Conrey is for Closers

This is reposted from my post to the actual Refresh Phoenix group – for other people to see, and since no one goes there anymore:

Refreshers -

First let me remind you of what Refresh was intended to do: “Refresh is a
community of designers and developers working to refresh the creative,
technical, and professional culture of New Media endeavors in the Phoenix
Metro Area. ”

It has grown increasingly clear that the Refresh Phoenix we all remember is
no longer. When I first became an active member of the local community the
monthly Refresh meeting was WHERE to go to meet up with people and see and
be seen. I first met many of you at a Refresh meeting. At the time,
there weren’t many other meetings or local groups where people in the web
space, and tech world would be able to get together and meet up. This
mailing list was THE place to get the latest news and announcements that
were relevant to the community.

Over time this has started to change – primarily evidenced by the fact that
this is the first email many of you will see come across the Refresh list in
over a month. There are now so many various group meetings that any of us
can be busy 3 – 4 nights a week, plus the multitude of *fn meetings on
Friday nights now. The community in Phoenix has grown into a self
sustaining entity now – with enough niches and pieces for us all to be as
active as we choose. Gangplank has grown up as a place to support meetings
and events. Collablab and ThriveCo are starting to reach into this space as
well. Social Media Club, Phoenix Design Week, GeekWeekAZ, Creative
Connect, etc…. All aiming to help the community – to grow the culture.

The Refresh meetings themselves have been poorly attended, with little to no
publicity, and seemingly less and less planning as time has gone on. Is
this the fault of some person or persons, or more the fault of Refresh
itself for being too good at actually building the “creative, technical and
professional culture … in the Phoenix Metro Area”?

I say it is the latter and we should all be proud for whatever role we
played in helping to make Refresh no longer necessary for the local culture.

It is time to kill off Refresh, and to celebrate what it did and how it
has gotten us all to where we are.

-Chris