Minnestar
Reflections on Twin Cities tech‑community events—Minnebar, Minnedemo and more. I explain the origin of “Minnebar,” recap sessions I attended and celebrate the people powering our thriving tech scene.
- Let’s Invest: Building Strong Community and Empowering Our Future with Steve Buchanan
- Mastering LLM Optimization: RAG, Fine-Tuning, and Combined Strategies with Prashanth Pollishetty and Varun Kodathala
- Google Sheets + AI, the new Brainstorming, and Custom GPTs with Jeffrey Williams
- Retro-Computing Hobby with Girish Jorapurkar
- DevSecOps the Good, the Bad, the Ugly with Brian Dolan-Goecke
- There are a few of my son’s pieces mixed into the series titled “Little Man Specials.” This was a nod to those parents out there fighting to keep the creative spirit alive. He was captivated by the project and inspired to start plugging away on his own versions.
- I also had some heavy hitters that didn’t quite make the cut… Matt’s, CC Club, Electric Fetus. I can’t remember why exactly they weren’t included. I felt a sense of pressure to get the work out there and be one of the first Minneapolis inspired collections on-chain.
- While there was beauty in the limitations of the 612 pixels, there were also some challenges in getting the landmark at the right scale / perspective.
I’m super excited to see Ben Edwards @alttext now on micro.blog! Ben has a done a bunch but in my mind he’s always one of the folks that got minnestar off the ground. He was emailing me over the weekend about blogging stuff — I think you’re gonna like it Ben! Picture from Minnebar 2009. 🙌
Minnedemo 40
The 40th installment of Minnedemo had me wondering about the first one — I was there for Holiday Minnedemo in October of 2006! I have a lot of Minnedemo blog posts. 🤩
HabitAware
App along with a bracelet that attempts to interrupt someone that is habitually picking on their skin, pulling their hair, or some other body-focused repetitive behavior (BFRB). One of the founders successfully used this to stop a hair pulling habit. They demoed their solution now working as an app on an Apple Watch. They also have a new version of the bracelet on the way.
OmegaVR
Dagmawe Mamo, Mahamud Hussien + Keleabe Mamo
Focused on creating accessible technology specifically to allow VR usage for people that have mobility limitations. Allow user to move around VR space with eye tracking and other assistive methods. Uses EEG to monitor brain activity to allow navigation via thought.
tinkl: Pee in Peace
Not a launched app but will be soon. The app uses an established database with user generated content layered on to help locate gender neutral bathrooms. The app was originally built as part of Prime Academy program. Great name!
Attentio: Latent Signal Descent & Context Stacking
Platform to allow training and custom weights of an LLM using plain text. You can simply describe facets and data and then tell the LLM to save that and it will respond with that from then on. It was a good demo. It wasn’t clear to me how different it is from a Custom GPT in ChatGPT. It does work on significantly smaller and cheaper models.
Abe
Platform that connects DIY home repair people to others to help them solve problems in the home via online video sharing. Buy on demand expertise that can help you navigate projects. Particularly good where YouTube videos just don’t address the specific questions you have. Much cheaper than a handyman or tradesperson visiting, and perhaps a way for a tradesperson to generate additional income? The demo was replacing a flapper in a toilet. 🚽
HLRBO
Heath Schubert + Cookie Lithyouvong
Interesting idea that has market traction and raised investment round. Like VRBO, but for Hunting Leases. Provides a market for landowners to put the hunting rights up for lease, and provides the legal lease documents as well as hosting assets to better explain the plot of land. Seems like a solid idea taking an existing proven model and applying to a different asset.
The Poopcopter
Olson presented a classic Minnedemo that will be remembered for years — a drone that flies around and finding and removing dog poop. He has an operational drone that uses computer vision to spot dog poop, then descends onto it and uses a twisting motion to close a custom designed “scoop” which then flies away to collect it. Practical? No. Fun? Absolutely! 💩
See also official Minnedemo 40 recap!
Was great to run into this amazing group of Minnestar superstars at Minnedemo 40: Adrienne Peirce, Lindsi Gish, Jenna Pederson, and Justin Porter!
Minnebar 18
Today was one of the biggest days of the year for the technology community of the Twin Cities — Minnebar 18! Once again Best Buy Headquarters was a gracious host sponsor and Minnestar welcome over 1,000 passionate technolgies to partake in at least 80 sessions led by members of the community. Tyler and I had a great time and attended many sessions.
The main room as the day gets kicked off.
Minnebar 18 t-shirts ready! They look amazing!
Ran into Colin Hirdman who had this incredible display integrated with his shirt.
One of our sessions learning about LLM techniques.
Steve Buchanan introducing himself as he gets Session 0 (aka Minnebar Keynote) going.
Very, very long line for pizza.
