Inverge: the interactive convergence conference, happens on Sept. 4+5, 2008 (with access to some additional related activities on Sept. 6th and 7th) in the Pearl District of Portland, OR USA and is about emerging interactive convergence [invergence] dynamics manifesting as various global business trends including: media platform integration, brand integration, collective intelligence, participatory culture and mass collaboration. For 2008 the focus is on the invergence of media platforms (transmedia/cross-media), online + offline, content + advertising and corporate + consumer-generated content.
It will be a highly participatory experience, with all attendees gathered in the same place for a single track of keynote-style speaker presentations and each attendee having an interactive wireless device that allows for a real-time feedback loop between speaker and audience. This conference will allow you to plug in to the new invergence dynamics—experiences, relationships, culture, community—and walk away engaged, enlightened and energized.
Inverge 2008 will bring together thought leaders, influencers, mavericks and cultural creatives from a variety of creative industries and disciplines to the famed Pearl District of Portland, OR USA (the San Francisco Chronicle says of the Pearl “News flash: When we weren’t looking, Portland got hip.”).
Over the past several years, Portland has emerged as one of the most lauded cities in the U.S. by a variety of measures, and Inverge 2008 coincides with the city’s most culturally rich 4-day period of the year. In addition to this leading-edge business conference, a pass to Inverge includes access to two of the Northwests’s top cultural events: the Time-Based Art Festival (3 vouchers) and MusicFestNW (full access wristbands), at no additional cost. Both are large multi-venue festivals featuring artists from around the country. Both start on the same Thursday as the conference and run through the weekend, making this a one-of-a-kind, only-in-Portland experience. Also starting on that same day is the First Thursday Gallery Walk, which is right in the same neighborhood and gets started right as the inVerge program is wrapping up for the day. If you’ve been looking for an excuse to check out Portland, this is it.
The event is being held in the new, state-of-the-art Gerding Theater, the first performing arts facility in the world to achieve the U.S. Green Building Council’s highest certification level for sustainable building design, construction and operation: LEED Platinum.