Video will help sell Holyoke as high tech location

Date: 11/18/2009

By G. Michael Dobbs

Managing Editor



HOLYOKE - As the city prepares to be the site for a new high speed computing center, members of the business community have underwritten a video that will be used to recruit other businesses to the city.

The Holyoke Economic and Industrial Corporation (HEDIC) with the Pioneer Valley Railroad and the Holyoke Gas & Electric Department developed the video, which made its debut at a HEDIC meeting on Nov. 9.

The $6,000 production will be on the city's Web site within the next two weeks and will be available on DVD for interested businesses, according to Kathy Anderson, the executive director of the Office of Economic and Industrial Development.

Produced by Holyoke native P.J. Moynihan of Digital Eyes Films, "Holyoke: Green Business Grows Here," the film highlights how the city cooperates with businesses, its location near the intersection of two major highways and access to rail, among other features.

The short film also notes that within a 30-minute drive of Holyoke there are 110,000 college students ensuring a trained workforce from which businesses can recruit and that Holyoke has workforce development resources offered by career point and the Kittredge Center.

The film also touts the city's low utility rates and quick permitting processes.

Business owners such as Joseph Peters of Universal Plastics offer testimonials to how well businesses are treated by the city.

Noting how businesses research a community, Anderson said, "When businesses think about moving, they do most of the work upfront before they call you."

David Guzman, a development specialist with Office of Economic and Industrial Development, said the film has already been used by the city at a bio-tech trade show.

Anderson said that just last week two businesses called her office looking for information on Holyoke.

Moynihan thanked the film's sponsors and said he wanted to create a "positioning piece" for the city for about a year.

"Holyoke, like America, has to reinvent itself," he said.