Yesterday, Plaid Nation rolled through Ascentium PDX to swap swag and ideas for interactive media. Plaid is a small agency from Connecticut that had the awesome idea to promote their brand by hitting the road Scooby Doo style to meet and greet the masses.

In the end, the visit felt a lot like speed dating - but the kind where you walk away with a couple phone numbers. I'm glad Christine was taping it all so I could sift through the footage and make sense of it.

I spent most of my time talking to Darryl Ohrt, primary author of Brand Flakes For Breakfast. We talked about COLABORATORY and Light Up Your Brand - two recent Ascentium efforts that have played in the social space. Darryl shared some great perspective on how he treats his own blog as a social media tool.

To paraphrase: When he started the blog, he never intended it to have more that 30 or so readers. Now that he has over 100,000 visitors a month, he doesn't do anything differently - except maybe read more comments. His guiding principle is simply to share things he likes.

And therein lies the point of driving across the country.

In the wake of the visit, some of the people in other Ascentium departments (who, in all fairness, didn't really know what the hell was going on) asked what had just happened - and why.

Here's the answer: The Plaid Tour was the chance to meet with new people who share an enthusiasm for social media and great work. It was about taking digital relationships and making them physical - which will be an increasingly important aspect of how interactive media is used. Just ask anyone why they love Twitter and they'll likely tell you it has helped them form new offline relationships.

And, hey - meeting the Plaid guys was just fun. Plus, we got cupcakes.

You can read what Plaid had to say about Ascentium here. Also, take the time to watch their video of Portland. For less than 24 hours in town, they captured a lot of its spirit.

Best of luck on the rest of your trip, guys.