Earth Smart Store Helps ‘Green’ Your Next Meeting
All types of purchases contribute to a greener conference, and we’ve got some great suggestions! From meals eaten on-site and cleaning supplies to VIP amenities and door prizes, be sure to include a stop at the Earth Smart Store in your next Corvallis site tour itinerary.
Looking for an easy way to avoid creating a mountain of landfill-bound
disposable tableware at your next event? Corn- or cane-based compostable dishware is a great substitute for standard disposables. Both cane and corn are crops that can be grown and harvested annually, unlike trees.
To safely remove travel dust and fingerprints from your tradeshow booth materials, tuck a bottle of non-toxic cleaner and recycled paper towels in your travel kit.
Toast award winners, event planning staff, and industry executives with these drinking glasses fashioned from wine bottles. 
For those program materials that just must be printed on paper, consider non-tree papers, such as hemp. For an extra-thoughtful touch that’s totally Corvallis, send post-event thank you cards which, after they’re read, can be planted to produce wildflowers! (The Maven’s address is 553 NW Harrison Boulevard, Corvallis, OR 97330 … )
For a luxurious touch, have a crisp white bamboo – yes, bamboo! – robe waiting in VIP hotel rooms. (Shown with a recycled barn plank Adirondack chair.) Select a towel, a soy candles, and a bottle of wine, and your VIP gift basket is all set! Better yet, include a colorful cloth bag to carry everything home.
The Earth Smart Store is physically located at 160 NW Jackson Ave – next to the Corvallis classic Sibling Revelry. Contact via phone at 541-207-2461 or send a quick email.
Salbasgeon Suites, a Home-hospitality Conference Center
Sales Director Chris Nusbaum and General Manager Doreen Cowan in front of the fireplace of Salbasgeon Suites
Salbasgeon Suites and Conference Center is a family-owned hotel and conference service center located in the heart of Corvallis. As a conference center, it offers comprehensive meeting or conference packages that include sleeping rooms, meeting space, catering, audio-visual equipment and great food services. Meeting planners don’t need to bother dealing with different properties when holding their meetings with one set facilities here.
Salbasgeon was established in 1998. The name Salbasgeon comes from the three major fish – salmon, bass, and sturgeon - of the Umpqua River where the first Salbasgeon Inn was built. Besides being a big fan of fishing and water activities, the owner of the Salbasgeon is also a skillful carpenter. He made all the woodwork in the Salbasgeon Suites, including the gorgeous fireplace, lobby pillars and window frames. This creates a home-like atmosphere customers really enjoy.
Besides strong conference coordination abilities, Salbasgeon is also quite experienced at meeting customers’ specific needs. “We have plentiful meetings of performing celebrities, sports teams and associations every year. They sometimes require unique food, separated personal space and different sleeping schedules. We always manage to design a special meeting and living package for them,” says Chris Nusbaum, the Sales Director.
Three types of meeting rooms are offered for different meeting needs in Salbasgeon. Umpqua Board Room offers a quiet space for meetings and work groups. The pretty wood conference table allows 12 people sit in the comfortable rolling arm chairs. The Columbia Conference Center is able to accommodate 50 people. Its tasteful colors and traditional wood accents provide the perfect setting for formal dinners or receptions. The McKenzie Center is the largest meeting room in Salbasgeon. It provides a modern and sophisticated space that offers indirect lighting, crown moldings, marble fixtures and rich colors and artwork. It is large enough to hold 200 people for a training session, lecture, presentation or family union. These meeting rooms all offer screens, phone lines, data port, and audio-visual devices for meeting convenience. Salbasgeon also provides assistance to help meeting planners design and set up the rooms in accordance with different meeting needs.
