Portland Oregon is leading the nation on green, eco-friendly building practices.  This article is meant to help members of PortlandBusinessCommunity.com informed on local happenings.

Laurel Macdonald-Bonnell is a local Landscape Architect in the Portland area that specializes in healing gardens, ecoroofs and other unique landscaping options that help people and out environment.  I am publishing this announcement on her behalf.  If you wish to learn more about Macdonald Environmental Planning or healing gardens, please contact Laruel at (503) 224-1225.

The Healing Garden’s most prominent healing component is a naturalistic water feature the can be enjoyed by two different user groups depending where you are in the garden.  Infusion patient rooms look out onto this waterfall which is met on either side by a retaining wall which will create a tranquil, private garden, contributing to patient health recovery.  The patients’ family and friends can find respite in a garden adjacent to the main entry where they can also enjoy the soothing sounds of the waterfall and sit underneath trellises, or on cafe tables adjacent to a lush potted plant garden.  Strolling paths meander through plantings of colorful perennials and grasses further offering areas of contemplation.  On the far end of the site is a labyrinth garden where staff and family members of patients can gather their thoughts.

Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center – SRCC Expansion Healing Garden

The Macdonald Environmental Planning team includes Laurel Macdonald Bonnell, Dan Edwards, and Bryan Bailey.  The overall project team includes Clark/Kjos Architects, Devco Engineering Inc., DCI Engineers, and Interface Engineering.

The Cancer Center Healing Garden will be a part of the SRCC Expansion project on the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center 50 acre campus in Corvallis, Oregon.  Macdonald Environmental Planning has created a comprehensive master plan for the entire campus.

Macdonald Environmental Planning, PC – www.mep-pc.com

The Oregon Small Business Development Center has one of the most active small business education programs I’ve ever seen.  I’ve been a student in the SBDC program for the last year, attending the Greenhouse and Small Business Management course at the Clackamas SBDC.  Greenhouse wasn’t a class on horticulture, but for start up business owners like myself.

Today I had the opportunity to give back to the educational community that has helped me.  Max Corona, with Synergic, and I teamed up to teach Mastering Online Marketing.  Along with a dozen other courses, this class is offered every quarter for a very small price of on $38.  We had 16 business people in the class today and we explored online marketing and business planning in great depth.

Max is a marketing expert and local business consultant so he took the marketing and business planning topics.  I am a business blogging consultant and lead the web site optimization and social marketing topics.

Here are some statistics to help understand how the internet can (and should) play an important role in your business marketing plan.  73% of all American adults use the internet daily.  Per Internet & America Life Project, May 2008.  Of those users, 89% use a search engine to find information daily, 81% look for information online about a service or product they are considering buying, 73% get news, and 62% surf the web for fun.  One of the most interesting stats is 29% use an online social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Over 63 million internet users use the internet for social networking.  How many of them are your customers?  Is your company talking to these users while they are browsing the net for fun?  In addition to your company website, are you blogging or using Facebook to attract new customers?

The next class is being offered in February.  Check the SBDC website for the course schedule for a class near you!

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
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