Entrepreneur Solutions: Marketing advice for $10

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Penelope Pankow, proprietor of F. Oliver’s Oils and Vinegars, will be the keynote speaker at a seminar on marketing strategies and tips for current and would-be business owners on Saturday, Feb. 9, at Finger Lakes Community College in Canandaigua.Pankow will talk about her experience marketing her specialty stores in Canandaigua, Rochester and Ithaca during Entrepreneur Solutions, which runs from 8 to 11:30 a.m. She will also take part in a panel discussion with a focus on electronic and social media marketing with the following guests:

• Jon Alhart, public relations supervisor and integrated digital media specialist at Dixon Schwabl
• David Madison, president of equaTEK Interactive, Inc., a Web services company
• Jasmine Mead, an FLCC alumna and owner of Whisper Chocolate in Geneva

Entrepreneur Solutions is designed for people who want to start or expand a small business. Participants will have time to ask questions of speakers and visit information tables staffed by representatives of the New York State Small Business Development Center, local banks and other organizations that can offer services and advice.The cost is $10 and includes a continental breakfast. Register by Feb. 6 by calling Finger Lakes Community College at (585) 785-1421, or email Lorrie Childs at FLCC at childsle@flcc.edu. Seating is limited. Scholarships are available.To view and print the flyer, click here.February’s event marks the fourth time FLCC and partner agencies have offered the Entrepreneur Solutions seminar. While the first three events covered a range of topics involved in starting or expanding a business, this event will focus on marketing.The Feb. 9 Entrepreneur Solutions is a public service project of Finger Lakes Community College, the Ontario County Office of Economic Development, the Canandaigua Chamber of Commerce, the Geneva Chamber of Commerce and PathStone, a nonprofit that provides entrepreneurial training, technical assistance and access to capital.Digging deeper:All participants of the Feb. 9 event will have an opportunity to sign up for PathStone’s Microenterprise Assistance Program (MAP), an 11-week class on the fundamentals of starting and expanding a business. Classes run Tuesdays from Feb. 26 to May 7 from 6 to 9 p.m. in room A102 of the FLCC main campus. The MAP course costs $50. Register for MAP at Entrepreneur Solutions, call (585) 340-3387 or visit www.pseci.org.About the speakers:
Penelope Pankow spent 23 years at Eastman Kodak Co., working in business research, sales, marketing, supply chain planning and product management, primarily in Graphic Imaging Systems and Copy Products. She was director of worldwide strategic planning in the Electronic Printing Division at the time she left the company. Taking her career in a new direction, Pankow earned a master’s degree at Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration and then worked for small firms in hotel consulting and asset management. She wrote the business plan for F. Oliver’s Oils and Vinegars in 2009 and opened her first store in Canandaigua in 2010. She later opened a store in Rochester, and most recently, a third in Ithaca. Jon Alhart began his career as a sportscaster for WSYR in Syracuse and WIVT in Binghamton. Since joining Dixon Schwabl in 2008, he has focused his attention on providing public relations and social media strategy for clients such as the 2013 PGA Championship and Greater Rochester Enterprise. Alhart is one of the founders of Dixon Schwabl's digital team, working across the entire agency to identify and pursue new business opportunities in the social media and digital realm. He is also the host and co-producer of 1180 WHAM’s weekly radio show “Eyes on the Future” which earned Best Podcast in the country at Ragan's 2012 PR Daily Awards. David Madison started his career in the defense industry, working on leading edge, military systems. From there he transitioned into the business sector, developing client/server applications and real time systems. As a certified database administrator, he has developed high-end database applications and database tuning. In the mid 1990s, Madison started developing Web-based e-commerce applications.Jasmine Mead was homeschooled by her parents in Palmyra until age 16 when she enrolled at FLCC in 2009 with a focused mission: to take classes that would help her launch her own chocolate business. Within two months of graduation in May 2011, she and her mother had opened Whisper Chocolate in downtown Geneva.  An artisan chocolatier, she makes her products by hand in small batches, often using local products for her unique treats. Her signature grapefruit balsamic truffle, for example, is created with grapefruit balsamic vinegar from F. Oliver's Oils and Vinegars.