The final Friday of our 2nd anniversary celebration is here. So far this month we've given away lots of free booze and cool stuff (courtesy of @AlaskaAir, @SexyNurd, and @DarkHorseComics) to record-breaking numbers of Beer and Bloggers. Even the staff @LaughingSquid stopped by to join in on the hoopla. Sweet!

Have you been enjoying yourself so far? We hope so!

And now, for our final Friday celebration, we've managed to work our way into the schedule of a very special guest who's heard good things about Beer and Blog and wants to come and celebrated with us: Portland's own Mayor Sam Adams!

We're honored by a visit from the Mayor of the city we love so much. We believe it's the spirit of community that Portland, Oregon is known for that has kept Beer and Blog humming along, growing steady and strong like we have the past two years. Portland is Weird, it's awesomesauce, and a visit from Sam Adams is pretty much a Seal of Portland Approval in my eyes.

Please join your fellow Beer and Bloggers this Friday at the Green Dragon for the final round of cheers in celebration of our 2nd year. We'll start gathering at 4pm as usual, and expect the Mayor around 5:30pm.

A very special W00t! to long-time Beer and Blog supporter @faddah for coordinating the introduction to Mayor's Office :)

RSVP on Upcoming or get you 411 on Calagator

Mayor Adams, the Software Association of Oregon and the Portland Development Commission cordially invites you to participate in the development of a key software cluster strategy for the Oregon/SW Washington region. By attending this informative meeting you will play an instrumental part in the process with other top business community leaders.

More:

The deal is: you show up, you get to help direct the resources dedicated to software industry development from the Portland Development Commission, the Mayor’s office and the Software Association of Oregon. That’s pretty much it. The people who go to this meeting are the folks who will be directing the future of the PDC’s “Portland Software Mandate”, which is part of that whole industry “cluster” initiative that targets active outware, advanced manufacturing, clean tech and software. More broadly, this is part of the 5-year plan to guide Portland’s economic growth.

Anyway, you really should attend this meeting next Thursday. If you can’t attend, see if you can get someone you know or a friend to attend on your behalf. We’d want to pack city hall.

That’s right — we’re meeting in the City Council Chambers. It’ll be great. Please attend! It starts at 4:30pm and goes to 6:30pm. And, if you show up we can lead you over to a sweet afterparty. Seriously. It’s gonna be awesome.

The initiatives being discussed are:

• Creating a Knowledge Network to support local user groups – group convened by Warren Harrison of PSU
• Developing a business mentorship network – group convened by SAO’s Matt Nees
• Enhancing a financing network – group convened by Gerald Baugh of the PDC

Elemental Technologies will host a debate between Portland mayoral candidates Charlie Hales and Jefferson Smith on August 13th at its new offices on SW Broadway in downtown Portland. The candidates will come together to discuss how their leadership can nurture the city’s budding software industry and support the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. Roy Kaufmann, a well-known media professional, will moderate the event.

In addition, the public can submit questions to the forum via Twitter using the hashtag #pdxmayor during the debate. Queries will be submitted to the moderator as the debate occurs -- so don’t hesitate to tune in online and pose your pertinent questions to these two compelling candidates!