Five Berkshire Businesses Honored as Marketing Trendsetters

11:38AM / Friday, June 10, 2011Print Story | Email Story

LENOX, Mass. — The Berkshire Visitors Bureau presented the inaugural class of Berkshire Trendsetter Awards Tuesday night at its Berkshires in Bloom celebration. These awards were created to recognize and honor individuals, businesses and communities who are doing exceptional work promoting themselves and the Berkshires.

A highlight of the evening was when Cultural Pittsfield took home the “Inspiring a Community” Award. Mayor James Ruberto was the first on his feet to applaud and his enthusiasm was echoed throughout the entire room. Cultural Pittsfield has worked tirelessly to target locals and visitors to support businesses and events. Since the Pittsfield initiative started, 40 new shops, restaurants and cultural businesses have opened in downtown – 12 in the past year alone.

Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts won the award for advertising for its campaign to recruit students for its new professional master of business administration program last year. The campaign was judged not only as creative in its message and tactics, but was cited for its effectiveness in producing the desired results. The first classes began in January of 2011.

The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute was recognized as the winner for public relations, for its extraordinary press coverage of the exhibition “Picasso Looks at Degas”, the first exhibition of its kind to explore the influence of Edgar Degas on Pablo Picasso. This additional PR helped The Clark enjoy its second- highest attendance in the summer of 2010 with over 120,000 visitors, 90 percent of which came from outside the Berkshires.

Barrington Stage Company was the winner of the online marketing award for its campaign known as “The Barrington Stage 2.0 Initiative.” The campaign gave the audience a true “behind the scenes look” at performances with a unique use of video diaries, trivia ticket giveaways and press reviews. Most impressive to the judges was that the results of this program showed that of the patrons that purchased tickets, 34 percent were new to the theatre.

In order to ensure small businesses were showcased as well, an award was established called “Marketing on a Shoestring” and given to TSUBO Massage of Williamstown to recognize a program that stood above the rest for its impact on the business using limited resources. The judges were impressed by the clever way the business reacted to market changes and invested in time and a laptop to increase their business.

In addition to these awards, the Solid Sound Festival presented by Wilco and MASS MoCA was the evening’s special honoree and was recognized for “Putting the Berkshires on the Map.” In accepting the award, Joe Thompson, director of Mass MoCA stated that “90 percent of the attendees of last year’s festival came from all over the country" and that "moving the festival to June this year was even better for the tourism businesses.”

Lauri Klefos, president & CEO of the Berkshire Visitors Bureau, ended the evening with thanks to everyone who is doing the important work of promoting the Berkshires .

“All of us in this room are Berkshire Trendsetters in our own way and if we keep doing what we are doing and pool resources, the Berkshires cannot help but continue to be a premier destination for visitors, businesses and future residents."

iBerkshires.com Text Ads

RIBCO Supply

Check out our great lineup of Boss Plows, and spreaders. 2 Locations Clarksburg & Pittsfield!

ribcosupply.com

Summer Sizzle!

0% APR for new card holders. Apply today at Greylock! Subject to credit approval. Insured by NCUA.

www.greylock.org

rk MILES Blding Materials

Are You Ready to Update Your Home? Start With rk MILES. 4 Locations (800)670-7433

www.rkmiles.com

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Your Comments

iBerkshires.com welcomes critical, respectful dialogue. Name-calling, personal attacks, libel, slander or foul language is not allowed. All comments are reviewed before posting and will be deleted or edited as necessary.

June 10, 2011 Dear Editor: The -Picasso Looks at Degas- exhibition at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute was a fraud. All so-called sculptures in bronze, attributed to Edgar Degas (d 1917), in the exhibition were posthumous (after 1919) 3rd-generation-removed forgeries with counterfeit signatures. The dead don't sculpt, much less sign. Ironically, this devastating prespective is endorsed by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute who is a member of the Association of Art Museum Directors. As an AAMD member, they endorse the College Art Association's ethics on sculptural reproductions. In part, it states: "Any transfer to new material, unless specifically condoned by the artist, is to be considered inauthentic or counterfeit and should not be acquired or exhibited as work of art. The dead don't condone. So, "The Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute [may have been] recognized as a winner for its extraordinary press coverage of the exhibition “Picasso Looks at Degas,” but the true legacy of Edgar Degas and the admission paying public were the real losers. Now, if these devastating and irrefutible facts were brought to light in prior published newspaper articles and television stories, that would have been truly -extraordinary press coverage-. Caveat Emptor! Gary Arseneau artist & scholar Fernandina Beach, Florida
from: Gary Arseneau	on: 06-10-2011 01:45PM I Agree (1) - I Disagree (2)

