Internet business seminar Feb. 17

WINSTED — Winsted’s Economic Development Commission, Friends of Main Street and the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce have teamed up to offer a seminar and workshop, “Reinventing Your Business,” geared toward teaching business owners how to better utilize the Internet. The program, spearheaded by Mayor Maryann Welcome, takes place Friday, Feb. 17, from 7:30 a.m. to noon at The Gilbert School. Local experts will teach hands-on classes in the school’s computer lab showing participants how to optimize Google searches and how to use Facebook and LinkedIn to reach and sell to customers.“When people leave, they’ll be connected to LinkedIn, on Facebook and part of www.shopwinsted.com through Google,” Welcome said. “They will be able to control their own websites. They should be able to add pictures and update as they need to. The whole idea is to broaden the patronage base for local businesses.Starting at 8 a.m., keynote speaker Matt DeRienzo, the Journal Register Company’s Connecticut Group editor, will discuss the Internet in publishing and business world. Welcome noted that a representative from the state Department of Economic and Community Development is expected to attend, along with representatives from Northwestern Connecticut Community College and area businesses.Following the keynote speech there will be three breakout sessions: “Being Visible On Google” with Jeff Carriere; “Selling With Facebook,” by New Haven Register Web Producer Caitlin Yeagar; and “Networking With LinkedIn,” by Cindy Donaldson, director of marketing at The Founders Insurance Group.The seminar will be held at The Gilbert School, 200 Williams Ave., where signs will lead the way to the morning’s events. Sign-in and coffee will happen at 7:30 a.m. and seminars will conclude by noon. Registration is $20. To reserve your spot in advance, call 860-482-6586.This event is sponsored by the Winchester Economic Development Commission, Friends of Main Street, the Northwest Connecticut Chamber of Commerce, Northwestern Connecticut Community College and The Gilbert School.

Latest News

Walking among the ‘Herd’

Michel Negroponte

Betti Franceschi

"Herd,” a film by Michel Negroponte, will be screening at The Norfolk Library on Saturday April 13 at 5:30 p.m. This mesmerizing documentary investigates the relationship between humans and other sentient beings by following a herd of shaggy Belted Galloway cattle through a little more than a year of their lives.

Negroponte and his wife have had a second home just outside of Livingston Manor, in the southwest corner of the Catskills, for many years. Like many during the pandemic, they moved up north for what they thought would be a few weeks, and now seldom return to their city dwelling. Adjacent to their property is a privately owned farm and when a herd of Belted Galloways arrived, Negroponte realized the subject of his new film.

Keep ReadingShow less
Fresh perspectives in Norfolk Library film series

Diego Ongaro

Photo submitted

Parisian filmmaker Diego Ongaro, who has been living in Norfolk for the past 20 years, has composed a collection of films for viewing based on his unique taste.

The series, titled “Visions of Europe,” began over the winter at the Norfolk Library with a focus on under-the-radar contemporary films with unique voices, highlighting the creative richness and vitality of the European film landscape.

Keep ReadingShow less
New ground to cover and plenty of groundcover

Young native pachysandra from Lindera Nursery shows a variety of color and delicate flowers.

Dee Salomon

It is still too early to sow seeds outside, except for peas, both the edible and floral kind. I have transplanted a few shrubs and a dogwood tree that was root pruned in the fall. I have also moved a few hellebores that seeded in the near woods back into their garden beds near the house; they seem not to mind the few frosty mornings we have recently had. In years past I would have been cleaning up the plant beds but I now know better and will wait at least six weeks more. I have instead found the most perfect time-consuming activity for early spring: teasing out Vinca minor, also known as periwinkle and myrtle, from the ground in places it was never meant to be.

Planting the stuff in the first place is my biggest ever garden regret. It was recommended to me as a groundcover that would hold together a hillside, bare after a removal of invasive plants save for a dozen or so trees. And here we are, twelve years later; there is vinca everywhere. It blankets the hillside and has crept over the top into the woods. It has made its way left and right. I am convinced that vinca is the plastic of the plant world. The stuff won’t die. (The name Vinca comes from the Latin ‘vincire’ which means ‘to bind or fetter.’) Last year I pulled a bunch and left it strewn on the roof of the root cellar for 6 months and the leaves were still green.

Keep ReadingShow less
Matza Lasagne by 'The Cook and the Rabbi'

Culinary craftsmanship intersects with spiritual insights in the wonderfully collaborative book, “The Cook and the Rabbi.” On April 14 at Oblong Books in Rhinebeck (6422 Montgomery Street), the cook, Susan Simon, and the rabbi, Zoe B. Zak, will lead a conversation about food, tradition, holidays, resilience and what to cook this Passover.

Passover, marked by the traditional seder meal, holds profound significance within Jewish culture and for many carries extra meaning this year at a time of great conflict. The word seder, meaning “order” in Hebrew, unfolds in a 15-step progression intertwining prayers, blessings, stories, and songs that narrate the ancient saga of the liberation of the Israelites from slavery. It’s a narrative that has endured for over two millennia, evolving with time yet retaining its essence, a theme echoed beautifully in “The Cook and the Rabbi.”

Keep ReadingShow less