The Oregon Entrepreneurs Network (OEN), Software Association of Oregon (SAO) , Oregon Business Association (OBA) and the Portland Business Alliance are presenting the 2010 Gubernatorial Candidate Forums. Tech America will be a supporting organization for the forums

Oregon’s economy is facing great challenges. The state is struggling with serious budgetary shortfalls and that is exacerbated by an unemployment rate that is hovering above 10 percent. With the recent passage of measures 66 & 67 many Oregonians question what the impact will be for Oregon businesses. Policies that support and encourage business growth and economic development are a top-of-mind priority for many Oregonians. These candidate forums are intended to provide an opportunity for members of the business community to ask the candidates from each party what they would do to help support business and economic growth in Oregon.

The Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate forum will take place on Wednesday, April 7 at Portland General Electric’s auditorium located at 121 SW Salmon St, 2WTC in Portland. It will feature Democratic candidates Bill Bradbury (www.bradburyfororegon.com) and John Kitzhaber, (www.johnkitzhaber.com).

The Republican Gubernatorial Candidate forum will take place on Tuesday, April 27 at the Multnomah Athletic Club 1849 SW Salmon St. in Portland. It will feature Republican candidates Allen Alley (www.allenalley.com) and Chris Dudley (www.chrisdudley.com).

Tickets are required for onsite attendees and individual live stream access. Registration is recommended for satellite venues.

The gubernatorial candidate forum will be held prior to the primaries and will be moderated by Laural Porter of KGW News (twitter.com/lauralkgw). Check-in begins at 4:00PM. The program will begin at 4:30 PM and will run to 6:00 PM. Tickets are $20 for members of presenting or supporting organizations and $40 for non-members. We encourage attendees to pre-register online using the link below.

The forums will be streamed live over the web. Individual web stream tickets can be purchased for $10 in advance, but business community members outside of the Portland area may attend a satellite event in their local area at no charge.

For more information about the forums, or to register for either of these events, please go to:

Democratic Candidates Forum: www.sao.org/event/dgp

Republican Candidates Forum: www.sao.org/event/rgp

Follow the discussions on twitter: #pdxGDP & #pdxRGP.

Every last Wednesday of the month, Collective Agency has an open house, and everyone is welcome. Come by anytime 9-5, get lots of work done, and meet us!

We will be having our regular Wednesday Lightning Talks 2:00 - 2:30pm when two or three people here will give short presentations on something they are working on.

We have a lot of passionate, interesting, and interested people here, so these casual brief presentations and conversations are always very interesting.

Wednesday August 27th, 9am to 5pm, come and work at Collective Agency during our Open House! http://collectiveagency.co/

Community Mission Statement:

"Collective Agency is a cozy place to work alongside people doing work they’re passionate about and committed to, where 80% of people say hi. Come and work here!"

RSVP: https://www.facebook.com/events/745447115512749/

Schedule (come when you like): • 9am - Open

• 12pm - Lunch from the local food carts. Arrive before noon to join us.

• 2-2:30pm - Optional Member Meeting - for members to share updates/events, goals, and questions/suggestions, and to get feedback from other members if there are things they'd like to organize here. We love having a variety of events, groups and activities here and want more of that.

• 5pm - End of Open House

The open house is for everybody who'd like to work here for the day, regardless of whether or not you're interested in membership; it's a good day to work with friends.

Members have 24/7 access. We have just over 60 members and 2 staff, with room to grow to around 100 members. http://collectiveagency.co/membership/