Company picnic planning is easier when you have fun activities such as kayak lessons and other water activities.
I bet that company picnic planning is not top of mind in January, but it’s actually the best time to start thinking about it. With Portland still a bit cold and dreary at this time of the year, it’s hard to believe we only have about six months to do your company event planning for summer. Above is a photo of a kayaking add-on that we planned for a tech company’s employee outing at a riverfront park on the Willamette. Just a few extra touches like this can make your event really special and make your employees feel so appreciated and re-energized.
What else goes into an event like this? First, you’ll need a great venue. Then most likely, you’ll need delicious food. Finally you’ll need to choose some entertainment, such as DJs and photo booths; or games like Capture the Flag or an obstacle course. This particular group also added treats like chocolate, beer, and wine tasting booths. There are tons of ideas out there for planning your company picnic, but if you get stuck, feel free to contact us at EJP Events – Portland Event Planning.
In September 2022, the EJP Events team found ourselves in Boise, Idaho again, this time to take part in Connect Northwest. This was our second time in Boise for business, we were also there in September 2021. We wrote a blog post about Boise event venues back then, and it still has a lot of good information. Thinking about event locations in Boise, Idaho? Here are some more event venues we discovered!
“JUMP” stands for “Jack’s Urban Meeting Place”, Jack being J. R. (Jack) Simplot, the founder of Idaho based potato processor Simplot Industries. Originally envisioned as a museum for his tractor collection after he passed away in 2008, JUMP evolved to a hybrid indoor/outdoor event space based around a park with: “an outdoor amphitheater, sweeping terraces, rooftop parks, meeting areas, play areas, and all with unique views of the city and the surrounding mountains.” (Oh yeah, there’s still vintage tractors!) JUMP will rent space for events that “create an environment for inspiring human potential”. This means it’s a perfect spot for non-profit conferences or meetings. A variety of indoor (their Pioneer Room is 3,790 sq. ft.) and outdoor (like their Loft deck) spaces can be rented. Oh yeah, they also have a giant five-foot slide! (Emee really wants to try it.)
Most people do all that they can to stay out of jail. But what if it’s a fortress-like edifice that hasn’t been an active prison in years? The Old Idaho State Penitentiary was an active reformatory for a century, but it has not seen prisoners in almost fifty years. Instead, the grounds are now a museum and can be rented for events large and small. Interior spaces can hold 50-225, while the Main Yard and Grounds can comfortably accommodate up to 1,000 people! A wedding inside a jail will not be forgotten, that’s for sure.
Housed in the former American Laundry Building built in 1910, the Linen Building is owned and operated by The Idaho Coalition Against Sexual & Domestic Violence (IDVSA). They moved into the Linen Building “with a vision to transform the commercial steam laundry building with a history of harmful, toxic working conditions for girls and women to a space that stands for what is possible when everyone is valued, safe, and can thrive.” The IDVSA has offered the Linen Building’s space at a discounted rate or free for organizations focused on social justice and/or uplifting marginalized communities, and any space rental helps a non-profit organization. The space rental includes the Main Room and Mezzanine (3,900 total sq. ft.), which can hold 328 standing or 190 seated.
There are many types of locations that people gravitate towards when they plan a wedding: places like houses of worship, hotels, banquet halls, and parks. But for some, the idea of having their wedding at a vineyard tops the list. Not only do you have a scenic locale, but you can sample the wines grown and fermented there! And vineyards are great for other events, like corporate retreats or a family reunion. Let’s explore some of the options for weddings and events in Oregon’s Wine Country.
Oregon Wine Country Venues
Domaine Roy and fils.Located in the hills above Dundee, this winery gives impressive views of the Willamette Valley, especially on a clear day when you can see Mount Hood. Domaine Roy can accommodate up to 60 guests for intimate dinners to corporate getaways. Full venue rental includes full access to the Tasting Room, Patio, and Olive Grove. (Please note: Domaine Roy no longer accommodates weddings, but they do handle corporate and other types of events.)
