Silo Ridge - Harlem Valley Times

4/14/2005 - Tech Fair 2005 awards Young Technology Entrepreneur Scholarship

Amenia
Tech Fair 2005 awards Young Technology Entrepreneur Scholarship
4/14/2005
By: Eamon McNiff, Staff Reporter



Sparkling blue skies welcomed all those interested in getting a little technology education Friday, for Tech Fair 2005 at the Silo Ridge Country Club in Amenia. People from all over Dutchess County, as well as some local students took in the sites, seminars and exhibitions that filled this year's event, which was co-sponsored by the Amenia Chamber of Commerce and the Harlem Valley Partnership.

"This is my first Tech Fair. So far, so good," Paul Wladarczyk, a Webutuck High School chemistry and physics teacher said, as he walked some of his students through exhibits such as the Cingular Wireless, Dutchess Community College, and Town of Amenia booths.
Dutchess County Executive William Steinhaus, who gave the fair's opening address, kicked off the event. Two morning seminars were held in Silo Ridge's downstairs conference room, the panel discussions were on "Technology Solutions to Help Small Businesses," and "Careers in Technology. "
"The morning seminar was really good. The speakers directed it towards the students. It showed the students what a tough world it is, and what a value science and math play in this day and age," Wladarczyk said.

Wladarczyk was referring too the "Careers in Technology" seminar, which he and his students attended. Dan Law, director of Human Resources for IBM's Systems and Technology Group, Richard Altman, Executive Director of the Dutchess Country Workforce Investment Board, and local technology entrepreneur Jim Muncey were the speakers on the panel. They discussed the importance of technology in this day and age, the courses to take for the field, the jobs available and the boom the industry is seeing in the Harlem Valley Region.

"Anytime you get businesses together like this, and the people can realize what a great place the Harlem Valley is, it's great," Mike Hagerty, executive director of the Harlem Valley Partnership said, adding,
"People can come here, and see how the Harlem Valley has great resources, along with a beautiful area they can enjoy, and at the same time do business. "
Hagerty also hopes that events like the Tech Fair will entice small businesses to move into the area and utilize some of the technology available.
"Technology is a good match for this area, and small businesses. It's clean, it caters to small businesses and it helps maintain the beauty of the area," Haggerty said.

Many of the exhibits at the Tech Fair, such as the Cingular Wireless station and the Verizon Broadband booth, presented the same message: with only a laptop and the Internet, a small business owner can reach more customers and enhance their business's reach.

One of the afternoon's highlights was DGSwift Website designer Dan Swift's seminar on Website design for business, titled "Analyze Your Website. "
It was an informative seminar aimed at teaching small business owners how to create a useful Website to drive customers to their business.
"The Internet is re-emerging, and domain registering is at an all time high with 64 million people registering their own Websites," Swift stated.
"These numbers show how important marketing is over the Internet today," Swift said.
For his seminar, Swift took 5 pre-submitted Websites from local small businesses and organizations, such as www.scoredutchess.com, and the Pawling Corporation's site.
"All of them were good," Swift said. The majority of the problems he had were with the sites' homepage design and presentation, noting that several could be more user friendly or have better illustration to capture people's attention.
"The homepage is the most expensive real estate, you want people to remember yours," Swift said.
This year, for the first time ever Tech Fair awarded a local high school senior with the "Young Technology Entrepreneur" Scholarship.

The winner, a good student with an interest in the technology field, was awarded $1,000 towards college. Robert Stevens, from Webutuck High School took home the prize.
"He is a very good student," Wladarczyk, one of Stevens' teachers said.
"It's good work to uplift a young person like that," Garret Corcoran, president of Amenia's Chamber of Commerce said.
"We, as a school, are ecstatic for Robert," Webutuck Principal Kenneth Sauer said about Stevens.
"Robert is a shining star. He's our current valedictorian, he's headed to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he's the whole package," Sauer added.

Also in attendance was the radio station Q103.3 FM, which broadcast from the event all day, and Jim Hutchinson from Sharon Hospital was on hand to display some of their health-based technology.
Hutchinson brought with him a pulse-oximetry machine, which takes a person's heart rate and analyzes how what concentration of oxygen is in your blood stream during rest and periods of exertion.

"I'm interested in technology, and I wanted to see what this was about," Amenia resident Rozanne Moran said, who was attending the Fair.
"There was a great morning panel about the need for students to take courses in science, math, technology. This was a good experience," Moran said.
"I thought it was fabulous," event coordinator Margaret Swendseid said in an interview this week.
"We had a top-notch speaker program, and I thought it was great how the Webutuck High School students came and got involved in the speaker panel, and my hat goes off to the organizations Salisbury Bank and Trust, Sharon Hospital and Millbrook Bank who all supported the event," Swendseid said.

"Overall things were excellent," Corcoran stated after the fair, adding,
"The content was phenomenal, I've already gotten good feedback from some of the exhibitors who were there. I want to give thanks to all the fine exhibitors, sponsors, speakers and volunteers who helped with this year's event. "