Sense of Place returns Oct. 14

Columbia Gorge News

HOOD RIVER — Sense of Place begins its 17th season Oct. 14 with “Homegrown Drone: How a Rural Place Launched a Tech Revolution” at Columbia Center for the Arts, 215 Cascade Ave.

Doors open at 6 p.m., with the show running from 7-8:30 p.m. If the event is sold out, unclaimed seats will be released to the in-person waitlist at 6:45 p.m.

Purchase tickets at Available online at www.senseofplacegorge.org.

“The Gorge is known for its recreation economy, but it is also home to more than 100 technology companies, many specializing in unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs,” said Sense of Place curator and host Sarah Fox. “In Homegrown Drone, Gorge Technology Alliance Manager Jason Hartmann will tell the Sense of Place audience about the young, footloose engineers who came to the Gorge during the windsurfing boom of the 1980s and ‘90s, then used their expertise in lightweight materials to build a thriving tech economy hundreds of miles from Silicon Valley.”

Hartmann has lived in the Gorge for 24 years and spent a decade in the local UAV industry, primarily in business development. He has served his community as a White Salmon city councilor and a Southwest Klickitat fire commissioner, and he holds a degree in supply chain management from Michigan State University.

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Learn more about Sense of Place programs, explore the online archive, and subscribe to the newsletter at www.senseofplacegorge.org or follow @senseofplacegorge on Instagram.