JESSICA BROWDER-STACKPOOLE of EventPro Strategies honored in the 2009 Enterprising Women of the Year Award by Enterprise Women Magazine.. 

        Enterprising Women has named the 2009 honorees for the Enterprising Women of the Year Award.  Winners and finalists will be recognized at a gala dinner held in their honor during the 7th Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards Celebration, March 11-13, 2009 at Disney's Yacht Club Resort in Lake Buena Vista, FL.  

       

        Nominations for the award poured in throughout October and November and the magazine's editorial team narrowed the field to a group of semi-finalists. A committee made up of members of the magazine's prestigious National Advisory Board conducted telephone interviews with candidates in order to finalize the selection of winners and finalists. 

       

        The caliber of honorees for the Enterprising Women of the Year Award is amazing. These women are all leading fast-growth businesses, while assuming leadership roles in their communities, and mentoring other women in business.  We are so proud of each and every one of them," Monica Smiley, Publisher/CEO of Enterprising Women, said.  

       The celebration that has been planned to shine a spotlight on the accomplishments of these honorees includes a Hall of Fame induction luncheon, gala awards dinners, procurement breakfast co-hosted by the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), an opening reception co-hosted by the Women Presidents' Organization (WPO), workshops co-sponsored by Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the Women Presidents' Organization, and other partner organizations, a Disney Institute program, a golf clinic lead by LPGA pro golfer Dana Rader, and wine tasting featuring women-owned wineries from North America and Australia.  

 

Winners of the Enterprising Women of the Year Award include: 

  

OVER $25 MILLION IN ANNUAL REVENUES: 

  

·  Carolyn T. Doerle of Doerle Food Service, LLC, Broussard, LA 

·  Elise Hernandez of Ideal System Solutions, Inc., Maple Grove, MN 

·  Deborah Jallad of Accredited Surety & Casualty Company, Orlando, FL 

·  Amy Langer of SALO, LLC, Minneapolis, MN 

·  Tanya C. Matthews of TMG Construction Corporation, Purcellville, VA 

·  Cynthia J. Pasky of Strategic Staffing Solutions, Detroit, MI 

·  Sue Pisaturo of Small World Vacations, Washington Township, NJ 

·  Sonu Ratra of Akraya Inc., Sunnyvale, CA 

  

OVER $10 MILLION & UP TO $ 25 MILLION IN ANNUAL REVENUES: 

  

·  Terri S. Alpert of Uno Alla Volta LLC, North Branford, CT 

·  Carol Craig of Craig Technologies, Cape Canaveral ,FL 

·  Hannah Kain of ALOM, Fremont, CA 

·  Colleen Kramer of Evergreen Supply Company,  Chicago, IL 

·  Julie Levi of Progressive Promotions, Inc., Englewood, NJ 

·  LindaMoraski of PeopleSERVE, Inc., Chestnut Hill, MA

·  Anne D. Shybunko-Moore of GSE Dynamics Inc., Hauppauge, NY 

 

 OVER $ 5 MILLION & UP TO $ 10 MILLION IN ANNUAL REVENUES: 

  

·  Nancy Freeman Balkcom of MySupplies, Atlanta, GA 

·  Jessica Browder-Stackpoole of EventPro Strategies, Inc., Tempe, AZ 

·  Leah Brown of Aten Solutions, Inc., Cary, NC 

·  Annie Danielson of Danielson Designs, Trinidad, CO 

·  Angela Hedges Hendricks of Bentley Hudges Travel Service Inc.,  

   Oklahoma City, OK 

·  Lou Jurkowski of BJAC, pa, Raleigh, NC 

·  Darlene M. Miller of Permac Industries, Burnsville, MN 

·  Lynn Paige of PerfectPower, Inc., Phoenix, AZ 

·  Bridget Soyka Smith of Soyka Smith Design Studios, Upper Montclair, NJ 

·  Paula Turner of Lexair Electronics Sales Corporation, Greensboro, NC 

  

OVER $ 1 MILLION & UP TO $ 5 MILLION IN ANNUAL REVENUES: 

  

·  Marri Aviza of Rumors Salon and Spa, Latham, NY 

·  Tina Teree Baker of Cadence Group, Atlanta, GA 

·  JenniferBisceglie of InTEROS Solutions, McLean, VA 

·  J. Isabel Chancellor of IngenuitE, Inc., Oklahoma City, OK 

·  Joan Killian Gallagher of Warden-Brooks, Ltd., New Canaan, CT 

·  Jena Gardner of JG Black Book of Travel, New York, NY 

·  Debbi Somers of Somers Furniture Inc., Las Vegas, NV 

·  Terri Sullivan of Meridian Imaging Solutions, Alexandria, VA 

·  Mary Wu of Wu Consulting LLC, Washington, DC 

  

  UP TO $ 1 MILLION IN ANNUAL REVENUES:  

  