Domaine Roy (from their website)
Eola Hills Winery.Located in the hills just to the west of Salem, this winery’s rambling and scenic vineyard is a great wedding locale. The Legacy Estate Vineyard can host up to 300 folks in its outdoor setting next to a small pond. Want something inside? Their Wine Cellar location, located a few miles to the west in Rickreall, can host a wedding of 200 within its barrel room. Eola Hills allows you to choose your own catering.
Eola Hills Winery. (from their website)
The Allison Inn and Spa. The only full service hotel and spa in Oregon’s Wine Country, The Allison offers a variety of indoor and outdoor venues on its 35 acre estate north of Newberg. Weddings of up to 250 guests can be accommodated here, and the guests can stay on property.
Allison Inn. (from their website)
The Bindery. For a change of pace, here’s a non-winery venue in Wine Country. Located right in downtown McMinnville, The Bindery (no relation to the similarly-named Portland business) is an open industrial style space that used to be home to the community newspaper. The space has capacity for 150 people for a seated event, or 200 for standing. It’s a good spot for a wedding, rehearsal dinner, or corporate event. And since it’s in downtown McMinnville, you can easily walk to all the attractions this charming town offers.
The Bindery (from their website)
Places to Stay
While it is close enough to Portland that one can easily stay in the Rose City, staying in the Wine Country means one can better immerse themselves in the experience. (And if “immersing yourself in the experience” means enjoying wine, staying here means not having to get back to Portland after a day of wine tasting!) There are many hotels in the area, we’ve selected a few of them below.
Atticus Hotel. Located in downtown McMinnville, this hotel offers a lovely fleet of Gazelle bikes to borrow.
Abbey Road Farm. Instead of a trailer, you can stay in a converted farm silo on this working farm located west of Newberg.
Bikes at the Atticus Hotel
Places to eat
There’s a lot of great food in Wine Country. We’ve highlighted a few of our favorites below.
ōkta. Located in the Tributary Hotel and helmed by Michelin-Starred Chef Matthew Lightner, ōkta features a hyperlocally sourced, ten- to twelve-course meal, that Portland Monthly describes as “smart, tender, understated…as if Ziggy Stardust returned and put out a poetry album.” Reservations required.
Red Hills Kitchen. Located in the Atticus Hotel, Red Hills Kitchen is “a celebration of the local bounty in the Oregon Wine Country.” You can eat in, take it to go, or shop the small market attached to the restaurant. Red Hills Kitchen is also a preferred caterer for The Bindery, located just across the street.
Wooden Heart. A food truck parked at Furioso Vineyard (next door to Domaine Roy), they make great pizzas using their brick oven. The truck can also travel to your destination for catering.
Pizza from Wooden Heart, wine from Furioso Vineyard
Transportation to Oregon’s Wine Country
Most people arrive to the wine country via car. Nevertheless, there are other options!
Train: Amtrak stops in Salem, which is on the south side of wine country. Both the Cascades service (Vancouver BC-Seattle-Portland-Eugene) and Coast Starlight train (Seattle-Portland-Oakland-Los Angeles) call on Salem’s historic depot.
Bus/Transit:Yamhill County Transit serves much of the Wine Country. Connections to Trimet (Portland’s metro area transit) can be made via transfers in Hillsboro, Forest Grove, and Tualatin. Yamhill County Transit also runs a bus from McMinnville to Salem. (Please note: Most of Yamhill County Transit’s service is weekday only.) Salem’s transit provider Cherriots also accesses some destinations on the south and east side of Wine Country.
Bike: Riding around Wine Country can be both rewarding and challenging. Rewarding because of the spectacular scenery and all the wine that can be tasted. Challenging due to the numerous, sometimes steep hills and busy, narrow roads. The best all around info for cycling can be found via Visit McMinnville. Ellee Thalheimer’s Cycling Sojourner Oregon guidebook has a great Wine Country bike tour, but as far as I know it’s only available in print.
Shuttle: We definitely recommend you to have someone else drive if you plan on doing a lot of wine tasting. There are many options for shuttle service and wine tours. We suggest Lucky Limo and Aspen Limo.
