Oregon Economic Development

"When we’ve got money to invest and people and talent, we should invest in that here," said Harvey Mathews, president of the Software Association of Oregon, which is helping organize tonight’s gathering.

DesignMedix Inc. snared a $150,000 investment and WeoGeo won $80,000. Both are located in the Portland State Business Accelerator in Southwest Portland.

Vancouver could become a wind energy training hub, eventually graduating 500 technicians from the newly created Northwest Renewable Energy Institute, under plans a local education entrepreneur announced Wednesday.

"The world has changed, banks are tightening down and micro loans are becoming a real option for people," said Mark Green, a principal with the Family Business Consulting Group in Salem. "People need money and will do what they have to get it."

Two winners, selected by angel investors backing the event, will receive investments of $150,000 and $75,000.

"We give lip service to the economy here," admits Klapper, a longtime Portland entrepreneur and a former official with the Port of Portland. "But, really, business is not a priority here."

Portland is one huge R&D shop. Which is great for innovation. But not always as good for revenue-generating business.

"Other cities are connecting with visitors through Twitter," explained Martin Stoll, CEO of GoSeeTell Network, the company that created Portland’s Twisitor Center concept. "But Portland is the first city to set up a virtual visitor center to which people can direct travel questions just by adding a simple tag to their tweets [messages]."

‘Green’ state is working on plan for public charging stations; Nissan will debut its electric vehicles here.

Oregon startups brought in $186.6 million last year, according to VentureSource, down 11 percent from 2007’s $209.8 million.