If you haven’t noticed it by now, we’ve just launched a newly designed web site.
One of the most important pieces of marketing for a business is the web site. We feel that refreshing it from time to time gives viewers some new content to browse, a fresh look and that’s exactly what we’ve done recently.
Check it out… www.ocaccelerator.com
What have you done to your web site lately to keep it fresh? Tell us!
If you missed last week’s Pop-up Knowledge Series seminar with John Lonczak, Founder and President of Phi-D Product/Brand Development, then you missed a chance to learn about arguably the most crucial asset of your business – The Brand. Attendees of our Thursday morning event received a special benefit of hearing straight talk from a seasoned pro with leadership experience in global branding campaigns, performed for companies with household-familiar names. From luxury goods to commodities, all products leverage their innate value through an emotional attachment by consumers. John generously shared years of priceless experience and treated us to insights about how to do for our small and early businesses what the “Big Guys” do day-to-day..
John Lonczak, a resident of Newburgh who developed his chops working in New York for global companies, is a regular presenter at marketing conferences and symposia and always shares so much of his style in his presentations. John comes from a storied career working with household-name and luxury good companies, including Ralph Lauren, Johnson and Johnson, 3M and Estee Lauder.
From John, “Branding is a lot more than picking out a cool logo with a catchy tagline. It’s much deeper… tapping into consumers’ emotions with a lasting style.” Everyone in the audience left improved, I am sure – now the challenge is to convert that information into personal results! We encourage you to reach to John for more information on how he can help you – (845) 569-4043. He’s a true expert in the branding discipline and offers a range of consulting from an audit of your existing brand strategy to package design and merchandising.
Many thanks to John for demystifying the concept of branding!
Check out our Facebook page for more pics and info on upcoming events…
Thurs. 2/23, 7:30 AM: Pop-up Knowledge Series w/ Marshall Mermell, Founder, President, MarketingWorksNow.com
Thurs. 2/30, 7:30 AM: Pop-up Knowledge Series w/ Kim Jacobs and Tamara Underwood, Community Capital Resources, and Carol Smith, Orange County Chamber of Commerce – Micro-lending as a Resource to Start your Business.
Best, Peter Gregory, Enterprise Development Director
Join us in welcoming our newest associate client, Willy Gilly Productions!
Willy Gilly Productions is based in Goshen, N.Y., with a location in the State of Florida, as well. The company produces high-quality independent films with budgets up to $20 million, with a focus on education and the environment.
Business Development Director Peter Gregory will be working hand-in-hand with Principals Nan Gill-Wilson and David Wilson, as they continue their journey in combining the highest quality entertainment with the greatest possible social value to efficiently produce and effectively market their product worldwide. The 2-year-old film company is currently working on half a dozen productions, including a film on the journey from adolescence to womanhood and a coming-of-age romantic comedy.
Willy Gilly Productions is a great addition to the Accelerator family and we look forward to helping them achieve their mission of enlightenment and entertainment! Visit their website at www.willygilly.com for more information on the company and upcoming films!
A Glance into the Film Industry in New York
The motion picture and television industry is responsible for 86,768 direct jobs and $7.7 billion in wages in New York, including both production and distribution-related jobs. Over 43,000 of the jobs are production-related. These jobs all provide an economic boost to local communities who often host numerous sets in a variety of films. Tourism and hospitality, as well as food and beverage, are tremendously impacted business sectors when film crews come to town.
In 2009 and 2010, a total of 279 films and 345 TV projects filmed in New York, including Arthur, Limitless, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, The Beaver, Black Swan, Letters to Juliet, Going the Distance, Morning Glory, The Adjustment Bureau, The Other Guys, Get Him to the Greek, Howl, Gulliver’s Travels, It’s Complicated, Salt, Damages (TV), 30 Rock (TV), Saturday Night Live (TV), Royal Pains (TV), Project Runway (TV), and The Good Wife (TV).
New York state production incentives include a 30% fully refundable tax credit on qualified expenses while filming in New York State; certain sales tax exemptions; and an up to 5% tax credit on investment in construction and upgrades to qualified film production facilities.
The Accelerator has now been open for 26 months- steadily growing with 23 early-stage, innovative entrepreneurial clients in our target clusters: renewable/alternative energy, bio-tech/life sciences, digital media/web-bases software development and others.
We’re all about numbers and results here at the Accelerator. To date, this is where we are:
One client has already broken ground on what will be a 900,000-square-foot hydroponic/aquaculture facility that at full build will employ 130 people with total capital investment of nearly $40 million.
More than 2,000 people have attended the nearly 70 events held at the Accelerator. Presentations have included hot market topics: market research, business plans, patent protection, web marketing, web design, social media, HR and labor, small business lending, venture capital, among others that enhance the competitiveness and productivity of dozens of nimble firms and early businesses in the region. 
