A special Awards Reception and wine tasting was held to recognize the HIV Law Project with NGLCCNY’s first annual Social Enterprise Award. The award was accepted by Tracy L. Welsh, JD, MPH and Executive Director the HIV Law Project. By leveraging innovation in its operations and service model and employing leading-edge best practices in making a difference in our community, HIV Law Project embodies the power of social impact as it develops effective new models for delivery of life-saving HIV/AIDS education and prevention. The award was presented during the 19th Annual GLBT Expo 2012 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center on March 17, 2012 in New York City.
The Metro New York affiliate chamber of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce engaged the services of noted New York Event Photographer, Jeffrey Holmes Photography to capture the story of the organization’s participation in the expo. As their go to photographer for the NGLCCNY events, Jeffrey Holmes was tasked with the responsibility of capturing images of the award presentation and wine tasting reception. Additional event photography coverage included a panel discussion entitled “Gay Wedding Trends & Considerations” and general images of the entire expo.
King Ferry Winery, maker of award winning Treleaven Wines.
A wine tasting of Treleaven Wines from the King Ferry Winery. King Ferry Winery, maker of Treleaven Wines, is superbly located on the east side of Cayuga Lake. The winery produces multiple award winning Treleaven Wines, including Chardonnays that are crafted in the centuries-old Burgundian tradition.
"Gay Wedding Trends & Considerations"
“Gay Wedding Trends & Considerations” was the topic of the panel discussion presented by the NGLCCNY. The panel was moderated by Bernadette Coveney Smith, President of 14 Stories. On the panel were Brian Silva of Marriage Equality New York, Jessy Wolvek of Fleurs NYC, Brian Pasalich of New York Life, Michael Watts and Kurt Kretzschmar of Cocktail Caterers.
About the NGLCCNY
NGLCCNY provides valuable business development opportunities, financial access and educational resources to LGBT and allied businesses in the New York Metro area. As the official Metro New York affiliate chamber of the National Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, NGLCCNY is the voice of thousands of LGBT-owned businesses and actively promotes and creates supplier diversity and procurement opportunities for its growing base of corporate partners and business members.
The Seventh Annual Small Business Summit is New York’s premier event for small business owners. Over 500 attendees networked with fellow decision-makers, learned cutting edge ideas during seminars and talked with sponsors offering the newest products & services available to help their small businesses succeed.
Jeffrey Holmes Photography began capturing the spirit and energy of the event attendees, speakers and sponsors with his dynamic images at the first Small Business Summit in 2006. Upon viewing the images, Co-organizer Marian Banker, President of Prime Strategies remarked, “thanks so much for these wonderful pictures. They really do capture the essence of the day… everything looked great…as always.” Grant Wickes, Vice President of Business Development for Wasp Barcode Technologies, was a summit speaker and sponsor. Grant commented, “Jeffrey does great stuff!” The original organizer of the Small Business Summit, Ramon Ray, provided this appreciation of event photographer Jeffrey Holmes.
Ramon Ray's enthusiasm commands the attention of participants during The 7th Annual Small Business Summit in New York. (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
“I have worked with Jeffrey for many years to shoot photos for my events. One year, in an attempt to “differentiate” I used another photographer. The photos were focused and looked great – but there was NO LIFE. There was NO context. Jeff’s photos not only LOOK great (technically) but they bring to life whatever the subject he’s shooting and almost like magic the context around it. I know that when Jeffrey’s shooting every photo tells a story. I also like Jeffrey’s suggestions of how to make the background of the photos better – suggesting moving this, or adding light here and etc. He’s simply awesome and great to work with.”
Marian Banker, Co-Organizer and Host of The Seventh Annual Small Business Summit (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
“The Summit brought together hundreds of small business owners, entrepreneurs and vendors from around the tri-state area together to discuss their challenges and share their insights for growth,” says Marian Banker MBA, Co-Producer of the Summit and President of Prime Strategies. “While other events are downsizing, we moved to a larger space this year to accommodate our attendees and exhibitors and are thankful for companies such as Dell and Microsoft for their continued involvement as exhibitors and speakers.”
