Russ Gardner

Russ Gardner builds software for people who run something real and are tired of running it out of a spreadsheet. He works through his own studio, Generuss Design, which is the Oregon Ghost Conference's Website and Technology Sponsor.

His way in is always the same. He watches how the work actually gets done, finds the part a person is doing by hand every single time, and builds that part away. For this conference that meant a vendor application that becomes a vendor profile on its own, a dashboard the committee can run the weekend from, and a payment system that puts the money in the conference's own account. The goal is never a prettier screen. It is a director who gets his evenings back.

He builds fast and in the open, which is the part collaborators tend to notice first. A problem named on a Tuesday call is usually fixed and live before the call ends.