Dear Sam/City Council and Mayor:

In order to land the higher paying new jobs for Portland...we need to engage those business CEO's who are looking to expand, relocate or start up.

On what kind of 'platform' can Portland, and Oregon for that matter, open and maintain a dialogue with CEO's who have the power to bring jobs, fill available office space etc?

Let me site a real example...these are real numbers, verifiable by Hillsboro Chamber.

An Oregon CEO, of a fortune 200 company, invited the CEO of a Japaneese electronics giant...to come to Oregon as his guest to attend and international tennis match.

The Japaneese CEO accepted the invitation.

The Oregon CEO hosted him for a three day weekend.

At the end of the weekend, the Japaneese CEO revealed that he had narrowed to two locations in America to build a plant. After experiencing Oregon and its people and the beauty of our envirnoment...the Japaneese CEO instructed his people to add Oregon to the short list.

Oregon won the contest...and the Japaneese electronics company decided to build the plant in Hillsboro, Oregon.

Phase One construction was $25 million.

Phase Two construction was another $25 million.

Number of new jobs: 500 high tech jobs.

...that is not all.

Four small Japaneese companies were waiting for the decision. When Oregon was selected for the plant location, Fujitsu, Kyocera, Epson and SEH American then followed to supply the giant electronics firm.

Epson alone got up to 1400 new jobs.

...and the door opener was a tennis match. The USA vs Australia Davis Cup semifinals, televised around the world and in the USA on ESPN.

What is my point to Sam and the city council and the Mayor.

Realize that the internationally televised and staged Champ Car World Series...is the Davis Cup opportunity...TIMES TEN.

Why? Because it occures annually...(Davis Cup comes once in a blue moon)...and Champ Car is bigger than Davis Cup in several ways.

Let's consider getting the Oregon CEO's together...with the PDC...and the OECDD 'target lists' of companies...to use the event as the economic 'driver' it can be.

And I think we (Portlanders) should strategically look at two/three other such opportunities.

1. Create an international event for Mt. Hood.

2. Create/develop or secure and international tennis event on an annual basis.

3. Work with, support the efforts of companies like Jeld Wen, who are bringing national and international recognition to Oregon/Portland.

Respectully...but with first hand knowledge of how this can be done...submitted.

Brian Parrott
...an advocate for Oregon/economic development