The Portland Business Alliance celebrated officially re-opening its offices and community conference spaces in the Portland World Trade Center downtown on April 15. According to the alliance, this is the first time its members, board and staff have all been able to join together in person since March 2020. This comes as a number of workers return to offices in Portland.

The Portland Business Alliance is Greater Portland's Chamber of Commerce, founded in 1870 and bringing together more than 2,000 members. Andrew Hoan is the president and CEO of the PBA.

"We are thrilled to welcome our stakeholders and employees back to our offices in beautiful Downtown Portland after more than two years," Hoan said. "Downtown and our city has been through a lot since we last gathered and bringing our teams back to the city center is part of how we begin to re-energize our city's heartbeat. We challenge all our fellow office tenants to join us in telling your story about coming back to downtown. Let's do this, Portland!"

Now that the office is re-opened, the PBA is welcoming back community members to use its Brown & Brown conference room, recently updated with modern technology allowing for hybrid and virtual meetings. The conference room is available for meetings, retreats, training and informal gatherings.

Jessica Getman is the president of Portland-based Brown & Brown Northwest insurance agency.

"I'm excited that this conference room will be open for use by our community," Getman said. "We have a great resource to share, complete with hybrid meeting technologies and breathtaking views of our beautiful city, its bridges, river, and our glorious Mount Hood."