Business Portland News & Event Round Up, May 11

Recent business stories of note:

• According to a new Brookings study, Portland ranks 17 nationwide for manufacturing jobs
  The geographic clustering of companies in the same industry or related industries—along with the educational, R&D, business, and labor institutions that support them—promotes high wages and innovation

• Portland and Oregon are both viewed by small business owners nationwide as good places to set up shop
  Portland received a 'B-" and Oregon received a "B"

• Mercy Corps and Startup Weekend have teamed up to expand the access and impact of a proven model for business generation
  With relatively low barriers to entry, internet and mobile technology can serve as a potent driver of economic development and income generation in countries that already have high internet bandwidth and/or mobile penetration

• Columbia Green Technologies grows quickly selling eco-roof kits
  The Portland startup is growing fast, with approximately 35 projects in the sales pipeline so far this year

• Lloyd Center gets electric vehicle charging stations
  New Blink charging stations provide added amenity to local Portland shoppers

• Portland’s Homeschool Snowboarding is a finalist in the Seattle Angel Conference
  The Seattle Angel Conference is modeled after a series of conferences that have been held in Oregon

• Portland State University students have won a national engineering contest
  Last weekend four Portland State University students went up against teams from across the country in an engineering contest and won

• Portland’s Elemental Technologies has raised $13 million that will help the fast-growing video processing company reach new global markets
  Elemental has also moved into new offices in downtown Portland

• The Portland tech community and the new Crowdfund Act
  OpenSesame co-founder Josh Blank participated in a roundtable discussion led by United States Senator Jeff Merkley

• Ensequence lands $26M, looks to grow Portland staff
  Founded in Portland, the company still keeps the majority of its workforce here

• Leverage is big business in Portland
  Leverage put 480 Oregonians on the payroll for Season 4; production company spent more than $78 million in past 3 years

• Twenty new businesses opened in Portland in April
  April may be the cruelest month for grouchy poets, but it shone an awful lot of sunlight on Portland upstarts last month

• With diverse appeal and clientele, Portland food carts are here to stay
  The number of restaurants-on-wheels have surged from 170 in 2009, to a number today that crests 500—and counting

• Pop-up stores are nothing new to Portland, but a pop-up grocery store?
  Pop-up mobile grocery hits the streets

• A Portland company hopes to find success on the campaign trail
  A Portland mayoral candidate is the first politician to try out a new form of campaign advertising that a local company hopes will play a part in the presidential election

• What is the right social media platform for your business?
  Twitter or Facebook? LinkedIn, Instagram, Foursquare, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google+, or even MySpace?

• Patagonia's founder is America’s most unlikely business guru
  For years, Yvon Chouinard kept his eco-conscious, employee-friendly practices largely to himself. Now megacorporations like Walmart, Levi Straus and Nike are following his lead

• Can beer save America?
  A Craft Brew Economy — a high-quality, lower-volume model —follows the German model, which is all about being “committed to making the sort of high-quality, high-performance, innovative products for which the world will pay extra.”

• Recent Paris-based festival Keep Portland Weird imported a host of Portland artists
  Have we got a new sister city, or is our hip oeuvre officially “over?”

• Oregon ranks No. 14 on a locavore index
  A family farm advocacy group released the "2012 Locavore Index" this week that pegs Oregon at No. 14, well ahead of Washington but behind both Dakotas, Hawaii, Kentucky

• Portland is No. 3 on Reuters top 10 cycling destinations
  Two parks line the Willamette River, Waterfront Park to the West and Eastbank Esplanade to the East, giving visitors the opportunity to take in both the city view and the river's scenery while cycling

Some business announcements and events of note:

• Crafty Wonderland Super Colossal Spring Sale is tomorrow, May 12th

• ProductCamp Portland is also tomorrow May 12

• MercyCorps NW presents a Time Management seminar on May 14

• PdxMindShare networking event is on May 16

• Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce Small Business Conference is on May 17

• On May 22 the Portland Culinary Alliance will host an evening talk and book signing where you can Learn About The Mobile Food Revolution

• May 24 is the deadline for the CitySync Challenge

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