HERKIMER — Valley Residential Services, Inc. (VRS), a unit of Bassett Healthcare Network, on Sept. 26 formally opened its newest addition of enriched housing and assisted-living apartments in East Herkimer.

VRS and the affiliated Valley Health Services (VHS) held a ribbon-cutting event at the facility, which cost $2.5 million to build. The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties, Inc. donated $300,000 toward the project, according to a VRS news release. Tours of the new apartments and Community Foundation Fitness Center followed the ceremony.

VRS says its facility offers “the ambiance of an Adirondack lodge — charming and efficient — while providing the necessary support services to allow residents to retain independence within their community.” The facility offers an efficiency apartment with a kitchenette, living room, bedroom and bathroom, three meals a day in the Community Foundation Dining Room, housekeeping, maintenance, transportation, and personal assistance, as required. Daily activities and scheduled outings complement the amenities including a café, library, game room, Adirondack-style porch, hair and nail salon, courtyard, classroom for educational programs, and transportation for local shopping areas. 

SYRACUSE — It’s a one-day event with exhibitors, seminars, and a focus on available products, services, and resources for small-business owners and entrepreneurs. 

Premier Promotions is organizing the 20th SOHO Syracuse Small Business Show on Tuesday, Oct. 16 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Nicholas J. Pirro Convention Center at Oncenter. SOHO is short for small office/home office. 

“If there’s anything that we try to accomplish, [it’s] to get a lot of information into the hands of the small businesses,” says Steve Becker, owner of Premier Promotions and SOHO show producer, who spoke with CNYBJ on Sept. 26.

The show will include exhibitors with information-technology services and financial services. 

The U.S. Small Business Administration, Small Business Development Center, WISE Women’s Business Center, Onondaga County Office of Economic Development, the City of Syracuse, and New York State Insurance Fund are all scheduled to participate, says Becker. 

“It’s kind of that one-stop-shop marketplace,” he notes.

Becker is anticipating more than 130 exhibitors at this year’s show. SOHO Syracuse has averaged about 1,000 people between exhibitors and attendees, representing at least 700 companies. 

“It’s networking but it’s also trying to find those types of products and services that are going to help your business,” says Becker.

Booth space at the show costs $620 per 10 foot-by-10 foot space and $565 for nonprofit organizations for the same size space, according to sohosyracuse.com, the show’s website. 

Show elements

The 2018 SOHO show will include two speed-networking sessions – one between 9:30 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and one between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

“You sit down with another person and you have a minute to basically tell them what your company’s about, what you do, you share business cards … and then you move on to somebody else,” says Becker.

People can sign up for a session ahead of time at the show’s website, which “will guarantee them a spot,” but Becker believes the sessions will have enough room, even if people don’t sign up ahead of time. 

In another show feature, Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh will be available from Noon to 1 p.m. for an informal “Ask the Mayor” session at the City of Syracuse booth, Becker says.

In recent years, the SOHO Show has started focusing on area chambers of commerce. This year’s event will again have local chambers involved, including CenterState CEO and the Liverpool, Cazenovia, and Manlius chambers.

The SOHO show will conclude with a 4 p.m. celebration acknowledging the show’s 20th anniversary with free cake. It’ll also involve a cash bar and prize giveaways, including a pair of roundtrip vouchers on Frontier Airlines.

Seminars

The seminars begin at 10 a.m. with “Four Organizations That Can Help Your Small Business.” 

The organizations include the U.S. Small Business Administration, WISE Women’s Business Center, Small Business Development Center (SBDC), and the Greater Liverpool Chamber of Commerce.

“The Liverpool Chamber will show the benefits of what it is to be a chamber member, [including] the networking opportunities and connections that can be made,” says Becker. 

SBA, SBDC, and WISE Women’s Business Center will outline the programs they offer.

The presentations continue at 11 a.m. with “How to get your story into The Business Journal,” with advice on what news CNYBJ looks for and reports on local businesses.

The Noon presentation is “Grand Slam Entrepreneurs – Part 5!” 

The panelists will discuss how they started out and became successful. They include developer Bob Doucette, Vicki Brackens with Brackens Financial, Jeff Knauss of Digital Hyve, and Jackie Wilson of the American Fashion Network. The session will include a question and answer period. The moderator will be Matt Mulcahy, television news anchor at CNY Central.

The event’s keynote speaker is Jimmer Szatkowski, owner and operator of the Chick-fil-A location in Cicero, the company’s first location in Central New York. His remarks begin at 1:30 p.m. Szatkowski brought the first Chick-fil-A to Central New York, located in Cicero. He was an executive at IBM for more than 20 years. He was living in Raleigh, North Carolina and decided he wanted to do something different. 

In his remarks, Szatkowski will explain how he became a franchise owner and will share how important it is for a business to play their part in the community. A question & answer period will follow his remarks.

Szatkowski is a graduate of SUNY Potsdam. He also earned his master of business administration degree from Clarkson University, according to his LinkedIn page.