Meeting customers in Salbasgeon enjoy the best amenities during their staying. Salbasgeon has the largest sleeping rooms, fitness room and indoor swimming pool in the Corvallis area. In sleeping rooms, the bed area is always separated from the living area, and there is also in-room jetted spa tubs offering comfort and fun. “We are always thinking how to make Salbasgeon a better place to stay. Making customers feel at home is the final goal we are pursuing,” Chris concluded.
Of course, we know that conference content is never less-than-scintillating, and breaks are strictly for networking – right? At the LaSells Stewart Center, however, the monotony of the standard hotel concourse outside meeting rooms is replaced by the elegance of a curated art gallery, giving attendees a refreshing escape when needed and providing a great setting for conversations during breaks.
Curated by Tina Green-Price, the Giustina Gallery offers a different set of Northwest art each month. This month’s invitational show includes pieces by Howard Bruner, Joan Darling, Linda Edwards, and Carol Selberg. The Murdock wing of the gallery features Savory Images, photographs depicting the origins of food.
In addition to showcasing high-quality artwork, the gallery is a beautiful and functional space that meets registration, reception, and exhibition needs – in addition to being available for special events. Check out this 360-degree virtual tour to be inspired!
Opening onto the gallery are several meeting rooms, from the 1200-seat Austin Auditorium to the intimate 14-seat Weyerhaeuser Boardroom. Just next door is the CH2M HILL Alumni Center, with 45,000 square feet of meeting and exhibit space.
If you are in Corvallis next week, you’re invited to join the artists for a free, open-to-the public reception on August 13 from 6:30-8:30 pm!
When you attended a conference in the beautiful OSU Conference Center, did you realize that the capable and experienced conference services team includes several OSU students? Each year approximately one million people attend about 600 conferences and meetings taking place in OSU Conference Center. When you are attending one of these meetings, you are well served by current OSU students.
In order to learn how the students deal with various customer requirements, we talked with three nice and lovely guys working for facility management in the conference center. They were Drew Weber, Carl Berg, and Luke Buchanan, majoring in History, Civil Engineering and English respectively. Some of them have already worked in the OSU conference center for around eight years. They are greatly experienced in what they are doing.
As facility management people, the students’ job duties are mainly about customer service as it relates to facility usage. They direct clients about how to properly use facilities during the conference and solve any problems clients have. Their work procedure usually includes identifying the problem, analyzing the problem and fixing the problem. But clients’ problems are not only limited to the technical side. As Carl noted, “We help clients solve technical problems, but this job is not only about technology. It’s more about how to deal with people.” All three students enthusiastically agreed at this point.
Drew gave us a good example of the creativity that his team employs on a daily basis. “There was a woman who needed to record her speaking presentation for a TV program in our center. Her microphone kept making strange noises. But after checking, we found there was nothing wrong with the microphone itself. It was her hair that kept sweeping the microphone and caused the sound. She was so stressed out that she did not realize it. We tried our best to comfort her and wrote her detailed tips to help her successfully through the recording process.” Students learned not only how to successfully deal with clients’ emotion, but also clients’ extra requirements, although sometimes the requirements are beyond their budget and contract. As Luke said, “We never say ‘no’ to clients. We always provide alternate solutions to satisfy their needs.”
Students realize that making clients happy is the key to customer service. The results turn out to be very good. Tina Green-Price, the facility and event manger of OSU conference service, appraised student performance. “These students did a great job! They are professional and responsible. They really know how to serve the clients and make them satisfied. Clients never complain about the service here. We are so proud about what the students have been doing for us!”
Have OSU student staff worked with you to solve any hair-related microphone problems? Comment below to share your story!
August Meetings and Events in Corvallis
Well, this last week of July sure is a scorcher here in the heart of the Willamette Valley – some might hope that the weather cools down somewhat for these upcoming August conferences and events! (I, on the other hand, am enjoying the heat … although that could have something to do with our fully functioning air conditioning!)
- Corvallis High School’s graduating classes of 1959 and 1984 are celebrating their 50th and 25th year reunions, respectively, in August. Go Spartans!
