Locations for Biznik Events in Portland

Urban Grind @ 2214 NE Oregon - 2 blks north of Sandy at NE 22nd Avenue (there's another UG in the Pearl District and I"m unfamiliar with the facilities) - lots of general meeting space and a private meeting area. In the gen'l area there is a large flatscreen to which a laptop may be connected. Wireless. Great coffee. FANTASTIC owner [Kevin].

Townshend's Tea House on NE Alberta. SMall intmate tea shop. No A/V - great for small group or one-to-one meetings. Wireless. FAB tea, snacks, etc.

McMenamin's Kennedy School near NE Killingsworth and 33rd. Everything you want form small meeting spaces to whole auditorium. A/V avaialble + food.

Sydney's Cafe on NW Thurman and 16th. Great meeting space. Wireless. Open area in a funky old brick and wood building. Great salads, coffee, AMAZING homemade granola. Not sure about A/V.

Lucca's on NE 24th and Fremont -they have a wonderful separate room for a smaller group meeting. Food is FAB. Not sure about wireless.

Um, of course, there's souk - hot desks, temp office space, has all the amenities a small biz meetings needs: A/V, white boards, projector, small conference rooms that may be used as breakout rooms. Down town China town. 322 NW 6th. http://soukllc.com

And CubeSpace, similar set-up but a bit more cubey [not an open arena like at souk]. 622 SE Grand Ave. http://cubespacepdx.com/

The branch libraries [and main one, for that matter] each have a room that community groups can use.

Great idea Tshombe, thanks for the invite.

The location ideas are great too. I think in the discussion, as Tshombe suggested, that some of these listed may require a usage fee, and others like the libraries are free, but the user can't charge a fee to meet. So if that is a consideration?

I love the concept and I am ready to support anyway I can!

*whoa there... before we go naming the baby, let's figure out if it's a boy or girl... metaphorically

1) How many folks do you anticipate coming? That's the first step.

2) Food, drink, and how good is the wifi*... accessible and cheap parking, w/ mass trans ease works, too

3) How well does the environment suit the meeting? Loud music, echoing or open to other activities in the same environment (open space work spaces) not so good. personal teleco wifi=total fail

4) Let's not incur a cost for space and a cost for resources.

There is hope.

Here is a start. It is a site of all the wifi spots in PDX by quadrant. You can view it in either map or list format. It includes some pretty good reviewers.

http://www.wifipdx.com/all/

Cubespace is very friendly to A/V and space needs. They have small, medium, large, and huge rooms, with whiteboards and projectors galore. Pricey, but worth it.

622 SE Grand Ave, www.cubespacepdx.com

Park kitchen on the North Park Blocks (just next to the Pearl) has a FANTASTIC event room. Seats 25 or so. They want you to buy dinner or cater.

The Writer's Dojo, in St. Johns, has reasonable rates and is a beautiful space. www.writersdojo.org.

But where can we go thats FREE?

Try the Community Room in the NE Portland Police Precinct, 449 NE Emerson St

Umpqua Bank in the South Waterfront also has a great community room that they offer up for non-pitchy type events.

There's also, of course, churches and community centers. Make it non-pitchy, a 'community education' event you offer up as part of your ethic of giving back to the community, and you can use one of these local facilities.

Anybody know any businesses that would appreciate the foot traffic of a seminar?

A gal in my networking grou, PDXsynergy.com has just revamped the old Fireside coffee shop at 13th and Powell (SE). It's now SE Grind. She's open to events, will push tables together, free Wi-FI and good energy. Stumptown Coffee too and Voodoo donuts. Not that I'd know anything about that ...

Her name is Kasey.