Great to see Maria Boland Ploessl, Benjamin Ortega, me, Jeff Sellner, Tony Collen, and Adrienne Peirce.
The session we attended Retro Hardware.
SPS Commerce is a terabyte sponsor of Minnestar!
We didn’t get everyone, but several of #TeamSPS got together for a team photo at Minnebar 18!
👋 Awesome community members that I got to say Hi to at Minnebar (incomplete and unordered)…
Bridget Kromhout, Nate Anderson, Levi McCormick, Jeanette Dorazio, Justin Porter, Casey Helbling, Paul DeBettignies, John Roberts, Jenna Pederson, Colin Hirdman, Samantha Grumdahl, Matt Decuir, Gordon Raup, Maria Boland Ploessl, Adrienne Peirce, Jeff Sellner, Tony Collen, Benjamin Ortega, Corwin Diamond, Bode Falade, Mark Gritter, Nikki Riemersma, Jim Bernard, Pete Clark, Tor Flatebo, Tori Peraza, Melissa Buening, Jade Barker, David Duccini, Peter Edstrom, Graeme Thickins, Molly Doyle, Robert Weber, John Murphy, John Kelly, and Robert Speer.
See also Minnebar collection.
A warm welcome to the newest slate of Minnestar board members: Kathryn Frengs, Tim Herby, Muneeb B. Hafeez, Kevin Jansen, Robert Tomb, Matt Decuir, and Valerie Lockhart. I continue to be a big fan of Minnestar and their mission to catalyze the Twin Cities technology community.
Interview with 612 Series creator Erik Halaas
In October 2022 I found the 612 Series by Erik Halaas. This NFT collection resonated with me as a Minneapolis resident. I knew nearly all the landmarks and had fond memories of many of them. I decided to purchase five of them, which turned out to just be the start. I also shared the collection with others and even sent one as a gift. Eventually I acquired a complete set of the landmarks and got to know Erik, the creator of the 612 Series and StayNftyMpls. Erik even agreed to donate a collection for Minnestar to give away in a POAP drawing at Minnebar 17.
I had some questions about the 612 Series so I asked Erik if he would be up to do an interview to dive a little deeper. He was happy to, so here we go!
Q: What was your inspiration to create the 612 Series?
A close friend of mine extended a loose invitation to an art opening in NYC in the fall of 2021. Being cooped up in the midst of the pandemic, I was itching for an adventure and didn’t need much of an excuse to hit the road. I loosely heard of art “on-chain” and the growing energy around NFTs but knew nothing of the artist, Jeff Davis co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Art Blocks, or the folks orchestrating the show, Bright Moments a DAO curating, promoting, and producing unforgettable physical showcases centered on creating art live, on-chain, in real life.
NYC would be the 2nd stop on their 10 city journey around the world, an effort to build a thriving community of “CryptoCitizens.” At face value, it was a growing collection of simple and silly pixelated characters but there was something more there. Folks were having powerful shared experiences in person (this meant a lot in 2021), being exposed to seasoned and often unsung artists, and learning together by exploring uncharted territory (e.g. crypto, NFTs, generative art).
Long story short, I left NYC with a strong desire to replicate this energy back home — to dust off my long-dormant creativity quelled by kids and full-time work; to build community with fellow creatives, curators, and collectors; to explore this new world of digital art, NFTs, and the value of content on-chain; but to do it in a way that was specific to my home, Minneapolis. As we waited for the plane, we were talking about the immense pride folks have in the city of Minneapolis and how we might capture it. We joked about “the 612” and something clicked…
What if I made 612 Minneapolis characters? Unique snapshots? Landmarks? What if we leaned into the pixelated energy of the era and confined the creation of each landmark to only being 612 pixels?!
The project was born from there.
Q: How did you pick the landmarks to include? Do you have a favorite?
The first was the Witches Tower — a favorite landmark from my childhood growing up in Prospect Park and one of the most beloved block prints I created years ago. I had played around with a pixelated version of the tower before the NYC happenings. With all that in mind, it is probably one of my favorite 612 Series landmarks.
From the Tower, the landmarks were essentially pulled from personal or shared Minneapolis memories. The city skyline, favorite parks or lakes, iconic bridges, memorable events, concerts, or shows. Whether historic Minneapolis landmarks or simply places I had visited and revisited with family and friends at various points throughout my life, these were all places etched in my memory as representative of home. I thought about crowdsourcing folks for key landmarks but the following for the project just wasn’t there.
A couple of fun notes…
Either way… there are definitely some could’a, should’a, would’a landmarks out there.
