East Portland Chamber of Commerce

Achieve your vision for a successful business in Portland by tapping into the power of partnerships and smart fundamentals. Featuring keynote speakers Mayor Charlie Hales and Mr. Michael Bush, serial entrepreneur and president and founder of The 8 Factors.

Opening Speakers include:

• Charlie Hales, Mayor, City of Portland
• Patrick Quinton, Executive Director, PDC
• And more!

Keynote Speaker:

• Introduction: Nancy Hales, First Stop Portland
• Michael C. Bush,
  President and Founder of The 8 Factors

The day will also include breakout sessions with local experts, and in-person access to resources for small businesses and community organizations:

• Business Best Practices: 
  Understanding your financials, cash flow management and practical business planning.
• The Value of Business District Associations:
  Learn from some of the city’s best organized associations to promote your local assets and advantages.
• Getting Ahead of the Game:
  Learn to make the smart choices about where to put your energy and investment.
• Know Your Neighborhood:
  Find out how to spot trends, adapt your business plan and make the most of shifting demographics and market dynamics.

On the Spot Connections:
Our Resource Room offers face time with representatives of financial, business, workforce development and community resource organizations.

View the full schedule at the event website >

Others

The 2013 Oregon Legislative Session is in full swing. The Chamber Board and Government Affairs Council has supported two industrial site readiness bills. Below is an update on this legislation that is important to East County due to the amount of industrial land available in our region.

- Direct site preparation assistance (Senate Bill 246): Authorizes forgivable loans, low or no interest loans and/or tax sharing arrangement to local governments and property owners with a public sector partner for site preparation costs associated with regionally significant sites. Loan forgiveness and tax sharing of up to 50% of site preparation costs would be based on successful traded-sector investment on the site.

- Due diligence grants (Senate Bill 253): Makes available a limited pool of grants for eligible projects that have a public sponsor for industrial site due diligence or industrial site inventories and readiness assessments of sites in the area.

On April 15, these two bills passed out of Senate Committee on Business and Transportation with amendments. The next action on the bills will be in the next couple of weeks by the Joint Ways and Means Committee. To reinforce support for the bills, we encourage you to reach out to our legislators. Below is a summary of the bills, links to the amended bills.

Oregon Industrial Site Readiness Bills

SB0246

SB0253

Others

Join your Government and Economic Affairs Committee (GEAC) welcome John Jackley, Director of Business and Social Equity at the Portland Development Commission  to the East Portland Chamber of Commerce meeting on May 8th at Adventist Health, as our guest speaker.

John Jackley oversees outreach and communication to a wide variety of diverse audiences including citizens, contractors, businesses minority chambers of commerce, community leaders and organizations, and stakeholders.  Read more.

Others

With PERS reform dominating the conversation in the legislature, many proposals have been put forward. PERS reform is our state’s best opportunity to put dollars back into Oregon schools.

Here is website of a PERS Presentation by John Tapogna, President of ECONorthwest, an economic consulting firm, that has operated in the Northwest since 1974.

Tapogna has developed a practice related to education, workforce development, welfare reform, and child-support enforcement policy. Prior to joining ECO, he was a budget analyst at the U.S. Congressional Budget Office, where he forecast the nation’s welfare spending and estimated the cost of key congressional legislation.

Tapogna has served on a number of advisory groups, including the Oregon Quality Education Commission’s cost panel, the Oregon District Best Business Practices Advisory Committee, and the Governor’s Revenue Restructuring Task Force. He has delivered his technical findings to a variety of governing bodies, including the U.S. Senate Finance Committee, the Oregon and Washington state legislatures, and numerous local governments.

Others