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Monday, February 13, 2012

Hospitality in Portland and micro-entreprenuers online

Two news stories caught our eye today: one takes place in Portland, while the other is happening all across the U.S.

The Oregonian ran a piece about Portland's hospitality industry, including hotels, conference centers, and other tourist destinations. In 2011, the central city district -- which includes 30 hotels and the Oregon Convention Center-- brought in their third-highest occupancy ever recorded. The article notes that much of this influx could be due to the fact that associations and trade organizations, which depend on trade shows for revenue, have not cut back on their spending as much as other organizations. Get more details on Portland's hospitality industry in the full article.

The other story comes to us from Reuters and covers what I like to think of as the e-Bay of job sites, because they allow people to post jobs or tasks online -- everything from cleaning houses to cooking dinner-- and others can bid for the work. Coffee & Power, one of the websites mentioned in the article, is an online job exchange marketplace that works alongside meet-and-greet coffee shops, one of which will soon be located in Portland. The article points out that what makes these sites unique is the variety of the jobs, as well as the opportunity to find one closer to home. This lets participants become, in a sense, their own micro-entrepreneurs. Read on for more information about these sites.

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