinkers who have figured out how to put their ideas into action. Speakers and panelists include Maine heavyweights like Governor Angus King, Eliot Cutler and Roxanne Quimby, art world luminaries like Louisa McCall, Donna McNeil, and Eric Fischl and technological innovators like Kerem Durdag, John Ferland and  Steve Page. Portland’s creative economy is well represented by Ben Sawyer, of Digital Mill, Josh Broder of Tilson Technologies, Paul Dobbins, of Ocean Approved, Stephanie Volo of Planet Dog and Jaime Parker of Portland Trails.

One of the highlights of the conference is the pitch contest with $150,000 in financing to the winning business plans. (The deadline has been extended to Friday, October 28, so there’s still time to apply). If you’re not up for facing the “shark tank” in the pitch contest, they also have a short film contest (the deadline to apply is also now this friday.) Putting business plans and people who think about making business plans in front of investors and experts about those businesses is exactly what Juice is trying to do. And if your plan sounds like a mystery bus ride, what start up these days doesn’t?

Maine is full of smart people doing interesting things, but we may all be a bit too independently minded for our own good. That’s why conferences like Juice (and TEDx Dirigo) and places like Portland are so important. As the innovation economy spreads out through Maine, Portland has a role to play as a place to bring people together, to develop stories, to share a great meals, to cross-pollenate and propagate. Josh Broder of Portland’s Tilson Technology was just named to MaineBiz’s Next List for 2011. In the article he predicts that certain parts of the economy are poised for significant growth, “especially in those industries with strong ties to the creative economy. ‘American centers of innovation are our capital—the companies coming from technology, software and social media,’ he says. ‘All of those new things require significant infrastructure, and we’re the infrastructure provider.’”

And the same could be said of Portland. If risk is the juice of the Maine’s creative economy, Portland is it’s glass.

Photo from Love, The Bus

In an increasingly global job market, students must be fluent in science, technology, engineering, and math to remain competitive. This set of topics, often referred to as STEM education, has been at the forefront of school districts’ agendas in Maine. These programs seek interconnections amongst STEM subjects, and use real-world scenarios to teach students critical thinking and problem solving techniques. High schoolers in the Portland area with a strong interest in growing their STEM knowledge will soon have another choice for their alma maters.

The Baxter Academy, a Maine charter school, will open its doors to teens across the state next September. The school is the first of its kind in Southern Maine; the Maine School of Science and Mathematics serves a similar purpose in Aroostook County. Now, students in the Portland area will have opportunities to explore interests in biology, architecture, computer programming, and more while living at home.

“The Baxter Academy gives students more options,” explained John Jacques, Baxter Academy’s Executive Director. “We want to help people find a better fit for their kids. Our mission is to serve a group of students with a more specific set of interests.” To help cultivate STEM skills, Baxter Academy will offer more hands-on, expeditionary style learning. For instance, a biology course might venture on the Casco Bay Line to explore the islands. The school also plans on including an internship component that partners students with local businesses and research centers, like the Gulf of Maine Research Institute.

The Baxter Academy will strengthen Maine’s already-strong record in STEM education. The STEM Education Coalition, which gives states rankings based on their public school performance, ranked Maine sixth in the nation for the percentage of high schoolers ready for college based on both their ACT math and science scores. Additionally, Maine is the state with the best pupil to teacher ratio in the country (11.9 students per teacher, versus a national average of 15.47).

When it opens in September 2012, Baxter Academy will accept 80 students for both its freshman and sophomore class. Students will be chosen through a lottery system if more apply than the school can accept. The application process will get underway late this fall, after the Department of Education finalizes the school’s charter. Interested parents and students are encouraged to check the school’s website for updates regarding applications and the ultimate location of the school.

For the intrepid Portlander (including your devoted editor) next Saturday promises to be even more immersive than usual. From 9 to 5 I will punch in at the Portland Stage Company on Forest Ave. and have my head filled with “Maine Ideas Worth Spreading” at the second annual TEDxDirigo conference. Then, at quittin’ time, the more than 200 conference attendees and speakers will pour out onto the street and find themselves just half a block from the second coming of the creative Portland carnivale that is SPACE Gallery’s Block Party. For the next three hours, the Portland Arts District will be filled with creative manifestations of all kinds. Think FirstFRIDAYxSteroidos!