We hope this post helps you find the right venue for weddings and events in Oregon’s Wine Country.
Winter is definitely here in the Pacific Northwest. I don’t mind it as much as some people do (it helps that I was raised in a colder and snowier climate), but there are times when damp and gloomy days can get to me. That’s when I think of places where summer seems to be all year long. These type of places make great meeting and event destinations in the dead of winter. And if this locale has a Mediterranean climate, it can be good any time of the year! So let’s head to sunny Southern California and explore unique event venues in and around San Diego.
Let’s start with a venue that’s in what was once San Diego’s tallest building and most prestigious hotel. The El Cortez* opened in 1927 and for years was “the place” where big names like presidents or The Beatles stayed while in town. After a period of neglect, the El Cortez is mostly condominiums, but retains some of that old luster in the Don Room at El Capitan. The 3,300 square foot octagonal shaped ballroom can accommodate 250 people seated or 300 standing. There is also an outdoor terrace with fireplace that can be rented separately or along with the Don Room.
The Don Room at El Cortez (from their website)
The Lodge at Torrey Pines is a resort designed in the classic “California Craftsman” style. The lodge boasts over 13,000 square feet of space for events from corporate retreats to weddings. Catering is provided by the in-house restaurants. Perks include a 36 hole golf course with epic views of the Pacific Ocean, a full-service spa, and the manicured grounds featuring the very rare Torrey Pine which only grows in the immediate area!
Lodge at Torrey Pines
It would be very remiss of us if we didn’t mention Raised By Wolves, a Gilded-Age influenced speakeasy located, of all places, inside a suburban mall! It might not be the best place for a meeting where things need to get done, but can be a great add-on for an after event. Reservations are pretty much required to get a spot at this amazing bar.
Raised By Wolves (from their website)
Ok, we’re in a beach town, so let’s go beachside! La Jolla Beach and Tennis Center is a “hacienda” styled private club with 90 guestrooms and of course a lovely beach and tennis facilities. The club features the Walnut Room with 1,300 square feet of space for up to 100 guests, and the La Sala Room with 2,000 square foot event space that can seat up to 150 guests. Events can also be held by the pool, next to the duck pond, and of course on the beach itself!
La Jolla Beach and Tennis Center (from their website)
Would you like both “beachside” and luxury that comes out of a different era? The Hotel del Coronado is a rare surviving example of a wooden Victorian-era beach resort. Upon opening in 1888, it was the single largest resort hotel in the world. A space this big (second largest wooden structure in the US after the Tillamook Air Museum!) has a lot of meeting space, about 96,000 square feet to be exact. The selection of spaces runs the gamut: indoor ballrooms and meeting rooms, outdoor gardens and lawns, and of course the beach itself.
Hotel del Coronado
Forget the beach, how about something on the water itself? Flagship Cruises runs the popular ferry service from Coronado to downtown San Diego and also offers private cruises on its fleet of both modern and vintage vessels. A cruise could be the event itself, or it can augment another event held elsewhere.
Perhaps you want something with more of an urban flavor. Deck 655 incorporates 8,500 sq. ft. versatile indoor outdoor party venue that can be customized for social or corporate events. Deck 655 features a 125 foot long outdoor deck with fireplace and a capacity for 350 guests in both the indoor and outdoor spaces. Centrally located downtown at the corner of W Broadway and Kettner Blvd, Deck 655 is across the street from the historic Santa Fe Depot.
Deck655 (from their website)
And we’ll end our tour at Santa Fe Depot. Opened in 1915, this historic train station built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style still serves as a major transit center. Amtrak runs its popular Pacific Surfliner service several times a day between San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo. One can also catch the Coaster commuter rail service north to Oceanside every weekday. And the depot serves as a hub for the San Diego Trolley, an extensive light-rail system that serves many destinations around the metro area.
San Diego’s Santa Fe Depot, serviced by Amtrak and local commuter rail
We hope this gives you a snapshot of what’s available for events in San Diego. If you’re interested in setting up an event here, please contact us.