612 Series Landmarks: Minneapolis Institute of Art, Guthrie Theatre, Lowry Ave Bridge, Stone Arch Bridge, The Walker, Witches Tower, Cherry and Spoon, I-35W Bridge, Hennepin Ave Bridge, Lake Harriet, Lake of the Isles, Minnehaha Falls, Basilica of Saint Mary, Bde Maka Ska, Lake Hiawatha, Lake Nokomis, Washington Avenue Bridge, Martin Olav Sabo Bridge, Campbell Mithun Tower, First Ave, Capella Tower, Foshay Tower, Gold Medal Building, Goldy Gopher, Grain Belt Sign, IDS Tower, Midtown Global Market, Northrup Chair, Riverside Plaza, Target Headquarters, Wells Fargo Center, Al’s Breakfast, and The Kid’s House from Purple Rain.
Q: What software and tools did you use to create the series?
Funny enough, the work was all created in Excel. As someone who has traditionally worked with relief block printing as a creative outlet the switch to digital was a stretch and, thanks to work, Excel offered a familiar toolkit. I had also heard of other artists using excel for their work — be it code-based generative art or simply documenting cross-stitch patterns.
I decided to put the project on the Ethereum blockchain because it was something I was familiar with given Bright Moments and ArtBlocks use, and OpenSea, which operates on Ethereum, was growing in popularity at the time, offered a no-code entryway to the market, and supported “lazy minting” which allowed me to put the collection up at no cost by deferring the gas fees associated with minting the piece to the buyer (“minting” is the process of officially writing the piece onto the blockchain).
Q: What plans or ideas do you have to bring the 612 Series beyond pixels? You’ve done some paintings?
I worked with a group of folks a little over a year ago to explore the interplay between digital and physical work. We hosted a dozen local creatives, half of which had a presence on-chain and the other half with no experience with NFTs, crypto, web3, whatsoever. The end result was a curated experience weaving traditional 2D and 3D mediums in with a variety of tech forward, digitally inspired content at the Hewing Hotel gallery. You can learn about the artists and get a flashback via this collection of Instagram Stories. It was a blast!
To highlight the 612 Series, I shared the initial relief block print of the Witches Tower that inspired the imagery for the series alongside an Infinite Object frame displaying a variety of the 612 Series Witches Tower NFTs. The show actually motivated me to revisit the original block printing method but reimagine the landmark in its pixelated form. I have gone on to create a few more of the landmarks in both the original and pixelated block print form (including one for you!) and would love to continue exploring how the pieces can be reimagined in the physical.
Q: If you fast forward a decade how would you like the 612 Series to be thought of?
I took great pride in being the first Minneapolis-centric NFT collection. Part of the importance of that to me was experimenting with blockchain technology and the capacity to track the work over time. Putting the pieces on chain memorialized this moment of creative inspiration and will allow me to track how interest and engagement with the collection grows, changes hands, ebbs and flows, is valued, etc. I know, for example, the exact moment that first piece moved and will know if, when, and loosely to whom that piece is handed off to down the line.
I would love to see this added narrative behind the original work build beyond simply documenting transactions — perhaps a way for holders to document and share the stories, memories, experiences that connected them to each of the landmarks they own. There was some of that starting to take place on social media.
Ultimately, these softer social interactions were the real impetus behind the project: to build community and spark creativity. This has been realized through “in real life” experiences like the show at the Hewing Hotel, collaborations with you at Minnebar 2023, connections with MN Blockchain, and so on.
My hope is that the project will continue to inspire local folks with a shared interest in the arts, technology, and community to connect, collaborate, and create locally!
A big thank you to Erik for creating this series and for sharing more about it. I wonder if we will ever see a 2nd collection of the 612 Series with a new set of landmarks? Or maybe some ability to work with Erik and create a special 1 of 1 for a set of unique landmarks in the 612 Series. How cool would it be in fifty years to see bronze plaques setup at the various landmarks highlighting these early NFTs that commemorate that spot.
Want to own a piece of this collection? There are still many 612 Series collectibles available to buy! 🛍️
To connect with Erik you can find @ErikHalaas on X, his LinkedIn profile, or via StayNftyMpls.
I dig the simple and distinct look of the new Minnesota state flag. Certainly a more modern look.
Several years ago when I was still on the board of Minnestar we created a new branding system that looks almost like a precursor to the new flag.
Minnedemo 39 was awesome! It was great to see so many from our fabulous technology community, and to see the great demos that everyone shared.
Thanks to Caedence, Showcrow, Evergreen, Charles Edge, Request Metrics, and Raise a Hood for presenting!
Farmhilly 8
My friend, and fellow Minnestar Catalyzer, Adrienne Peirce has this amazing house that sits on eight acres of land, and they host an annual event with bands playing all day, fun things for kids, yard games, food, and chill vibes to hang out in all day long. In all the years they have been hosting Farmhilly, we’ve never been able to attend, until this year. We finally got to attned Farmhilly 8 and had a nice chill afternoon with music, great weather, and the longest game of cornhole ever (the boys prevailed 21-20!).
