Prevue September/October 2011 - (Page 62)

Below: The Pearl Wine Shop @ Andina “Phenomenal, fantastic family style spread, did I say it was phenomenal?” gushed Danielle Faris-Gaines, Denver-based event manager for the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. “The best part of the evening was when the owner came over to talk to our group. It felt like you were sitting down at his family table.” Max capacity is 300. CRAZY SUSTY COOL The Epicurean Excursion is a fun walking tour rain or shine through the tree-lined streets. Stop by the local favorite Flying Elephant for orgasmic tomato orange soup. Vegan is the specialty at Park Kitchen, serving chick pea fries with butternut squash ketchup. And the Eco Trust Building is an 1895 warehouse converted into commercial space, which was the first historic building in the U.S. to receive LEED Gold certification. Pop into Hot Lips Pizza on the first level for a delicious slice of homemade pizza. This I love. The Junk to Funk Trashion Collective is a group of local designers who collect trash such as plastic, newspaper, baseball caps, coffee filters and those purple Crown Royal sacs. With a little thread and a lot of imagination, they turn all this “junk” into gorgeous gowns, sexy sundresses and more. The Collective put on a fabulously funky fashion show for us as we dined on savory cheese and sipped local wine at the LEED-EB Silver Oregon Convention Center. We couldn’t stop gasping, laughing and whistling at the models on the runway. “It’s more than a fashion show,” says Lindsey Newkirk, chief instigator for Junk to Funk. “It’s a statement about our stuff and where it goes after we’re done with it.” DOWNTOWN DIGS From the convention center, it was easy to board the Max over the Willamette River into the heart of downtown and the 782-room Hilton Portland & Executive Tower. Offering 66,000 flexible sf of conference space, it is the largest Green Seal-certified hotel on the West Coast. It’s bright, airy, clean and green with a relaxed corporate sensibility that’s as welcoming as it is professional. The expansive Plaza Foyer in the main building, with plenty of daylight shining in through the overhead skylights, is fab space for registration, breaks and small exhibits. Doug Brecht, director of sales/marketing was our host at Hilton’s Bistro 921. The Yamhill mushroom frittata with a local wild mushroom mélange, fresh herbs, roasted red peppers and asiago cheese was the crowd favorite. There’s also a vegan version that will knock your socks off, as will an almandine cup filled with fresh strawberries from California. “The Hilton has a phenomenal sustainability team that pulls from different managerial departments, which helps to ensure from operations to dining to housekeeping, that everyone feels empowered to make a difference,” observed Faris-Gaines. “The team then calculates offset numbers, which is key to successful review and further implementation on a larger scale. They even have a loading dock dedicated to waste stream diversion.” Lounging on a 1920s-style chaise in the “living room” of the Hotel Monaco Portland with its 30’ ceilings, scarlet red walls and silver lamé paper overlain by white wooden stencil, I’m beginning to feel at home in Portland. The cream pagoda growing out of the fireplace mantle lends an Asian flair, and a woman and her young daughter arrive for organic coffee and hot chocolate in Kimpton Hotel’s zebra print robes. The 221-room, Green Seal Silver-certified hotel offers over 8,000 sf of meeting space in five rooms. The largest accommodates 200, reception style. Artwork throughout the hotel adds to the ambience for planners looking for that unique boutique property to host creative, brainstorming sessions with out-of-the-ordinary comfort. Fun staff, too. Lastly, if you can extend for a few days, visit Wine Country and some of the nearby wineries on board with the “Carbon Neutral Challenge.” It’s an effort by Oregon wineries and vineyards to measure, track and reduce their environmental impact. Travel Portland: travelportland.com Doubletree Portland: doubletreegreen.com Hilton Portland Exec. Tower: hilton.com Hotel Monaco: monaco-portland.com 62 | prevue magazine http://www.travelportland.com http://www.doubletreegreen.com http://www.hilton.com http://www.monaco-portland.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Prevue September/October 2011

Back Bay, Boston
Manchester
Meliá Hotels & Resorts
San Francisco/Denver/Cleveland
HSMAI + Soles4Souls
IRF/MGM Resorts, Las Vegas
Daytona Beach
Sustainability: The Next Big Thing
Central America
India
Sweden
Barcelo Resorts/Samana, DR
Portland

Prevue September/October 2011