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All the best that Oregon has to offer will be highlighted at a celebratory event booked at the Oregon Convention Center following the completion of its extensive expansion.
Oregon’s Big Bash, slated for April 18 and 19, 2003, will commemorate the completion of the facility’s 25-month expansion and celebrate all things Oregonian.
The $115 million expansion, which broke ground in February 2001, will make the Oregon Convention Center the largest convention center in the Pacific Northwest. When completed, the convention center will increase in size by 60 percent and total 907,500 square feet.
Expansive windows and skylights that flood the interior with natural light will continue to be the facility’s hallmark as it was in the original convention center.
“The newly expanded facility is worth celebrating,” said Jeff Blosser, OCC director. “It will afford Oregon new opportunities that will boost the economy. It’s truly a facility that Oregonians can be proud of.”
Oregon’s Big Bash will be a two-day, free event open to the public. A huge tradeshow with over 400 booths will showcase Oregon’s best companies, services and products.
A beer and wine festival will entertain the masses along with an array of performances by local and national musicians.
Other proposed events include a $35,000 hole-in-one golf challenge benefiting the Portland Interscholastic League’s golf program, which recently had its funding cut.
A local artist will be commissioned to design an Oregon theme T-shirt, to be sold at retail outlets around the city in the weeks before the event. Each shirt will be sequentially numbered and those who purchase one can send in a card with their contact information and associated shirt number.
The cards will be drawn in a contest where the final prize is a new sport utility vehicle. Organizers are still searching for a sponsor for the T-shirt promotion. Whoever donates the car as the prize will have the choice of which charity the drawing will benefit.
There will also be a large Children’s Activity Center where kids can run through a huge maze, make crafts, and watch clowns and magicians perform.
For more information on tradeshow or sponsorship opportunities at Oregon’s Big Bash, contact M & M Productions Inc., a Portland-based event production and management company, at 503-335-3336.