- Up to 1,000 high schoolers – future Beavers, perhaps? – will descend upon OSU August 3-7 for the Christ in Youth MOVE program.
- Thinking of growing your own produce? Attend the 26th Annual Gardeners Mini College at OSU on August 5-8! This year’s theme is ‘Backyard Food Solutions: Local. Sustainable. Secure.’
- The August 11-12 Sun Grant Summer Meeting schedule includes a Wednesday night wine tour and dinner … is there room for one more?
- The SMILE (Science and Math Investigative Learning Experiences Program) Summer Teacher Workshop is August 12-14 at OSU. Participants will work on enhancing science and math curricula and prepare for the upcoming academic year.
- Oregon State University and the U.S. National Science Foundation team up to present 2020 Vision: The Next Generation of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) Learning Research at the LaSells Stewart Center August 16-18.
- Incoming first-year Oregon State University students will be introduced to campus life, meet with their advisors, and register for classes during the final two START sessions August 20-21 and August 31-September 1.
Attending a Corvallis event? Stop by the Visitor Center when you arrive! We’ll outfit you with maps, brochures, and our Destination Guide and mail your free postcard to a special friend or relative.
Afterward, let us know how things went – email michelle@visitcorvallis.com with your story … and perhaps a photo or two, if I’m really fortunate!
Hello, Friends!
Hi friends, my name is Lin Zuo, a recent Master graduate in Mass Communications from the University of Oklahoma. Currently I am serving as a public relations intern for Corvallis Tourism. Before my graduate program, I worked in marketing communication for five years with a major software corporation in Beijing, China. I have done all kinds of marketing practices including advertising, public relations, event planning and direct marketing, etc.
I love travel and also love to share my findings and views about travel with friends. I have been to a lot of landmark cities in US such as New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Miami. Although I enjoyed abundant activities in big cities, Corvallis also impresses me with its own styles – green landscapes, a variety of outdoor activities, diverse cultural events and smiling people. Corvallis is called the Pacific Northwest’s most beautiful college town. It’s a good place to live, to have leisure time and to have meetings. I enjoy my life in Corvallis, and like to show you how great this place is!
I am posting my recommendations in this blog and hope you have a wonderful time in this beautiful town!
What’s the Big Deal About DMAP? Corvallis Tourism Joins Select List of DMAP-Accredited DMOs
As you may have noticed, Corvallis Tourism proudly displays the Destination Marketing Association International (DMAI) logo, indicating that we are an accredited Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) – but you may also have wondered what that really means!
Achieving the DMAP (Destination Marketing Accreditation Program)
designation involved a detailed application process in which we demonstrated that we follow industry guidelines and best practices in 54 mandatory and 33 voluntary areas, ranging from visitor services to communications to industry research.
What does this mean to you as a meeting or event planner? As Kristen Clemens points out in this month’s edition of SportsTravel magazine, working with an accredited DMO assures planners of a high level of standardization and quality. This means that when you’re a planner calling an accredited bureau, you can be confident in reaching someone who speaks your language! From room nights to attrition, even the smallest DMAI-accredited bureau will be fully equipped to gather the information you need to make the right venue choice.
What does this mean to the City of Corvallis and our partners and stakeholders? The 2004 DMAI publication Standard CVB Performance Reporting: A Handbook for CVBs emphasizes that, among many other things, accreditation provides a consistent and reliable method for DMOs to report their annual return on the public’s investment. Corvallis Tourism follows DMAI guidelines in order to most effectively monitor and report the visitor and visitor spending figures that we’ve “clearly and significantly” affected by our activities.
We’re excited to be in the august company of other DMAI-accredited DMOs such as the Washington, D.C. and Greater Miami convention and visitor bureaus – and we look forward to serving you! Contact us at 800-334-8118 or via email to find out how we can enhance your Corvallis meeting or event experience!
Corvallis Event Maven
Lin Zuo
