Last night’s meet up hosted by Design*Sponge blogger, Grace Bonney, at Design Within Reach brought together over 100 local design based business owners. The (strictly female) packed house got the privilege to participate in 20 minute question and answer sessions with experts in the industry including Grace, Amy Ruppel, Sarah Chenven of Mercy Corps Northwest and Debbe Hamada of the boutique, Tilde.

Each session touched on different aspects of the industry. The most informative session (in my opinion) was the one given by Grace since she enlightened the group on how to handle the PR side of the business and how to write a press release that will actually get read. She has written for several Conde Nast publications including her own immensely successful blog, so she speaks first hand about what editors are looking for. You can read some of her notes on PR here.

If you are interested in upcoming events and keeping tabs on the Biz Ladies of Portland, simply join the new Yahoo group.