"Dear Mr. Fish:
I wanted to take a moment to let you know about my recent experience with Appellation
Oregon
and with Claudia Bowers. Of course, I never do anything in a moment if it's possible to drag it out, so this is going to be longer than I intended--but I want you to get the full flavor.
About five years ago, the City of
Portland
put in a bid to hold the International Municipal Lawyers' Association conference in
Portland
in 2006. IMLA awarded us the honor, and a group of about 12 government lawyers went to work putting together the conference, which was held this week. Tradition has it that, on the Monday night of the conference, the host committee throws a dinner with entertainment of some sort. We decided we were going to have a Saturday market for our Monday night event, complete with wine tasting.
We thought, at first, that we could get independent wineries to come in and provide our tasting for us. This proved to be expensive and, due to the harvest, unworkable. We thought we might be able to get the Convention Center to put on our tasting for us ... It was getting later and later and closer and closer to the event. In desperation, I decided to call Appellation and see if "they" could help us out.
So, that's when I met Claudia Bowers and when all good things started happening. I can't tell you what Claudia meant to our event. She worked with the Convention Center to be sure that all was taken care of on that end. She got us a quote in record time, and the quote was totally workable for our very limited budget (and, most wonderful thing, it didn't change, as so many of the other quotes we had for other things did!!). She was ALWAYS there when we needed her for the myriad dumb questions a bunch of lawyers would have when trying to plan a social event for 600. When we decided we wanted to do a write up of the wines to send to the conference attendees in advance, Claudia was there for us. When we decided we wanted to add another wine to the tasting just a few days before the event, it was no problem. When we decided that we wanted to ship a case of wine to our retiring executive director, Claudia had it totally in hand. She did EVERYTHING she said she'd do, and she did it all on time or, often, early, so we could sit back and relax. And she was totally delightful into the mix.
In planning this conference, there were good times, there were bad times, and there were stellar times. Appellation and Claudia decidedly belong to the stellar category. I would not hesitate for one second before recommending both. Thank you for one of the best experiences I've had in any business dealings ever."
Candace Haines
September 22, 2006