* The El Cortez Hotel is named after the conquistador, mutineer, and adulterer, Hernan Cortés, who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of Aztec Indigenous peoples.
It is sadly common that in our regular event planning activities, planners and attendees will encounter venues and points of interest that honor historical figures who committed atrocities against Black, Indigenous, and Peoples of Color. As we all become more aware of our shared history, we can do our part to educate ourselves about the history surrounding the names of event venues and tourism points of interest, and to study the history of colonization and genocide that has led to many of the problems of systemic racism that Indigenous people suffer today; and to prevent future harm.
In addition, we urge event leaders to provide written or verbal acknowledgement of original peoples and history within the context of hosting an event, and to reinforce verbal statements with actions such as paying voluntary land tax in support of Indigenous peoples.
We ourselves acknowledge that our events and our tourism-related activities with groups and meetings take place on land that was forcibly taken from the original peoples. We endeavor to go beyond mere land acknowledgement and instead, work proactively to prevent harm to Indigenous and Native peoples, and to return land and resources to them. To learn more, here are some resources for starting your journey: https://nativegov.org/news/a-self-assessment/
As event planners, we’re always looking for unique and interesting venue options for our clients. Our recent trip to Southern California gave us the opportunity to explore what Los Angeles has in store. L.A. is a humongous city, with just about four million people within its city limits and a further ten million people in the surrounding metro area, so we barely scratched the surface of what is available. Hopefully these four options will give you something to start your search with!
We love train stations! They make great event venues. And LA is is the home of what is considered to be the “Last of the Great Railway Stations” built in the United States! Opened in 1939,Los Angeles Union Stationis a mix of Art Deco, Mission Revival, and Streamline Moderne architectural styles. You can rent out the gorgeous Ticket Concourse for an indoor event, or either the South or North Patios for outdoor events. The various event spaces in the station can accommodate anywhere from 100 to 1,000 people. Pricing can range from $6,000 – $20,000 depending on the size and scope of the event. The best part? Union Station is still an active train station and transportation hub, serving over 110,000 passengers a day! Metro Rail, L.A.s local rail-transit system and Metrolink, the region’s commuter rail service serve Union Station. And several Amtrak lines, both California regional (Pacific Surfliner), and long-distance (Coast Starlight, Southwest Chief, Texas Eagle, Sunset Limited) call on the depot. And you know we are definitely fans of Amtrak. So your guests can get there without driving!
Los Angeles Union Station
How about an event in a former Catholic cathedral? Built in 1876, The Cathedral of Saint Vibiana served as Los Angeles’s main Roman Catholic Church until the 1994 Northridge Earthquake severely damaged the structure. After a battle with preservationists, the Church built a new cathedral, leaving St. Vibiana to the city. It eventually got sold and transformed into the event space now known asVibiana. In 2012 Chef Neal Fraser and Amy Knoll Fraser, who own the adjacent Redbird Restaurant, took over operations. They can accommodate corporate gatherings in the 18,000 square foot Main Hall, and/or the 15,000 square feet outdoor courtyard. Food and beverage service is provided in-house. And Vibiana also offers full-service weddings!
Vibiana (from their website)
Getting out of downtown, LA River Studios is located in the growing LA River Arts Corridor. This building was a former toy truck factory built in 1931 that was abandoned for decades until it was restored as a premier event space. LA River Studios has 15,000 feet of flexible space (including outdoor space) and can fit up to 400 people. The space is supported by on-site VOX Productions.
LA River Studios (from their website)
Looking for a spot for a corporate party or even a wedding? Candela La Breais located in a historic 1920’s building in the Miracle Mile neighborhood. They feature a Mexican restaurant, bar, and a flexible16,000 foot space that could be great for your next event!
Candela La Brea. (from their website)
And finally we’ll end with a grand and historic event venue that is also a place you can stay! When opened in 1923, the Millennium Biltmore Hotel was the largest hotel west of Chicago. This storied hostelry, located downtown across from Pershing Square, had hosted the annual Academy Awards eight times in the early part of the twentieth century. (It is rumored that the design of the “Oscar” statue was sketched on a napkin during the founding ceremony in 1927!) Now the Biltmore has 70,000 square feet of meeting and banquet space and 683 guest rooms. You can have an event in the main Crystal Ballroom (6,300 sq. ft., up to 800 people), the same room where those early Academy Awards were hosted, or in one of the other four ballrooms. The charm of the Golden Age of Cinema can still be found at the Biltmore, yet with modern amenities.