The Small Business Summit was held March 6, 2012 from 8:00 a.m. – 5:45 p.m.. Informative workshops and panels relating to small business. Topics to be addressed included: Real Businesses Getting Real Results with Technology; How Orabrush Used Creativity to Boost Sales, Inner Game of Prospecting; How to Overcome Sales Call Reluctance; 30 Minutes, 15 Tips – Success Tips from Local Gurus; and so much more. In addition, one small business will win the Summit’s Small Business Strategy Award.
“Our sponsors, exhibitors and speakers are all dedicated to helping small and medium size businesses thrive,” adds Banker “This year’s Summit gave our partners the opportunity to connect with more businesses while showing them how attainable the latest technology can be for their own unique business.” “With a growing roster of speakers which currently include, Scott Hintz of Tripit, Austin Craig of Orabrush, and Connie Kadansky of Exceptional Sales, attendees will find the information inspiring and relevant to their business,” adds Ramon Ray, Co Producer of the Summit and editor of SmallBizTechnology.com.
Here is the complete program of presentations and panel discussions along with bio’s featured at this year’s Summit.
Moderator Rhonda Abrams (L) and Laurie McCabe (R) (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
Beyond the Hype — What You Need to Know About the Cloud. Online software, or cloud computing is no longer a fad. It is proven critical for business success. This panel addressed understanding why it’s important, what to watch out for and how to leverage online software for your business. Moderated by Rhonda Abrams, USA Today columnist, small business advocate and adviser, and included panelists Laurie McCabe, Analyst at SMB Group; Bill Odell with Dell Cloud Business Applications; and Kathleen Q. Fable of Quinn Fable Advertising.
A presentation by Austin Craig of Orabrush entitled How Orabrush Used Social Media & Creativity To Attract Walmart’s Attention. Orabrush used creative video, low cost advertising and a boat load of creativity to astronomically grow their business. Austin Craig, Orabrush tells you the secrets of their success.
Austin Craig of Orabrush (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
In addition to being the first spokesman for Orabrush, Austin Craig has been part of the creative marketing team there since the company’s launch over two years ago. His entrepreneurial streak began at college (Brigham Young University, Go Cougars!) when he designed and sold shirts featuring the University President. After selling almost 30,000 shirts, he decided it was time to get back to school and earn a degree from the University.
Wendi Caplan-Carroll, Constant Contact presented Tech Tools for Online Marketing. Wendi spoke on how to use specific tools and strategies to get more customers and keep the ones you have.
Grant Wickes of Wasp Barcode Technologies (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
Gizmos and Gadgets for Ultimate Business Productivityby Grant Wickes of Wasp Barcode Technologies, is a lover of tech productivity gadgets unveils his tool bag of goodies for business productivity.
Grant Wickes excels at helping companies understand market opportunities, develop products and craft marketing programs that drive profitable growth and business value. As an advocate of customer-focused activities, Wickes enjoys interacting with customers, partners and prospects in the pursuit of mutually beneficial solutions.
Lessons from a Customer Service Ninja. Without customers you have no business. Without great customer service you’ll have few repeat customers. The session revealed the strategies and insights of how Bonobos endears themselves to customers. John Rote of Bonobos was joined by Bill O’Dell of Dell Cloud Business Applications for discussion and Q&A on customer service.