I propose a challenge to find any other incubator in New York State, or even the country, that has accomplished such aggressive and astounding numbers such as these; just one industrial development agency that has made such a progressive investment in small business and entrepreneurship as the Orange County IDA; just one county taking such strides to combat a down economy and infuse its workforce with such opportunity and optimism as Orange County.
We’re in business for your business. Come by the Accelerator sometime, at let us show you how Orange Works.
P.S. Keep a lookout for the extreme makeover of our website at month’s end. Keeping it fresh!
Thanks to all who attended the webinar discussion with Bruce Newman on Thursday, Feb. 2 at the Accelerator! Here are some teaser pics. For a full gallery, please visit our Facebook page.
New Windsor, N.Y. – January 30, 2012 – Orange County Business Accelerator (OCBA) recently introduced Cyber Security Auditors and Administrators (CSA²) as its newest associate client.
Founded by a team of risk management experts, CSA² provides information risk management services and risk elimination products. It offers companies and professional organizations a reliable way to measure curren risk exposure to potential cyber intrusions and to maintain compliance with state and federal laws.
Michael DiTullo, managing director at the Accelerator, said, “The realm of social media has added an element of exposure to companies large and small, and firms like CSA² provide the tools necessary to identify and rectify potential risks. The Accelerator is glad to have them on board and encourage businesses around Orange County to inquire about how they could potentially save your business.”
CSA² provides a variety of services and products, including incident management, computer and mobile forensics.
DiTullo added, “This firm not only diagnoses cyber breaches, but it also lowers the risk of an incident. Here at the Accelerator, we are familiar with driving down risk – it’s one of our principle goals in providing an environment where entrepreneurs and early-stage innovators can thrive.”
OCBA, located at 4 Crotty Lane in New Windsor, N.Y. at New York International Plaza at Stewart Airport, is a business incubator program launched by the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (IDA). The incubator, 12,600 square feet of Class A high-tech research and development space, is designed to attract new entrepreneurial investment by providing businesses with below market occupancy costs, a menu of mentoring programs and a high-tech plug-and-play office environment.
New Windsor, N.Y. – January 18, 2012 – Orange County Business Accelerator (OCBA) co-sponsored the annual Upstate Venture Association of New York (UVANY) Hudson Valley Capital Forum for the third time in a row – this year adding successful breakout sessions with venture capitalists from around New York State.
On Wednesday, Jan. 18, entrepreneurs, established business owners and those looking to jumpstart ideas into reality packed the Accelerator for its first-time breakout sessions with early-stage investors. Business owners, including Accelerator clients, occupied 20 rooms at the Accelerator throughout the afternoon. The sessions provided for a unique educational opportunity for business owners to meet and network with Upstate and NYC capital providers, legal and accounting firms and others interested in venture and private equity transactions.
“The Accelerator was really buzzing with talent throughout the afternoon,” said OCBA Business Development Director Peter Gregory. “Capital investment experts came from as far as Buffalo and Rochester to discuss investment options with Accelerator clients and other businesses in Orange County. To say it was a success is an understatement.”
OCBA Business Development Director Peter Gregory discusses strategy with Orange County Industrial Development Agency Attorney Phil Crotty at the annual Upstate Venture Association of New York (UVANY) Hudson Valley Capital Forum on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at Homewood Suites in New Windsor, N.Y.
Attendees flowed from the Accelerator just down the street to Homewood Suites, also in New Windsor, N.Y., to further network and participate in a forum emceed by Brian Cohen, Chairman of the New York Angels.
Michael DiTullo, managing director at the Accelerator, said, “The Accelerator is truly the Intersection of Capital, Talent and Innovation. Our mission is to continue to provide the talent – our clients and the business people of Orange County – with great capital investment opportunities. We’d like to thank UVANY for bringing the capital experts to Orange County and providing a stream of education to the business community here.”
OCBA, located at 4 Crotty Lane in New Windsor, N.Y. at New York International Plaza at Stewart Airport, is a business incubator program launched by the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (IDA). The incubator, 12,600 square feet of Class A high-tech research and development space, is designed to attract new entrepreneurial investment by providing businesses with below market occupancy costs, a menu of mentoring programs and a high-tech plug-and-play office environment.
The realm of social media has added an element of exposure to companies large and small, and firms like our new client, Cyber Security Auditors and Administrators (CSA²) can provide the tools necessary to identify and rectify potential risks.
The Accelerator’s newest Associate Client, CSA² was founded by a team of risk management experts with a variety of information services backgrounds. The firm provides information risk management services and risk elimination products. It offers companies and professional organizations a reliable way to measure current risk exposure to potential cyber intrusions and to maintain compliance with state and federal laws.
CSA²’s tool chest is full of a variety of services and products, including incident management, computer and mobile forensics. This firm not only diagnoses cyber breaches, but it also lowers the risk of an incident.
Here at the Accelerator, we are familiar with driving down risk – it’s one of our principle goals in providing an environment where entrepreneurs and early-stage innovators can thrive.