·  MaryArdapple Dierker of Apple's Bakery, Inc., Peoria, IL 

·  Ann Kayman of New York Grant Company, New York, NY 

·  GenmaStringer Holmes of Holmes Pest Control, Hermitage, TN 

·  Patricia Massey of Myca Multimedia & Training Solutions, Cincinnati, OH 

·  Laura Lee Williams of Laura Lee Designs, Inc., McLean, VA 

  

FINALISTS FOR THE 2009 ENTERPRISING WOMEN OF THE YEAR AWARD INCLUDE: 

  

·  Amberly Allen of Direct Innovations, LLC, Bellaire, TX 

·   Dale Bare of Bare International, Inc., Fairfax, VA 

·  Gloria J. Carter-Hicks of Hicks-Carter-Hicks, LLC, St. Louis, MO 

·  Tricia Dempsey of Agile Resources, Inc., Cumming, GA 

·  Helen Ficalora of Helen Ficalora, New York, NY 

·  Linda Maslow of The Maslow Media Group, Washington, DC 

·  Stella M. Miller of Stella May Contracting, Inc., Edgewood, MD 

·  Carrie Mitchell of ASAP Office Supply, Raleigh, NC 

·  Natalie Perkins of Clean Design, Research Triangle Park, NC 

·  Jill Vitiello of Vitiello Communications Group, LLC, East Brunswick, NJ 

·  Mindy T. Withrow of CSS Distribution Group, Inc., Louisville, KY 

Wi-Fi taking off on Virgin

Airline gets passengers online

by Marc Graser

From VARIETY Magazine.

In-flight entertainment's about to take off in a new direction.

Virgin America this week flipped the switch on a Wi-Fi service it will offer on all its planes by the middle of next year, letting passengers surf the Internet, email and send instant messages using a laptop computer or mobile device such as an iPhone or BlackBerry. Voice calls are not permitted.

Other airlines, including American and Delta, plan to roll out full Internet access on their planes next year, while JetBlue, Southwest and Alaska Airlines are testing similar technology.

Offering will instantly change the lives of business travelers, eliminating the brief respite they've had from their gadgets while on planes.

The Wi-Fi in the sky is also expected to have several major implications for Hollywood as well.

Airline passengers could become a greater source of revenue for operators of entertainment websites, with travelers logging onto those sites to watch a movie, TV show or Web series; download music; or play a game.

An uptick in traffic from bored fliers will enable those sites to collect more coin from advertisers.

Sites like YouTube are counting on it, with the company having paired up with Virgin America to promote the launch of the Wi-Fi service over the weekend during its YouTube Live event in San Francisco.

Chris Di Cesare, YouTube's head of marketing, called the launch of Wi-Fi at 35,000 feet "game-changing for the YouTube community," giving video creators access to a captive audience.

Yet Wi-Fi could impact the studios' bottom lines in a negative way.

If enough travelers pay the $10-$13 fee (depending on the length of the flight) to log online, they may be less likely to shell out the $2-$8 to watch a TV show or movie from a seatback or ceiling-mounted screen.

And with passengers able to view entertainment online, airlines don't necessarily have to buy movies and TV shows anymore. They can just collect the connectivity fee charged to give passengers access to the Web and allow them to find whatever they want to entertain themselves.

For example, Wi-Fi would suddenly enable an airline like Southwest, which never offered entertainment aboard its planes, to suddenly have an inflight entertainment system. And US Airways, which eliminated its onboard entertainment this fall due to cutbacks, will have it back again, should it deploy Wi-Fi.

So the advent of Wi-Fi service could reduce the $240 million that studios earn from film and TV sales to airlines each year.

But that kind of negative financial impact won't be felt for some time.

On a recent flight over San Francisco, emailing, instant messaging and visiting websites was a quick and simple process using Virgin America's system, operated by Gogo and Aircell.

Yet watching any kind of TV show or movie on Hulu.com or trailer on QuickTime brought back unwelcome memories of frustratingly jittery video streams from nearly a decade ago that paused more often than played.

The reason is bandwidth. Video quality varies depending on how many passengers are logged onto the Wi-Fi service and gives preference to those requiring less bandwidth for sending emails or surfing sites.

Thus airlines won't turn off their seatback screens anytime soon.

Wi-Fi is being sold as a convenience mostly for business travelers, and airlines like Virgin America will continue to use their in-flight entertainment systems to stand out from their rivals.

"Business travelers are certainly a key customer, especially given that we already offer power outlets at every seat," said Virgin America spokeswoman Abby Lunardini. "However, we really have a good mix of business and leisure travel and hope that Wi-Fi access will also be a draw for leisure travelers who may want to rent a car, Google map or just generally surf the Web en route to their destination."

Besides, relying solely on Wi-Fi as an entertainment provider will cost the airlines too much in lost revenue.

While airlines are expected to earn as much as $936 million from Wi-Fi services in 2012, according to research firm MultiMedia Intelligence, they'll also be able to generate as much as $913 million from in-flight video broadcasts.