The day’s final presentation, “Film & Business in Central New York,” is set for 3 p.m. The panelists include actor Daniel Baldwin and representatives of the region’s film industry.

“What we’re finding is that there is a buzz out there [for] the film industry,” says Becker. “How can a business get involved? Sometimes it can be locations. Sometimes it can be investments.”

The panel will discuss how the film industry is “starting to have an impact on the Central New York economy” and how businesses can get involved. 

Besides Baldwin, the panelists include Eric Vinal, Onondaga County Film Commissioner; James Fazio, the local locations manager; and Elias Gwinn, president of CNY Film Professionals. 

Michael Massurin, managing director of Drone Films Fest, will moderate the discussion. 

People can pre-register for the seminars at the show’s website, says Becker. 

Additional details

Those planning to attend the SOHO Syracuse show can download complimentary tickets at the show’s website, sohosyracuse.com. Without the advance, free tickets, admission to the show at the door is $5.

The advertising for the SOHO show includes the likeness of Bernard Bregman of BBB Marketing, Inc., surrounded by several people who have connections to the show, according to Becker. 

Bregman “retired” from the Business Journal News Network as a senior account manager at the end of 2013.

“It’s a tip of the hat to Bernie’s success and support for the show,” says Becker. 

Becker and Norman Poltenson, the former publisher of The Central New York Business Journal, had the idea for the SOHO show in the fall of 1997 and organized the first one in April 1998. 

With a bowling event at the Oncenter, SOHO became an autumn event the following year in 1999. 

“Actually, the majority of the years we’ve been doing [the show], it has been in the fall,” says Becker.

The trade show took a one-year hiatus in 2012 to avoid conflicting with the CenterState CEO Business Showcase at the State Fairgrounds.

It had been functioning as a spring show for the last several years, but the 2018 United States Bowling Congress Open Championships occupied the Oncenter in the spring, so the SOHO show has returned as a fall event.

It is a pity we are so good at spin. At churning out dense swirls of propaganda to blind folks to reality. We are expert at this unfortunate art. Our propaganda machines can turn spinach into filet mignon, sewage into Dom Perignon. And vice-versa.

This came to mind when the Democrats’ spin machine started up recently — and the liberal mass-media chorus began to chant in harmony: This current booming economy was actually just a continuation of Obama’s legacy. That is what they sang.

Next, the former president gave us his solo effort. Obama told us this surge in our economy began with him and his policies.

First, a note: You can search Obama’s writings. You can read all his interviews. I defy you to find anything that indicates he knows diddly-squat about economics. Diddly-squat minus ignorance squared. By his own comments over the years, one thing is clear: The guy simply knows nada about economics. Remember his boast that Trump would need a magic wand to bring back manufacturing jobs? That was enough to earn him a dunce cap.

I don’t hold that against him. I really don’t. Lots of presidents went to the same school as he did. A school that taught them nothing about economics.

Anyway, he added his exhalings to the fog of propaganda that the Left suddenly spewed. By the way, I am in no way ignoring that the Right exaggerates as well. Their propaganda machines are chugging away day and night. When elections are in sight the propagandists feast.

However, in this instance, the Right has a solid basis. Obama and the Left do not. Therein lies the pity. The pity being that people are swayed by propaganda. It is the misinformation that changes their attitudes and wins their votes. The propaganda, instead of something closer to reality.

Let us squeeze some of the puffery from both sides. Let us get down to a few basic ingredients. One is that the economy did poorly under Obama’s policies. Under the policies his advisers persuaded him to back. Sorry, it simply did perform poorly. For example, we suffered the worst recovery ever from a recession.

In Obama’s last year in the White House, the economy slowed each quarter. Think about that. By the time he left office, the economy was taking the gas.

Another ingredient is that extra taxes and additional regulations bog down economies. Especially when they are already crippled. We cannot deny that Obama’s policies clogged the economy with taxes and regulations. They simply did. At a time when it was gasping. The timing was horrible.

Another ingredient is that lowering taxes usually helps economies. Cutting regulations also usually helps economies. 

Another ingredient is that when we reduce government interference, economies like it.

The simple fact is that the current administration reversed the course the Obama administration had taken. Reversed it, in numerous ways.

A few simple facts: Markets immediately leapt upward. Optimism among investors shot upward immediately. Optimism among small-business owners (our great jobs creators) swelled. Consumer confidence soared.

We are dealing with basics here. Create obstacles for investment and risk-taking and you will slow your economy. Create incentives for them and you will stimulate your economy.

The communists of China could tell us that. They finally — after years of abysmal agriculture — allowed farmers to grow and market their own food. Suddenly, output rocketed.

I wish we could exterminate the propaganda. If we did, more people would see that some policies help our economy. And some policies dampen it.

It does not really matter which party brings forth the policies that help our economy. JFK, a Democrat, put forward tax policies not unlike the current policies. 

It is the damned fog of propaganda that keeps more of us from seeing what works — and what does not.

From Tom…as in Morgan.        

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com, read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com, or find him on Facebook.