Congrats to Managing Director Alan Heyman and the rest of the CSA² crew as you continue to grow and prosper right here in Orange County, N.Y.!
P.S. Be sure to check out the first installment of this year’s Pop-up Knowledge Series seminars this Thursday with Bruce Newman – The Webinar Czar! Sign up now!
The Accelerator once again co-sponsored this year’s exciting Upstate Venture Association of New York (UVANY) Hudson Valley Capital Forum, an event which drives capital investors from around the state right here to Orange County.
This year, Business Development Director Peter Gregory added some more local flare and talent to the event with the addition of investor breakout sessions – a true success! Accelerator clients and small business owners from around Orange County sat down with capital investment specialists from as far as Buffalo and Rochester for a unique educational opportunity, free of charge.
The mouth-watering sessions were an appetizer for attendees, as the main course included a forum led by Brian Cohen, Chairman of the New York Angels, one of the longest running active angel groups in New York City. An independent consortium of over 75 individual accredited angel investors, The Angels group has invested over $45 million in entrepreneurial ventures in numerous industries.
OCBA Business Development Director Peter Gregory chats with Orange County IDA Attorney Phil Crotty at the UVANY event at Homewood Suites down the road from the Accelerator.
The entrepreneurial opportunities right now are vast, and the attendance at this year’s Hudson Valley Capital Forum indicate that capital investors are more willing now than ever to invest in new, innovative ideas.
For more info on how we can connect your talent with capital, feel free to drop us a line. We’re in business for your business!
For a full catalogue of photos from the event, please visit our Facebook page.
Congrats to our very own Peter Gregory, Business Development Director, on his recent feature in Hudson Valley Magazine!
Here’s the story by David Levine…
As we continue to watch all our traditional institutions — government, business, the media — struggle, it has become clear to some that the key to success is to start their own business. Just about every county offers help to those trying to do just that. But Orange County is the only county in the Valley that offers would-be entrepreneurs a physical location to build their better mousetrap.
The Orange County Business Accelerator, located at the New York International Plaza at Stewart Airport, is a “community of start-ups,” says Peter J. Gregory, the enterprise development director. “We take in companies, from those that are just a concept all the way to those already making a million dollars in annual sales, and we provide a space where they can benefit from being around each other.”
With 10,000 square feet of office/incubator space in New Windsor, the Accelerator offers budding executives below-market-cost rental space with high-tech amenities such as broadband Internet service, Wi-Fi, a 35-person conference room (equipped with an integrated video-conferencing system), and a reception area. Staff can provide in-house management, marketing, legal and real estate services. The office also facilitates the networking that helps companies grow by providing access to academic and corporate partners; state and local government officials; and venture capital providers, including the Orange County Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
peter gregory
Gregory calls it “the CEO water-cooler effect. These new executives benefit from meeting others like them, bouncing ideas around, seeing what works.” He joined the Accelerator in 2009, “when it was just a dirt floor,” bringing with him more than two decades of experience in business development. A Dutchess County native who lives in Poughkeepsie, Gregory, 48, earned a degree in electrical engineering from SUNY Buffalo; an MBA at the University of Rochester; and an MS in electrical engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology. His experience includes capital procurement and marketing strategies for companies — both his own and others — up and down the East Coast. While living in Atlanta and consulting for the Solar Energy Consortium, he wrote business plans for solar farms in the Hudson Valley. “By 2008 I saw there was actually more business up here than down there,” he says. “That drew me back.” Gregory, who is single, is thrilled to be here, he says, to take part in hiking, biking, skiing, and other outdoor activities that he enjoys.
The newly formed Accelerator tapped him to find grant money. It is not funded by taxes. Rather, it falls under the direction of the Orange County IDA, which provides a 3-year, $1.5 million commitment in operating capital, Gregory says. That project began a regular consulting relationship that turned, in July 2011, to full-time employment. His bona fides in finance, marketing, and operations are coupled with a rare ability to translate business-ese into regular English. “I enjoy the people side of business,” he says.
So much so that he literally dives into their ideas. When a company called Continental Organics LLC came to the Accelerator with an idea for raising fish in an enclosed, eco-friendly tank, Gregory not only helped draft the business plan, he learned the business. “I got certified in raising tilapia from Cornell,” he laughs. “That’s how far we go here.”
Continental Organics, by the way, already has a large client “who will take everything they grow, on the order of $6 million a year,” Gregory says. And they are still in Orange County. So is a company called CymoGen Dx, a biogenetics firm. The company features Canadian technology and California financing, but the principal lives in the area. “He had no idea where to put his office, and he could have gone anywhere, but we gave him a community and he decided to stay here,” Gregory says. The firm will soon employ 25 people, and it has encouraged another high-tech firm to locate here as well, Gregory says.
And that’s the bottom line. “It’s well-known that most innovation comes from small companies,” he says, “and we have become a beacon in the Valley for start-ups.”