Millennium Biltmore’s Crystal Ballroom (from their website)
We hope this gives you a snapshot of what’s available for events in Los Angeles. If you’re interested in setting up an event in LA, please contact us.
We recently traveled to Boise, Idaho for a couple days of work and fun. The capital of Idaho, Boise is located in a broad dry valley about 40 miles east of the Oregon border. Boise was established as a city in 1863, but spent the next century as a small outpost in a sparsely-settled region. Since the 1960’s Boise has rapidly expanded to become a mid-sized American city of 240,000 with a full selection of amenities and things to do.
Entrance to Boise CentreBoise Centre’s Main Ballroom (from their website)
Boise Centre.Boise’s convention center is located in the heart of downtown and right next to the Grove Hotel. With 80,000 feet of space, Boise Centre bills itself as a space for “conventions, corporate meetings and trade shows to banquets and video conferencing”. Their Grand Ballroom is 24,426 square feet and can be divided into three sections, and there are 31 individual meeting rooms. Boise Centre can accommodate groups from 10 to 2,000. Catering is exclusively provided by Front & Centre.
Boise Depot, set up for an outdoor event.(from their website) Boise Depot’s Great Hall, set up with rounds(from their website)
Boise Depot: Just across the Boise River from downtown, Union Pacific built this grand train station in 1925. It last saw train service in 1997, since then it has been used as an event venue. The station’s Great Hall, where one could once wait for trains like the Pioneer and City of Portland, now can be used to host your next event. This 77 foot by 46 foot, 3,542-square-foot multi-story atrium can hold 300 people in standing configuration or 165 seated. You can also rent the exterior for weddings and informal meetings.
Capital City Event Center is located in the historic Adelmann Building
Interior of Capital City Event Center(from their website)
Capital City Event Center: If you are looking for a smaller, more intimate venue, the Capital City Event Center may be suited for you. Located in the historic Adelmann Building just two blocks from the State Capitol, Capital City has two ballrooms (each with a capacity of 110) that can be rented separately or together. Bonus: Capital City has a full service, classic mahogany and brass bar that can serve up a variety of drinks!
Egyptian TheatreInterior of Egyptian Theatre(from their website)
Egyptian Theatre. Finally, if you are looking for a historic theater as a venue, the Egyptian Theatre could fit your bill. Originally opened in 1927, the Egyptian is Boise’s remaining classic cinema palace. The ornate theater with state-of-the-art sound can hold 740.
The view of downtown Boise from Camel’s Back Preserve
Staying there: There are a number of centrally located hotels. The Grove Hotel is in the Boise Centre superblock and right next to the convention center. The views from the building (fifth-tallest in the city) are grand. Across from Boise Centre is Hotel 43, named such due to its location in the 43rd state on the 43rd parallel. The Modern Hotel is located in a renovated motel about a ten minute walk from the Boise Centre. All three hotels provide rental bicycles.
Getting there: Boise is about 425 miles east (by car) from Portland, making for a doable but long one-day drive. It’s a quick one-hour flight from PDX to Boise, and Boise has direct flights to most West Coast cities. From the airport it’s a ten minute drive to downtown. Amtrak no longer serves Boise, as the Seattle-Portland-Salt Lake City-Chicago Pioneer was discontinued in 1997. We hope that taking the train to Boise will become an option again.
Getting around: Boise lacks any rail transit, though a streetcar has been proposed. Valley Transit, the regional bus operator, provides service to most major destinations. (A bus trip from the airport takes about a half hour.) Boise suspended its bike share service in 2020 with no definite plans for reinstatement, but many hotels provide free loaner bikes and bikes can be rented at Idaho Mountain Touring and George’s Cycles.
