We've been a little busy...

Sorry about our posting tardiness (at this point I don't even think you can call it tardiness) but we've been a tad busy...since Christmas! We have so much to tell you...many adventures (Molly was pretty much out of the office traveling for the past two months), events and new things to share! Hopefully you’ve been keeping an eye on our tweets in the meantime...we are just a tiny bit better at sharing there.

Let’s see, where should we start...

Early this spring we worked on the Better Living Show, the largest sustainable lifestyle show in the northwest, where we had Drew Carney and Joe V. out to visit. They were able to meet Larry the Lightblub, Clifford the Big Red Dog and even a gigantic pear. Good times had by all!

Then Kooza came to town, so it was time for the Cirque du Soleil tent to go up! What a process...here we are in our hard hats (pretty sure highlighter yellow is not our color.)We hope you got the chance to see this amazing show while it was here - we have nothing but outstanding things to say about it, and heard only great things from everyone else who went! If you ever get the opportunity to see a Cirque show, we definitely recommend it!  

At the beginning of April, it was wine time! We worked with the North Willamette Vintners on their huge Wine Trail event - 21 wineries all hosted fun activities and yummy wine for a whole weekend. Be on the lookout for this next year - believe us, you don't want to miss it! Here's a pic of Chloe from KPDX enjoying a barrel tasting at Montinore Estate!

After all of the local events, we thought it might be nice to do some traveling! The Simple crew headed to the crazy city for a media tour, to show off their fancy new shoes. Molly then continued her travels with Simple's Green Bomb tour, with a stop in Austin, and yet another NYC adventure! Yes, she's a traveling lady!

Then it was time for the Sorel team to head to the Big Apple for a media tour and VIP cocktail party, to show off some sweet boots. While in NYC, Brittney and JulieAnna even got a chance to meet the cast of the Today Show (they were all incredibly sweet, by the way!)







Then it was time to celebrate. BridgePort just launched its third Stumptown Tart, and this little lady packs a punch! She's a framboise with Oregon raspberries, and of course we had pinup model Bernie at the Stumptown release party - how could it be a Stumptown beer without her?! Ali and Emily had to get a pic with her in their special Tart t's, cute!

Now that we've given you the lowdown on all we've been up to (trust us there's more, but this is the fun stuff!), we hope that you'll believe us when we say we've been busy! And because of that business, we've even added two new team members to the mix! Alison joined us from Lane PR, and is killing it in the social media world, and Emily is a student at Oregon (go ducks!), and has been our little worker bee (see photo). Here's a new pic of the bunch!




Other updates include...Heather's little Olivia is getting so big!! Can you believe she's already 9 months old?! We'll post a pic in our next update! JulieAnna is currently hanging out in Italy, sipping wine and enjoying her gelato - and she's there for a month - needless to say we aren't talking to her right now, and it's not just because of the international calling charges. And Brittney got engaged on Christmas and is planning her wedding for this August...hoping she doesn't go too crazy before then!

Wheeew...feels good to get that all out there! It's good to be back, we've missed you!

The R/West crew is a bunch of...

WINNERS! Ok, I'll back up and let you in on the details...

So a few months ago, our little PR team decided that we do some pretty cool stuff, and that it was time to see how we stack up in Portland's PR world. So we applied for four PRSA Spotlight awards - and good news - we stack up pretty well!

Last night we donned our best attire (had to pull out those fancy dress-up clothes that we never have to wear to work - thank goodness!), prepped ourselves for possible acceptance speeches (ok not quite, but we were excited!), and headed to the Governor's Hotel for the PRSA Spotlight awards ceremony.

It was great to mingle with Portland's PR pros and even greater to find out that we had won! (Keep in mind we have never entered awards, and we definitely flirted with the deadline!) We won three of the four awards we applied for - one for The Game Factory's Build-A-Bear Wii Celebrity Launch Event, and two awards for Taco Del Mar's Free Tacos on Tax Day! We wanted to share the good news with you - and here are our new, most prized possessions. (They have taken the place of our candy jar - that's how much we like them...)

On another very exciting note, our design department won a Rosey award last night for their amazing work on BridgePort Brewery's Raven Mad bottle labels - they were 3D and even came with 3-D glasses, very cool! Congrats R/West team!!

Change is a happenin'!

Wow, this has been a crazy month for our little PR department! There has been a department addition, two moves, and a baby - pretty sure that could be a movie title...

If you haven't already heard - Heather has had her baby! She welcomed little Olivia into the world last week, and we couldn't be more excited for her. We are loving the baby updates, and are looking forward to meeting the new little bundle of joy. But she couldn't get out of here before we were able to throw her a fun little surprise baby shower - complete with celebrity baby name games, a diaper cake, and the cutest little clothes you've ever seen!

We have also added another member to our department - we are now up to six, can you believe it?! Six!! (Plus one, for Olivia, of course...) Jill joined us just in time to meet Heather, before the new arrival...and we are very excited to have her! I'll let her introduce herself -

"As they say, third time is a charm, and after a couple moves between the Northwest and Phoenix, I am excited to be back in Portland. My dog is happy to be back in her native state, my dermatologist is happy my skin will get a reprieve from the sun, I am pretty sure my boyfriend is happy we don’t have to do the distance thing anymore, and I am happy to have found an awesome job at R/West.

