Mannix Marketing, a woman-owned, full-service digital marketing agency, has been recognized with a 2017 Summit Creative Award in the category of website redesign for its design of the Eddy Senior Living Communities website.

This year’s competition included over 5,000 entries from 24 countries around the world.

The Summit Creative Award, celebrating its 23rd year, recognizes and celebrates the creative achievements of small and medium advertising and marketing agencies around the world. Judged by an international panel of industry experts, more than 5,000 entries from 24 countries were submitted in this year’s competition.

The award-winning website, Eddy Senior Living Communities (A Division of St. Peter’s Health Partners), features independent living, enriched housing and assisted living, and memory care communities for seniors in upstate New York.

By Susan E. Campbell

Technology is central to every company and organization in this 21st century. Even if the only hardware on site is a telephone, not much business will be conducted without it. And if it breaks, somebody needs to fix it or replace it.

But what if a team of IT professionals were already on the pulse on all the business systems in a company, monitoring networks and anticipating what might go wrong next? What if instead of calling an IT consultant, your IT consultant were calling the company?

This is the premise that drives Queensbury-based StoredTech and its new service, CloudCare. StoredTech was founded in 2010 by Mark Shaw to “provide a significantly different approach to IT consulting.”

“In the 1980s and 1990s, if you had a computer problem you would call the IT guy to come fix it,” Shaw said. “It should be the polar opposite.”

StoredTech’s approach is to get ahead of a problem and propose early solutions before the emergency call needs to be made. In some cases problems are fixed remotely before the customer even notices it, he said.

“We see some things that look bad, maybe with the network or servers, so let’s fix them before they get very bad,” said Shaw. “Don’t wait for failure.”

By actively managing customer relationships in such a way, StoredTech becomes a proactive partner invested in the success of that client company. It has tools that monitor all kinds of hardware: firewalls, computers, servers, data storage, telephones, security cameras and access control systems. Its product line is being expanded all the time, so rather than sending clients to a different third party firm for resolution, the firm continually becomes an expert in additional areas of need.

“In the past if everything went down, a company could be contacting five or 10 different vendors to fix the phones, the security and other systems,” he said. “Now there’s a holistic approach, the ‘one-throat-to-choke’ model. If it’s broken, StoredTech is there to take care of it all and at a higher skill level.”

Four Saratoga County-based builders won awards in this year’s Parade of Homes sponsored by the Capital Region Builders & Remodelers Association (CRBRA)

The 15 participating builders, along with CRBRA members, Parade of Homes judges and sponsors, attended the awards event on June 15 at Saratoga National Golf Club.

In the Classic Homes category,  Abele Builders of Clifton Park won awards for Best Architecture, Best Craftsmanship, Best Kitchen, Best Interior Decorating & Design, Best Master Bedroom Suite, Best Landscape & Outdoor Living and Best Overall.

In the Traditional Homes category, DeGraff-Bloom Custom Builders in Round Lake garnered awards for Best Architecture, Best Master Bedroom Suite and Best Landscape-Outdoor Living.

Barbera Homes of Albany won awards in that category for Best Craftsmanship, Best Kitchen, Best Interior Decorating & Design and Best Overall.

In the Executive Homes category, Pipino Builders of Clifton Park won an award for Best Architecture.

Some 20 artists in Washington County will be displaying their works and promoting artists in the area when Open Studios of Washington County makes its biennial return to the region July 13-16.

The event has brought thousands of visitors to local studios while generating significant revenue for participating artists. It has also raised the visibility of the artists in the communities in which they live.

“Open Studios is a great opportunity for people to discover the extraordinary talent of our regional artists,” said Sue Sanderson, organizer of Open Studios of Washington County. “This year we have a record 20 artists. Many are nationally and internationally acclaimed. Those who aren’t are making their mark. And all support each other.”

She said the diversity of the artists is important to the success of the tour. Established tour artists attract an engaged audience and bring credibility to the event. First-time tour artists offer collectors the opportunity to discover new talent.

Greenwich artist Karen Koziol experienced the enthusiasm for new artists during the 2015 tour. “Doing the tour was absolutely exhilarating,” said Koziol. “People were really engaged and interested in what I was doing, why I was doing it and how I was doing it. I made some great connections.”