And interesting for us that this is the second year that LiveWork Portland has been around to cover these events. TEDx Dirigo wasn’t on our map (literally) last year because it happened in Brunswick, at the Frontier Café near Bowdoin College. This year they hope to triple the attendance by hosting it in Portland. We were particularly enamored by the steamroller stunt at last year’s block party, and while no steamrollers are on the menu for this year’s event, there is a much longer list of individual artists and groups staging installations and performances than last year. And although they only come from Providence instead of Brazil, this year’s party band, the What Cheer? Brigade, is a 19 piece sometimes marching brass band that “mixes the sounds of Bollywood, The Balkans, New Orleans, Samba and Hip-Hop, with the intensity of a punk rock band.” Wow!

When I think about it I imagine a day of extreme cultural and intellectual density. The kind of experience you expect to find only in big cities. But these things are possible in Portland because of an unusual balance of factors—call it “small density”—that puts lots of smart people in proximity to each other without crushing overhead or soul-destroying commutes. And all that extra time and energy fuels a community of non-profits robust enough to stage ambitious events like these—sometimes two or more in a day. Portland is itself a “Maine idea worth spreading.” Pass it on!

While the national—and global—economic picture is decidedly mixed, there are signs that Portland, Maine, may be exceptional in more ways than it’s number of James Beard nominations per capita. This may be highly anecdotal, but in the last few weeks many postings for high-level creative jobs in Portland have moved across my radar. These are not just-out-of-college quasi-paid internships, but well-paying jobs worth moving from Brooklyn, Boston, Berkeley or Austin for. Putney, a veterinary products startup based in Portland, was the highest ranking Maine company on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest growng small companies with an impressive 291% three year growth rate. Go to the careers page their website and you’ll see they are looking for a director of marketing; If you follow Mediabistro you would have seen a posting for an art director at Kemp Goldberg Partners marketing and advertising agency; and (as I mentioned in a recent post) The Via Agency has 8 positions to be filled.

At a time when all levels of government are talking about how to spur job creation it is great to see that the creative economy (at least here in Portland) is actually doing it. All kinds of non-profits are sharpening their business focus as well in hopes of remaining relevant and positioning themselves as worthy targets for scarce investment dollars. The speakers at the upcoming TEDxDirigo conference receive coaching in how to distill their “ideas worth spreading” into 18 minutes or less and then get a high quality video of their talk to help them spread those ideas further. MaineBiz just did a profile on founder Adam Burk. TEDxDirigo talks are not quite elevator pitches, but they’re a way to give creative social entrepreneurs a leg up on getting attention—and funding.

Art, it must be said, is not business. But there is a lot of business that develops around art. In order for that process to happen there need to be opportunities for artists to find support for their own basic research and let others jump in to find applications. The Maine Arts Commission just released a report on the economic impact of Museum attendance in Maine as a way of demonstrating an aspect of that link. MAC has shown unwavering support for both local arts organizations and individual artists, both crucial components in the growth of the creative economy from which many of the cultural perks of Portland flow.

In a similar vein, Maine AIGA’s annual exhibit this year is entitled, “Good Design is Good Business,” and the focus is on “the elements of branding.” Maine AIGA president, and partner at Portland branding shop Might & Main (formerly Forge), Sean Wilkinson says, ”Well designed presence in the world is what sets one great idea apart from another. It is ‘intelligence made visible.’ Your expertise as a business is only as valuable as people perceive it to be, and hiring a designer is one of the most important steps in shaping that perception. It also keeps good folks like me gainfully employed.”

