Beaverton

Just seven miles west of Portland, Beaverton is a sought-after place to live, with more than 100 parks and 30 miles of walking trails within its city limits. In the Tualatin Valley, it has wonderful views of Mount Hood, Oregon’s highest peak. Meeting venues in Beaverton are a value alternative to Portland.

Portland International Airport (PDX) 20 miles to the east, is the closest gateway to Beaverton.

Beaverton does not have a convention center, but nearby Portland does: The Oregon Convention Center, which has 255,000 square feet of exhibit space. There are more than 20 hotel venues in Beaverton and its immediate neighborhoods, not including Portland itself, but with Portland being so dominant, there is not a great deal of hotel meeting space in Beaverton. Among those with meeting space are the 150-room Hilton Garden Inn Portland/Beaverton, renovated in 2009 and with four meeting rooms for a total of 72 persons; Courtyard by Marriott, with 149 rooms and two meeting rooms; the 105-room Fairfield Inn & Suites Portland West/Beaverton, with one meeting room able to host 40 persons; the 102-room Comfort Inn & Suites West Beaverton, and the 98-room Phoenix Inn Suites-Beaverton, with two meeting rooms.

There is a wealth of event venues in Beaverton: The bucolic Fanno Farmhouse, on the National Register of Historic Places, dates to 1847 and has room for only 10 persons, but the ambiance is well suited to clearheaded thinking, while the Jenkins Estate, just a few years younger and high up Cooper Mountain on 68 acres, has its Main House for 40 persons, tech-savvy stable for 80 and Gate House for 10; much larger gatherings can head to the Conestoga Recreation & Aquatic Center, which, as are the above examples, is run by the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District. Two other fun spots are the Red Tail Golf Center, with an 18-hole course, bar and grill, restaurant and capability of staging corporate tournaments, and, founded in 1970, the beautiful Ponzi Vineyards, with a main room, a lawn and a patio with fountain for events.

With the Pacific Ocean not too far away and good rivers and farm country in the immediate vicinity, restaurants here are excellent, and there is no sales tax. Italian-flavored Decarli measures 4,000 square feet and features pine floors, brick walls and exposed beams; Hall Street Grill has a nouvelle-American menu, the Copper River Room for 60 persons and a patio for 100; Typhoon—the Beaverton restaurant is one of six regional siblings-has a Thai menu and private dining space; Mingo, another Italian, boasts an attractive private dining room for 32 and can look after 100 persons in total, and Jin Wah serves up delicious Vietnamese fare and can do so for up to 350 persons.