Portland Business Alliance Annual Meeting

The theme for this year’s Portland Business Alliance Annual Meeting was their program – Value of Jobs, which is about making job creation a top priority.  The Keynote Speaker Renee James, VP & General Manager of Intel’s Software and Services Group provided scary details which could be used to support investing to boost education in Portland.  Intel is bringing 1,000 full time jobs to Hillsboro, however these jobs require highly skilled college graduates, a limited resource amongst Oregonians.

This story is well covered by Erik Siemers in the Portland Business Journal.  Yes, Erik does look like Rainn Wilson (a.k.a. Dwight Schrute of The Office), this is how he caught my eye.

Mark Bocchi of Alaska Airlines and their inflatable Alaska Airlines Airplane mascot were present to meet and greet.  A happy ending to the Annual meeting was Mark pulling the 2 winners for a drawing of tickets for 2 to any Alaska Airlines destination (including Hawaii – pretty sweet!).

Click on the following link to view a slideshow of this event:  PBA Annual Meeting