Good folks, gainfully employed in Portland, Maine—the image of a glass filling…

background photo by Corey Templeton, Portland Daily Photo

The ABSTRACT Maine 2011 conference this Friday is a great opportunity for designers and publishers of all kinds to come to Portland and get a glimpse of the future of the presentation of content from six creative directors on the forefront of what was, until recently, considered the magazine business in New York. Magazines are morphing into multi-channel, multi-screen streams of branded content, but they still are about telling stories. So consider Abstract to be a kind of 21st century Chautauqua: story-tellers telling stories about how to tell stories. Of course, at LiveWork Portland, we try to tell the story about how smart, independently-minded creative people find Portland to be the perfect place to develop their talents and enjoy their lives. We didn’t really think that Fast Company creative director Florian Bachleda was thinking of relocating to Portland, but we thought we would ask anyway…

1) The emphasis of the ABSTRACT conference seems to be about the ways that technology has transformed the presentation of media. Where on the tech spectrum do you fall personally, from card-carrying Luddite to bleeding edge geek?
I’ve sometimes been a card carrying Luddite who finally tasted geekdom and now I can’t get enough of it. The different options we now have as story-tellers is intoxicating.

2) With all of the additional demands and opportunities that multi-channel publishing presents, do you still consider yourself a designer, or have you become something more hybrid and hyphenated?
I still consider myself a designer, it’s just that the job description for being a designer in 2011 and beyond has radically changed. I see this in my colleagues also: Arem Duplessis at the the NY Sunday Times Magazine has been directing his digital and motion graphics team. Dirk Barnett at Newsweek is about to tackle that side of his new gig. Luke Hayman at Pentagram is always out in front with things like this.

3) What are the specific skills that this new world of media requires, have you been able to develop all of those skills yourself, and if not, has your process become more collaborative?
I have not been able to develop as many of those skills as I’d like, but you realize (again) that as long as you have a team of people with those skills, your job as the creative director is to direct. Understanding what everyone does, what’s possible, and being able to give direction is the key, not so much mastering those skill sets yourself. In a perfect world, I would have the time to do that. But even if I did, there’s no way I’m going to be as good as my team that have those specific skill sets. We’ve all heard this before: You’re the conductor and you write the music, but you need a great orchestra to play the individual instruments.

4) Based on your own experiences in the magazine publishing world of New York, what kinds of businesses, design studios, creative communities, etc. will best be able to take advantage of the kinds of cross-platform workflow solutions that you will discuss at the conference?
Any type of company or community that is willing to embrace the future and not always attach a P&L to it. Especially organizations with leaders that are willing to champion new technology. From our crew, you see Scott Dadich at Conde Nast and Gael Towey at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia taking the lead on this within their companies, and the way they’ve been able to move mountains is so impressive. At Fast Company, we’re pushing forward with a tablet app for our annual 100 Most Creative People package because we think it will be a value to our readers, not because it will be some huge money-maker. We’re a magazine about progress and innovation, and there’s never a line item for that.

5) And this is for our local angle: To the extent that technology allows you to move your life and work to another city, which ones would you consider? What are the most important factors for you about the geographic location of where you live and work? And if you didn’t answer Portland, Maine, what factors (other than moving it to Brooklyn!) would make you consider relocating here?
Sorry, it might be impossible for me to leave New York right now. My cat loves it here too much…

Two Fat Cats Bakery sign photo from PeaceLoveandFood blog

Of all the world-class creative directors alighting on Portland, Maine this Friday for the Abstract: The Future of Design in Media Conference, Gael Towey is perhaps in the best position to “get” Portland. Towey has been the Creative Director for Martha Stewart’s magazines and other omnimedias for the past 20 years. Together, Martha and Gael have made the well-crafted and well-curated life knowable and accessible to a generation of Americans that was losing touch with the basic competencies of their own lifestyles. From heirloom apples to the perfect turkey, Martha Stewart Living has shown and told us what to buy—and more importantly—what to do with what we buy.

So it was serendipity last week, as I was considering how to introduce Gael Towey to Portland, that designer Brook Delorme, of Brook There on Wharf Street, posted a piece on her blog entitled “Artisanal Living.” If Martha Stewart turned the artistry of everyday life into an aspirational pastime, many of us in Portland have turned it into a full-time occupation. Brook begins, ”I understand, in theory, the way to really make money … invent something and then remove your personal body, self and time from the process of building and distribution.” But that, of course, is not what Brook is doing in her design business at all, she’s making things, herself, by hand. “The artisanal approach is limited—by working hours in the day,” she continues. “Artisanal manufacturing; whether it’s bread or pottery or handmade clothing— isn’t very scalable.”

