© 2024 KUNR
Illustration of rolling hills with occasional trees and a radio tower.
Serving Northern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
KUNR’s spring fund drive is happening now, and your gift to the station will go twice as far with a matching pledge from the KUNR Advisory Board!

Now is the time to act –
click here to make a gift to KUNR today or increase your sustaining membership and have it matched.

Bringing Reno and Tahoe Techies Together

Rachel Arst McCullough

The monthly event series Silicon Mountain is celebrating a new livestream that lets anyone join in, and a regular viewing party at a Reno co-working space. Reno Public Radio’s Amy Westervelt went to one of those meet-ups to learn more.

"Hi there, I'm here to talk about 'Why hackathons,' ..."

That was Joe Chavez, organizer of the Reno Space Apps Hackathon, speaking to a packed crowd at Pizza on the Hill in Truckee last month. Chavez was the headliner for Silicon Mountain’s April event, titled: “Not Just for Programmers: How Hackathons Change Communities.” The group was founded by education tech guru Johannes Ziegler and its monthly events are organized by software developer Garrett McCullough and his wife Rachel, who runs her own web services company. She says the group has always worked to bring Reno and Tahoe together. “We have a group of people who carpool up to Silicon Mountain every month,”she says.

“Yeah, I mean that’s sort of a sub-mission of Silicon Mountain really is to bridge the Reno and Truckee communities," Garrett adds. "There are so many people who commute back and forth and the communities really are related to each other.”

Their latest step in that direction is a livestream of Silicon Mountain events, and a viewing party each month at Reno co-working spot, The Reno Collective. Rachel says she hopes that people won’t just learn or be entertained at the event, they’ll also network and start thinking of Truckee as a town with many skills.

“We are a small town and it’s never going to be like you can find everything you need here. But more and more, you CAN find what you need, it’s just that people don’t think to. When we have more events and people are meeting members of our community and learning about what they do, then they’ll know where to go.”

Ultimately, the McCulloughs say they want Truckee to be part of the area's tech boom, and more than just a vacation spot.

Amy Westervelt is a former contributor at KUNR Public Radio.
Related Content