Welcome to the Business Voice - the newsletter for Portland's Business District Associations. To unsubscribe, use the link at the bottom of the page.

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VISIONPDX
Focus Groups
Seventeen business districts have scheduled a focus group to respond to the Mayor's request for our vision of Portland in 20 years. If you haven't signed up, contact Jean at info@apnba.com.

Online Response
You can go directly to the survey site at VISIONPDX and answer online. Just remember to select APNBA at Question 15, Where did you hear about this.

Written Response
You can fill out the form, which is available to business associations, and mail it to the APNBA, PO Box 5123, Portland, OR 97208-5123.

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Anatomy of a Street Fair
Lisa LePine, ProMotion Queen and hub of this year's Alberta Art Hop, passes on what she learned managing her first community-based, small business supported local festival. The steps are:

1. What is the central story - what makes this event special? What do people associate with your business district? What will cause them to come to your event?
   
   
2. Who are your logical partners? - Who are the businesses that will support this type of event. Who are your local sponsors? Who can they bring from their connections? Don't over look your neighborhood, but don't expend the energy going door-to-door either.
   
   
3. Who is your media partner? - Events need support from a local media outlet, newspaper, neighborhood newsletter, local TV, weblinks. Aim your advertisements to the media your visitors read. Most media will help you craft ads.
   
   
4. Find your "wisdom" and your "energy" - Wisdom is supplied by those with a history and long term vision of the event and the area. Energy is supplied by new faces, new voices, and new ideas.
   
   
5. Who holds your center? - One person needs to hold all the threads so everyone else can concentrate of their portion of the event. Choose wisely, the hub is either a bottleneck or a traffic manager.
   
   
6. Roll with the punches - Be flexible enough to handle whatever the day of the event throws at you - a sudden downpour, 102 degree heat, overflowing portapotties.
   
   
7. Celebrate your success - Get together after the event and pat each other on the back. It came off, the visitors enjoyed themselves, you got on the 10:00 news, it was a success! Later you can discuss what might have worked better.
   
   
8. Archive your event - If the event is more than a couple of years old, someone in the group knows what did and didn't work before. Find that knowledge, tap it, and document it. No point in an annual reinvention of the wheel.
   
   
9. Prepare to repeat - Create a presentation from stories and images that can be used for next year's fundraising. Provide countable data, how many attended, how many businesses took part, percentage of local support - these are selling points to non-local sponsors.

Contact Lisa at llpromo@teleport.com.

Surviving a Major Project
Summer in Portland is major reconstruction time when the City starts repairing sewers, streets, and bridges. Business associations can play an important role by keeping their businesses informed before and during major construction. City Projects:

• Use various tools to communicate: US mail, email, neighborhood newsletters, knocking on doors, paid advertising and news media. City notification starts a year or more in advance, but it's easy to ignore mailings about projects that are months away.
• Maintain local access to businesses and residences. That doesn't mean it won't be hard to get to a destination, especially during work hours.
• Work with businesses. Make sure they can get their deliveries, and that customers can get as close as possible.
• Make destinations accessible Clear the area nights and weekends when they aren't working.
• Keep people informed. Communicate about schedules, traffic patterns and detours.
• Stress a positive message. Business stay open and life goes on, even during construction.
• Reach out to everyone affected. If a project is one block, they inform the immediate area. If a project has a regional impact, they acquire a mailing list and an email list, advertise in the local newspaper, and get the word out via news media.

It's always best to be prepared and plan ahead, and to know where to go to get help. Big projects can't be done without impacts to businesses and residents, but the City will work with you to keep you informed and make them go as smoothly as possible. Let them know right away - in advance if possible - about your issues.

Coming Events
June 7: Junior Rose Parade, Hollywood District, The parade will take place as scheduled and along its normal route. No sewer construction will be done anywhere in the project area on parade day.

June 8: Second Thursday Music Walk on Mississippi Avenue between Skidmore and Fremont. Music, entertainment and open houses.

June 8: Second Thursday on Hawthorne - 12th - 50th. Music, art, food, Hawthorne! - Reese Prouty, 503.236.8878

June24 - 26: Good in the Neighborhood Parade and Festival, King Elementary, 7th & Alberta. Contact Cheryl Roberts, 503-284-7467.

June 25: Parkrose Festival cruise In, NE Sandy Blvd. - Parkrose District, Gordon Boorse, 503-257-3229.

June 29: Last Thursday on Alberta Street.

Tell us about your event - Contact the Editor.

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