I am a loyal Oregon State Beaver, and happy to represent (along with Jen!) in an office that seems to be full of way too many Ducks. My background is in Communications, having first gone the journalism route which led to a little reporting for the Arizona Republic. But, I had been spoiled having my own column in the Oregon State Barometer to muse on whatever crossed my mind, and covering the 2A state high school softball championship just wasn’t the same.  (No offense to my softball-playing friends, but there is a reason I do not play on the R/West softball team. As a competitive swimmer for 17 years, I have gills—not eye-hand coordination.)

When I am not caught up in the PR trenches, I am thrilled to be back in the Northwest for all of the great outdoor adventures this area has to offer. I am happy to have made it up here in time to enjoy the last of the beautiful Portland summer and, perhaps more importantly, the start of football season. I also still enjoy yoga, but I do prefer to take it into a studio.

Want to know more? Follow me on Twitter @jill_personius. I like to think of myself as a “cautious” social media adopter, but every once in a while you might pick up a thing or two."

In the midst of all of this, we've also had two moves - Jill has obviously moved from Phoenix to join us, and I have moved to a tiny little town about an hour south of Portland. Gotta love that morning commute!

So there you have it - that's the update on all the latest! Just in case you're wondering, H is out on maternity leave until the end of the year - but something tells me that her Blackberry will never be too far from her side...

Meet Molly & Ali - Our newest R/West PR girls!

In the last few weeks the R/West PR team has experienced some major changes - some very sad (Kendall - we miss you every day...and are still trying to dry our eyes!) and some exciting (new, awesome PR minds like Molly and Ali).

Our department's founder, Kendall, decided that teaching history was her true calling and has decided to go back to school and learn how to shape young minds. (Yes, Kendall graduated college as a history major, but ended up becoming the founding member of the R/West PR team as we now know it, and a PR rockstar!) Here we are celebrating her new life/crying about her leaving...

So because of Kendall's new career path, we did many interviews, searching high and low for someone to fill her big shoes. Then we came across Molly, who we'd love to introduce you to - I'll let her take it from here:

Hi loyal PR Girls’ Followers!

I thought it was only right to make a formal introduction to our readers as the newest member of the R/West PR team. I started working at R/West on April 28th and haven’t looked back since. Here’s a little background on where I’ve been, what I’ve done and my plans for the future…

I am originally from Woodinville, WA, a small town on the eastside of Seattle where I grew up from diapers to prom dresses. After 13 years of playing soccer I decided to continue in college and moved to Montana to play for the Grizzlies in Missoula. I spent the next four years learning all about wonderful things to do in Big Sky Country- hiking, fly fishing, camping, kayaking and floating the rivers. It was in Montana that I fell in love with the outdoors.

While in college I interned one summer in Juneau, Alaska at the Alaska Brewing Company as part of the summer six-pack. Six total strangers bought in from the “lower 48” to help bring some outside insight into the launch of their new IPA. We gave our opinion on logo design, name choices and strategies for the launch. While there the six of us got to experience Juneau from a whale watching boat, helicopter and dog sled.

After college I worked at a couple of marketing firms with clients ranging anywhere from an assisted living facility at an old Masonic Temple to a beautiful day spa in downtown Seattle.

I was browsing jobs at ski hills one day thinking to myself, “I like marketing and I love skiing, maybe I can find a job that takes that into account.” It was then that I came across a communications coordinator position for Snowbird Ski Resort in the Wasatch Mountain Range in Utah. I had a phone interview and then drove down for a second interview and was hooked on my first drive up the canyon. I worked there last winter, skiing a few times a week and learning the ins-and-outs of marketing a resort.

And now? Well, I’m in Portland! I decided to move here to be closer to my family and to open the door for more opportunities in marketing and public relations. Some of my interests also include good food, good beer and good music - so what better place than PDX?

The clients I will be working on at R/West include: BridgePort Brewing Company, Franz Bakery, Marquis and Consonus Companies, The Portland Clinic and Feld Entertainment (including Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey when they're in Portland). It is great to look forward to coming into work everyday and I could not be more excited about my clients and my coworkers!
Cheers!

Molly

So there you have it - straight from the horse's mouth! :) We are looking forward to getting to know Molly a little better, and teaching her all about life at R/West!

Also, I wanted to share a post where you can learn all about our semi-new (sorry we didn't introduce you earlier!) intern Ali. She is part of the Senior Portland Experience program through the University of Oregon (go ducks!), and we have really enjoyed working with her over the past few weeks! During her program, she is also working on the Portland Fair Trade blog - check it out!

Ok, and on a little more personal PR department note - did we tell you JulieAnna is engaged and getting married in Cabo this November?? And Heather is pregnant with a little girl!! She is due this fall, and we are so excited to have a little one running around the PR department (ok maybe not running for a while, but you know what I mean!)

So, I think that about covers our updates for now...I'll let you know if anything else comes to mind!

-B