Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Top Seven Intelligent Communities of 2011


Our area has made the top 7 Intelligent Communities (international) for 2011!  I reprint part of the article, with a direct link at the very bottom of the post.

"ICF named the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of 2011 at a 19 January ceremony during PTC'11, the annual conference of the Pacific Telecommunications Council in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. The following communities, drawn from the Smart21 of 2011, were named to the Top Seven based on analysis of their nominations by a team of independent academic analysts. Complete profiles of the communities will be available on ICF's Web site following publication of the white paper, Top Seven Intelligent Communities of 2011, in February.
....
Windsor-Essex, Ontario, Canada


Located directly across the river from the US automotive capital of Detroit, Windsor shares its pain. Automobile assembly, research and technology contribute C$30bn to the local economy but are in structural decline greatly accelerated by the current recession. Working in partnership with Essex County government, Windsor is crafting a new, more robust economy to take its place. Assets include strong tourism and agriculture industries (which sometimes overlap, as in the case of the area’s many wineries), the presence of the University of Windsor and national and provincial government support. The university is using funding from the province to build an innovation center for engineering research as well as a virtual incubator serving the region. The Odette School of Business has restructured its many programs to deliver MBA-level education faster and mentor small manufacturers. A cooperative fiber network, WEDnet, meets the needs of governmental, institutional and educational facilities throughout the region and Windsor-Essex (a 2010 Smart21) is partnering with other communities to extend broadband to people in underserved rural areas. Government has collaborated with business to create a software technology alliance to attract entrepreneurs, mentor existing businesses and share resources for growth. A public-private business mentoring group is working to pool the resources of angel investors in order to increase the amount of seed capital available to start-ups."
 www.windsor-essex.info
www.citywindsor.ca
www.countyofessex.on.ca
https://www.intelligentcommunity.org/index.php?src=gendocs&ref=Top7_2011&link=Top7_2011



Friday, January 14, 2011

January 2011 E-News

We reprint part of our January E-Newsletter:

Hello and Happy January!



We hope your winter is going well. We were happy to see so many at our 8th Annual Open House last Nov 28 & 29th. We received excellent reviews of the Hors D’oeuvres prepared by ToYourKitchen (Jeff Wright). Many of you also picked up personalized Harrow Fair Cookbooks from the authors and our special guests Lori and Moira during that event. We understand that this first printing of the Cookbook is sold out, but that a second printing is in the works.


We have always had a Holiday Open House on the USA Thanksgiving weekend, as it coincides with our winery’s opening. This event has now also become a canned food drive for the local food banks. It was heart warming to see our guests come in with arms full of canned goods. We were pleased to deliver over 400 cans collected here, to our local food bank for their Christmas needs! Apparently 80 families utilize the Harrow Food Bank. Thank you.


The other 10 SWOVA wineries now also hold Holiday Open Houses on that weekend, and the 11 of us collectively offer a Grand Prize Gift Basket. We were very pleased to have been the winery’s ballot selected as the SWOVA Grand prize winner for this event! Congratulations go to Linda Pataky, of South Woodslee, pictured above collecting her Grand Prize from us!

Currently we are working on a few new wines that will be released soon. Some of these will be released with new looks. We are also working with the 2010 vintages. The 2010 vintage will be outstanding! We are looking forward to their release as well.


Also we have recenetly introduced an online store with payments cleared through PayPal. Ontario residents can now order wine online through our website at: www.erieshore.ca/store.htm and expect 24-48hr delivery.


We hope you are enjoying the winter weather and again we hope you have a great 2011!
Harvey & Alma