Jennifer Walzer, CEO of BUMI (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
Strategy Award. BUMI (Backup My Info!), the premium provider of off‐site managed online backup and recovery solutions for small to mid‐sized businesses is the winner of the 2012 Small Business Strategy Award. Now in its third year, the Small Business Strategy Award recognizes businesses that have developed and executed a strategy producing significant growth in profits or market share in their industry. “With technology helping businesses operate more efficiently, backup and recovery services are more vital than ever,” says Marian Banker, MBA, Co‐Producer of the Small Business Summit and President of Prime Strategies. “BUMI’s approach to delivering best‐of‐breed backup and recovery solutions exclusively for premium professional service firms, combined with superior customer service exemplified why they should be this year’s winner. Every business needs a great product but having a complete solution including how they uniquely service their customers, is the key differentiator,” adds Banker. “We feel honored to be presented with the 2012 Small Business Strategy Award,” said Jennifer Walzer, CEO of BUMI. “This award emphasizes how strategy combined with execution of that strategy can enable small businesses to prosper and overcome the many challenges faced every day. BUMI is proud to be recognized for our achievement, and I thank my team for their tremendous execution of our company strategy of taking care of professional service firms’ data.”
John Lawson of ColderICE. (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
Lunch Keynote: Persuading Customers To Buy by Leveraging Their Friend. It was a stimulating, energized and informative presentation by John Lawson of ColderICE. He shared how to use social media to persuade customers to buy from you through the influence of their friends.
Listening to Customers and Hiring Smarter: A Lesson in Success presented by Scott Hintz of Tripit. Scott Hintz has built and sold two successful companies including Hotwire.. He spoke about the secret sauce of his success. Humility being one of the secrets.
What We’ve Learned from Small Businessesincluded Loren Feldman with the New York Times and Gene Marks of Marks Group and a NY Times writer. The discussion topics highlighted the best practices and challenges from the pages of New York Times small business coverage.
Loren Feldman with the New York Times (Photo: Jeffrey Holmes)
Inner Game of Prospecting: How to Overcome Sales Call Reluctance. Connie Kadansky of Exceptional Sales Performance She spoke about how selling is not easy, in fact its one of the hardest things for many business owners. This session focused on how to sell more with the benefit of even liking sales. Then Shannon Duffy of Salesforce.com presented Tools for Sales Success. Once you know how to sell it’s important to use the right tools. This session provided an overview of the top tools available to boost sales.
SEO Annual Alternative Investments Conference was held on Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at the Essex House in New York City.
Interest in alternative investments has never been stronger. The path to this industry is not always clear. SEO’s Annual Alternative Investments Conference highlights professional and business opportunities as well as provides individuals from underrepresented groups within financial services exposure to the leading voices in the alternative investments arena. The Benefits of Participation: Learn more about career paths and industry trend
SEO 2nd Annual Alternative Investment Conference (Jeffrey Holmes/JeffreyHolmes.com)
s within the alternative investment arena; Network with experienced professionals from various segments of the industry and Share insights and dialogue with aspiring and experienced finance professionals.
Tim Weld, CFA, Director, Parish Capital Advisors moderates panel at the SEO 2nd Annual Alternative Investment Conference. (Jeffrey Holmes/JeffreyHolmes.com)
The event organizers engaged the services of Jeffrey Holmes Photography. Jeffrey has been the photographer of choice for Sponsors for Educational Opportunity since 2007. His dynamic images grace the pages of the SEO’s collateral materials and reports.
During this day long event, industry discussions were facilitated by leaders who focused on the private equity and hedge funds sector, providing insight to rising professionals with valuable information. Institutional investors, fund managers, consulting firms, and other providers within the alternative investments industry foster the growth and knowledge of the next generation of leaders by participating as panelists and supporters of the conference.
The conference was organized by Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO). The conference is part of SEO’s Alternative Investments Program, which includes the Alternative Investment Fellowship Program (AIFP) which was launched in 2009. The AIFP is an educational program for young professionals from backgrounds traditionally underrepresented in the alternative investments industry. The AIFP combines workshops, training and mentoring to strengthen Fellows as candidates for positions in private equity and other alternative investments. The program also improves Fellows’ skills as analysts by exploring strategic decisions involved in transactions from the client’s point of view. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and TPG partner with SEO for the AIFP. Most recently, Audax Group joined with SEO to identify talent for Audax’s undergraduate summer analyst program, providing another pathway for talented individuals to gain access to the industry.
Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Transportation Transformation Series: Opening Reception at Tesla Showroom in New York by Event Photographer New York Jeffrey Holmes Photography.
This exciting series was presented by MCC’s Green Business Committee, MCC’s Tech and Innovation Committee and E3NYC at Tesla Motors New York, 511 West 25th Street, New York, NY on May 11, 2011. The event was photographed by event photographer New York’s Jeffrey Holmes Photography. Jeffrey has served as the MCC photographer for the past 10 years. This event offered a picture perfect show room. Great branding, incredible cars and interesting speakers.
Michael Sexton, Tesla Motors addresses guests at the MCC Transportation Transformation Series: Opening Reception at Tesla Showroom. (Jeffrey Holmes/JeffreyHolmes.com)
The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce offers the business community a variety of perspectives of the direction of clean transportation in New York and beyond. They will explore specific modes such as electric vehicles, carshare (electric and not), bikeshare, water ferry and other innovative modes. They also looked at opportunities generated by new clean transit centers, and examined the opportunities all of this offers both local business and the local economy. The series began with a reception at Tesla Motors New York showroom. Guests were invited to learn about these game-changing concepts that will very soon be redefining transportation and meet the people at the forefront of the clean transportation movement.
Willem Houck, ParkPod speaking at MCC Transportation Transformation Series: Opening Reception at Tesla Showroom held May 11, 2011 at Tesla Motors New York. (Jeffrey Holmes/JeffreyHolmes.com)
The Tesla Roadster is the world’s only automobile that offers super-car performance without super-car emissions. Engineered for performance and efficiency, it accelerates from 0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds, delivering 295 lbs-ft. of torque without using a drop of gasoline. The Roadster travels 245 miles on a single charge and plugs into nearly any outlet in the world – allowing for uncompromisable electric driving.
The event was sponsored by Con Edison Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Programs for sponsoring the MCC Green Business Committee for 2011. For more information on how you can earn cash rebates and incentives for your buildings’ energy efficiency upgrades, contact the Con Edison Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Program office at (877) 797-6347 or visit their website www.conEd.com/energysavings.
For further information about the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce (MCC) or the MCC Green Business Committee, please contact: Laura Bucko, Vice President/Director of Communications, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. 212-473-7875 or www.manhattancc.org or www.manhattanccgreen.org. Established in 1920!
Green Film Festival Ana Joanes, Producer/Director of FRESH photographed by Jeffrey Holmes, Event photographer New York
The Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Green Business Committee Retail and Hospitality sub-committee is presented the first ever MCC Green Film Festival. Segments of four films were shown. The films focused on green and sustainability issues in the food and restaurant industry, organic farming, urban farming, composting, and water and energy issues relating to agriculture. The films were Fresh, Food Inc, Flow and Gasland. Gasland was nominated for an 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary. A panel discussion and then a networking cocktail party catered by GustOrganics.The event was photographed by Jeffrey Holmes Photography, event photographer New York.
Program speakers included Nancy Ploeger, President, Manhattan Chamber of Commerce; Dr. Robert J. Koenig, Associate Dean: School of Managements Student Advancement Programs, NYIT; David R. Pospisil, CEM, Manager, Commercial & Industrial Energy Efficiency Programs, Con Edison Company of New York; Keynote by David Bragdon, Director of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, NYC.
The panel discussion was moderated by Marcel Van Ooyen, Executive Director of GrowNYC. Panel members included Ron Bergamini, CEO, The Action Environmental Group; Alberto Gonzalez, Founder and CEO, GustOrganics, Ana Joanes, Producer/Director of FRESH; Alan Someck, Project Director – Green Hospitality Initiative of New York State Restaurant Association Education Foundation.The event was sponsored by Green Hospitality Initiative (Sponsored by the New York State Restaurant Association Educational Foundation.)
