Business Portland News & Event Round Up, January 20

Recent business stories of note:

• Oregon’s jobless rate slid to 8.9 percent in December, down from 9.1 percent in November

• Last Tuesday afternoon it was demo time for the first class of the Portland Incubator Experiment

• Portland Incubator Experiment graduate VendScreen landed $12 million in venture funding

• What was it like to participate for four months in the Portland Incubator Experiment?

• The Software Association of Oregon talks about what’s coming up next for the Association

• Portland’s Ziba has jumped into race for a great web TV interface

• Local Portland economic development leaders are pursuing Boeing suppliers

• The Portland area leads the world in design of electric forklifts

• Greater Portland Inc. has hired Maggie Davis who has worked for Hewlett-Packard and Tektronix for its VP of marketing and communications

• Umpqua Bank has been named one of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For

• Mayor Sam Adams is shopping around a new urban renewal district dubbed the “education” zone

• Changes are coming to downtown’s Pioneer Place

• Portland's Schoolhouse Electric expands

• KEEN is on its way to the White House

• Global creative director for Wieden + Kennedy recently said that Portland is coming of age as a global city

• Little Big Burger is opening in South Waterfront

• Organic soup company SoupCycle delivers 50,000 soups by bicycle in Portland

• East Portland’s Asian American community ponders the future

• A St. John’s resident is helping women to build businesses

• Portland's Bamboo Sushi was rated the country's most sustainable restaurant by Food Republic

• Oregon has dropped out of the top 10 in LEED rankings

• Full-length film, a continuation of Vancouver-based Web series called Haunted Sunshine Girl, being filmed in Portland

• The top 10 business ideas & opportunities for 2012 from Springwise

Some business announcements and events of note:

• GOOD is giving away $500 to promote financial health in a community

• Portland's Small Business Development Center is offering a free series in government contracting starting January 20

• Tax Issues for Startups is on January 24

• Coming to Portland January 24: Doing Business with South Africa

• There is a Lower Albina/Lloyd District planning Open House on February 2

• SearchFest 2012, Portland’s Premier Search Marketing Conference, returns February 24

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