We applaud the Berkshire Business CEOs and owners who seek to increase the value proposition of the living in the Berkshires. No longer do we have the sentimental patina that the Gilded Age brought along with the mansions called "cottages" built during a time when no taxes, low wages and no worker protection laws made millions for the upper class while leaving most of the country in a poverty state. Those days are gone now. With the transparency of the internet, environmental protection laws and governmental oversight of manufacturing industries we are unlikely to witness an influx of industrial wealth again anytime soon. We now live in a Berkshire County that has a median income of less than $40,000 per family and whose choice in housing often falls below the $400,000 mark related to a dire lack of jobs and no hope for long term work. We have become a second home market again for those from New York with discretionary income and for the retired snow birds seeking to escape the heat of the southern states during the summer. We are proud of these businesses who are stepping up to the plate and taking a swing at new ideas to pump money into a flagging Western MA economy. These innovative businesses are working hard to polish the dream of the "upwardly mobile" social status that once upon a time was second nature to a "Berkshires" resident. We will see a different kind of Gilded Age when more of the Berkshire County businesses begin striving to create new ways of marketing our region and our unique and not easily imitated lifestyle. This Gilded Age will be one where having a business in the Berkshires will be considered a status symbol of the upwardly mobile. Regards, Joyce Harsch
from: Joyce Harsch -Harsch Associates Berkshire Real Estate	on: 06-10-2011 05:55PM I Agree (2) - I Disagree (0)

Lanesborough Town Election Sees Expanded Select Board

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff
10:13PM / Tuesday, June 16, 2026

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — The Select Board will now have five people serving with the addition of two more board members elected on Tuesday.

Juli Baker, Jeffery Walters and incumbent Michael Murphy took the three seats up for election in a five-way race, winning a three-year, two-year and one-year seat respectively based on the number of votes received. Out of the running were Scott Graves and Christian Halley.

Out of the more than 2,600 registered voters, 328 cast ballots Tuesday in the annual town election, or about a 12 percent turnout.

The current board consists of Chair Deborah Maynard, Jason Breault, and Murphy. The new board was voted to have five members back in 2024 at the annual town meeting after resident Kristen Tool filed a citizens petition to expand it. The home-rule petition was sent to the Legislature and was approved late last year.

Murphy was running for a third term. He said he is not done with his work on the board and wants to see more projects done like the mall. He was voted back on with 168 votes for a one-year term.

"I feel like I've put in a good six years, but I do feel like there's a couple things that I'd like to see through that are still, you know, somewhere either on the front burner or the back burner," he said. "I'll talk about the mall, I'd love to play a role in seeing how that plays out. What's moved to the back burner after being on the front burner for a couple years is the need for a new police station. I still believe there's a need for that."

He is proud to be a part of the board that will expand its members and to have helped the town have a better atmosphere and attitude toward its residents.

"My proudest accomplishment is getting a better home for our Police Department, one that they need very well," Murphy said. "Some of the things that surprised me a little bit, but that I think I had an impact on, is improving the atmosphere within the Town Hall building. I think that's the best way to put it. There was a time, and I heard from many, many people in the community when I ran that I was surprised to hear how they didn't feel welcomed, they didn't feel comfortable, and I think that that attitude and that atmosphere has changed, and I've had something to do that."

Baker won the three-year term with 258 votes. Baker has been in Lanesborough since 2021 and has been participating on the Finance Committee, which she will now leave to be on the Select Board.

She ran because she felt she could help with her experience on many other boards and her ability to be a leader and see both sides of every story.

"I've had a lot of input into other groups like the planning board and the zoning board, and a lot of the issues that have been happening in town, and I feel like I have a very level head about very contentious issues, I look at all sides of every issue and cut through the emotions and get to the bottom of what the issue is and what's best for Lanesborough," she said.

Key issues she plans to address include managing tax increases that she has done with the finance board, addressing the short-term rental bylaw, and resolving the stalemate over the mall property to find the best way to get real value from the property.

Walters took the two-year term with 215 votes. Walters has been a resident for 26 years and owns Snap-On Tools dealership. He said he looks forward to working with the board and says one of the key issues he has heard is the taxes and wants to help maintain the residents taxes. He said he has been talking about running for about eight years and the bigger board helped push him to put his name on the ballot.

"I said I would like to run for a selectman. We're going to a five person select board, so I thought it'd be a good time. Being a small business owner, I feel I have something to contribute to add to the people that we have already in the Select Board," he said.

Graves said he wanted to be on the board to help others in the community feel welcome as he did not when he first came.

View Full Story