And there you have it, Martha Stewart in New York creating content (at scale) about the joys of doing things by hand and recognizing things well done, and Portland artisans filling the hours of their days practicing, in a sense, what Martha is preaching. There is a bit of a fret underlying all of the emphasis on craft in Portland—are we too artisanal for our own good? But in Portland, which was Brooklyn before Brooklyn was Brooklyn, it is not just the art of the hand-made garment or the perfect baguette that consumes us, but also the art of the community. When Brook muses, ”So, were I to desire to grow this business, I’d need to find someone else to at least do some of the stuff I like doing, and I’d have to spend more time doing things I dislike,” we can echo as well that people live in Portland so they can spend more of their time doing the things they like and less time doing things they dislike. Finally, Brook asks, “Can I reframe this somehow? what am I missing?”

This is the question that Portland is asking and to a certain extent, what the Abstract Conference is answering. The conference grows out of the incredibly dense media community in New York that has spent the last few years battling its own extinction from the pressures of what in the ’90s was quaintly called “new media.” But the strength of the community was such that, with the help of technology, they have led the “old media” print publishing companies into the new world of branded apps, social media and mobile content. These creative directors have all “reframed” their skills and talents in the context of multi-platform publishing. So the promise of the conference to participants is a concentrated glimpse of the way forward for designers and publishers, but in a more concrete sense it is about how a critical mass of talent in one place leads to innovation and the growth of new businesses.

Portland aspires to be such a community of creative innovators, and I think many of us have a sense that we are approaching a tipping point beyond which we will spontaneously begin to emit new products and businesses like strange quarks in a particle accelerator. That is the spirit behind LiveWork Portland and our new networking group 2 Degrees Portland. As Brook Delorme wrote in a post we commented on last year, we think more competition from more creatives will be better for everyone’s business. So we’re trying to connect the dots for people interested in relocating here by hooking them up with volunteers here who can help them find their place in Portland.

I asked all of the Abstract panelists “To the extent that technology allows you to move your life and work to another city, which ones would you consider? And if you didn’t answer Portland, Maine, what factors (other than moving it to Brooklyn!) would make you consider relocating here?” Not surprisingly, Gael replied, “I can’t move to Portland because my husband and kids are in NYC, and I love it too much. However, I am excited to visit Portland. I think technology allows us to travel more and live in other cities besides NY.” So we know that she is not coming to Portland on Friday to scout the location, BUT IF she were, this is the kind of thing that 2 Degrees Portland would do for her:

[If the English language had a subjunctive tense with a connotation that means AS IF, we would switch to that at this point in the post!]

2 Degrees Portland coordinator Laura Burden would receive an email from Gael through the 2 Degrees website or Facebook page. Since she would have just read the “Artisanal Living” post, Brook would immediately spring to mind as a good “connector” for Gael. [To become a connector for 2 Degrees Portland, just fill out this short form.] Laura would email Brook and ask her if she would be willing to talk to Gael on the phone or meet with her on her next trip to Portland. Brook would say, ”Sounds like fun! and thank you for thinking of me ” Perhaps Brook would invite Gael to her workshop on Wharf Street and tell her about starting a lifestyle brand in Portland. Then maybe they would walk over to Custom House Wharf for a hands-on stitching demonstration at Sea Bags and then to 2 Note Perfumery on Moulton Street to pick out a gift for Martha. in parting, Brook would wish her luck, ask her to keep in touch and pass on a list of places she thinks Gael would enjoy:

a short list in portland!

my favorites:
fore street <—favorite nice restaurant because it’s relaxed
boda <—-only thai food in portland that’s actually like food in thailand
rosemont market <—they make the best hummous in portland, & competitively price their excellent quality produce
micucci’s <—-luna bread-  the best bread in portland
arabica, bard, hilltop  <—I can’t take sides, I love them all, but almost every day I get a latte from arabica.
quimby colony <—Roxanne Quimby’s exciting and emerging artist colony, with a focus on design
bar lola <—Our artisanal version of “Everyday Food”

granted, most of my list is food-related…but that’s what portland’s about, right?

