About the author: Rahul Gupta is the founder of Big Wheel Brigade, a custom software and product development shop with offices in Omaha and San Francisco. Gupta co-organized the Omahan and Expats meetup.
Omahan Matt Aken with former Nebraska resident Tyler Stalder attend last week’s Omahans and Expats meetup at the Press Club of San Francisco.
Thanks to our sponsor
In the weeks leading up to Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco, various conversations between Andy Peters, Gabe Kangas and I snowballed into tweets and Facebook posts that culminated in an Omahans and Expats meetup one week ago. We had more people show up than had RSVP’d and we ended up being the last patrons left at the Press Club of San Francisco.
For those in attendance, from either end of the geographic divide, the event provided an opportunity to reconnect with old friends, make new ones, and, of course, talk Apple. Several conversations were had about the announcements Apple had made that day (Do Not Disturb mode on iOS is among my favorites).
About half of the attendees were visiting from the Midwest, but not all were out for WWDC. Serendipitously, James and Karen Linder were in San Francisco for the opening of San Francisco Opera’s production of “The Magic Flute” with production design by Omaha’s own Jun Kaneko.
For several of us expats, we were able to take the virtual relationships we had made on Twitter while living in Omaha and turn them into real-life friendships in San Francisco. Hopefully it’ll serve as a foundation for future fun, and, who knows, maybe even collaboration.
Personally (and aside from seeing old friends and making new ones), the meetup provided me with an opportunity to strengthen business ties with vendors and collaborators in Omaha. As my company is split between Omaha and San Francisco, I know we’ll continue to work with old friends and new in Omaha.
Big thanks to West Corporation for their generous sponsorship and the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce for helping make things like this happen.
Hopefully there will be future opportunities for the Bay Area crew to connect with folks visiting. At the very least, there will be next year’s WWDC!
Former Lincoln, Neb. resident Amanda Rucker
Andy Peters of Omaha with Holly McNamara of San Francisco
Jesse Anderson, formerly of Omaha, Neb., and James Boutcher of Omaha
Here’s who came
Nebraskans
- Hasani Hunter of Obsessive Software
- Andy Peters of Ninth Division
- Matt Aken of ecmodeyo
- Dr. James Linder of the University of Nebraska Technology Development Corporation
- Karen Linder, author of Women of Berkshire Hathaway
- Adam Caldwell of West Corporation
- James Boutcher of West Corp
- John Turnipseed of Nanonation
Midwest Ex-pats
- Tyler Stalder of Singly
- Rahul Gupta of Big Wheel Brigade
- Jesse Anderson of Scribd
- Kavitha Gee of TripIt
- Amanda Rucker of Larson Communications
Other
Additional thanks to Obsessive Software, Ninth Divisions, Big Wheel Brigade, Jim and Karen Linder, Sheel Gupta and Singly for helping us keep the whole night sponsored.
Credits: Photos courtesy of Rahul Gupta