Switching out of the subjunctive, Gael, even if you’re not going to HQ your own multimedia empire here, we hope you enjoy Portland. If you have the time, Brook would be happy to meet you, Sea Bags really would make a photogenic how-to story for the iPad, 2 Note is great for gifts and the food really is as good as everyone says.

Muchness is defined by Merriam-Webster as “the quality or state of being great in quantity, extent, or degree. — much of a muchness. : very much the same.” And so it is on June 10th in Portland. Not only is AIGA Maine hosting the first Abstract: The Future of Design in Media conference (a much of a muchness itself), but on the same day Kemp Goldberg and GBrittPR are sponsoring the second of their Brand Roundtables, this one on ”The New Definition of Creativity.” Both forums take on what seems to be very abstract topics and render them into examples of constructive actions taken in increasingly complex worlds.

Abstract, in its most concrete terms, is about how designers can thrive in the emerging multiscreen world. It is telling that in this new world of content production, print is just another “screen,” albeit a privileged one with very high-resolution (but low interactivity). The six presenters for the Abstract Conference are all creative directors (or similar) for New York based big media brands, and all got their start (and have lived most of their careers) in print. Florian Bachleda (Fast Company), Dirk Barnett, (Newsweek Daily Beast), Scott Dadich (Condé Nast), Arem DuPlessis (The New York Times Magazine), Luke Hayman (Pentagram) and Gael Towey (Martha Stewart) have all transitioned their charges successfully into the world of websites and apps, and seem to be having a pretty good time juggling them all.

Registration for the conference is still being accepted. The conference will be held at the University of Southern Maine Abromson Center for Continuing Education at 88 Bedford Street in Portland, and will run from 9am-5:30 pm followed by cocktails till whenever.

The “New Definition of Creativity” that Lars Bastholm, chief of creative and digital for Ogilvy & Mather in New York, will talk about also engages with the quantum complexity of  contemporary communications, in this case in the worlds of advertising and marketing. Like the publishers and content creators represented in Abstract, the marketers that Lars will talk about have figured out how to enter the anarchic dialog that their customers engage with daily across multiple communications channels and emerge with their brands intact.

The brand roundtable is free and will include lunch. The event will be held at The Masonic Temple, 415 Congress St. in Portland. Lunch will be served at noon, the presentation will start at 12:30 pm and run until 2pm. RSVP required.

We will be following up with more posts about what the Abstract panelists will bring to Portland. And with local sponsors for the event including VIA, Maine Magazine/Maine Home + Design, Downeast, MaineBiz, USM and Portland Color, there are bound to be more design related events orbiting around the conference that we will report on.

Last night I attended the Portland Phoenix’s Best of Portland Awards at Port City Music Hall. The show began at 7:00, but when I arrived at 6:00 it was already filled with some of Portland’s most creative people. Granted there was a VIP special hour before hand, hmmm why wasn’t I invited? (hint, hint, wink, wink) Fortunately a dear friend held a seat for me, and to my delight food was being handed to me left and right from the wonderful staff of Black Tie Catering. Not to mention that as I looked to my right there was a gorgeous fondue table, which was completely swarmed by eager eaters, ooh if only I had a longer reach!

After Marie Moreshead finished her set (one of the night’s three musical performances), the award announcements began They even started with my favorite category, Arts & Entertainment! Boy, I tell you, the crowd was a super zealous one. As each nominee was announced, enthusiastic cheers made winners out of even those who did not receive an award. I was so excited that I tweeted almost every category and winner, my finger actually kind of hurts today!

The Great Lost Bear won for best burger, and when two loyal customers discovered that the owners were not in attendance they graciously accepted the award for them. “Evan Horton and I couldn’t resist the opportunity to accept the award for the Great Lost Bear. We were honored and promptly delivered it of course,” said Robert Barnes of  revDRTV. Now that’s dedication! I am so proud of the city I live in, I wish I could tweet it all!