Agenda

‘Protecting Your Retirement Income for Life’ Workshop

July 27: Monson Savings Bank will host a complimentary SunAmerica workshop titled “Protecting Your Retirement Income for Life.” It will be presented by Mack Mikaelian, divisional vice president, SunAmerica Retirement Markets. The annuity presentation will offer strategies to help provide income for life and also help attendees determine retirement-income options they should explore. It will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Ware Fire Department at 200 West St. in Ware. It is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Mikaelian works with financial advisors throughout New England and Eastern New York. He has many years of experience in the financial-services industry and is very familiar with the topic of retirement-income planning. He is a graduate of UMass and Babson College’s MBA program. Seating is limited, and reservations are required. To RSVP, call Anna Calvanese at (413) 267-1221 or e-mail [email protected].

Lean LaunchPad Weekend

July 29-31: In today’s competitive market, startups and small businesses need all the help they can get. The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at Elms College will hold a Lean LaunchPad weekend to help startups identify the specific problems their products or services can solve for customers. The weekend-long workshop, titled “Creating Customers and Value,” will help businesses fail less, save money, and discover target customers and ideal business models. The Lean LaunchPad weekend course combines hands-on experience, customer interaction, and business fundamentals to entrepreneurship. Participants will dive deep into the ‘value-proposition canvas’ to understand product market fit; they will also learn how to turn ideas into statements that convince customers to buy. The events will begin with a 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. session on Friday, July 29, and run from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, July 30 and 31. The workshop will include an “Idea Jam,” a look at business pitch concepts, team formation, networking, in-depth exploration of the value-proposition canvas, hands-on development of customer-value creation, an overview of market size and customer segments, and a business-pitch competition. The facilitators for the Startup Lean Weekend will be Jeremy Casey and Rick Plaut. Casey started Name Net Worth, a software startup company, in Springfield in 2014. His background as a serial networker, commercial lender, and communicator was the springboard to his transition from corporate America to entrepreneurship. He was president of the Young Professional Society of Greater Springfield (YPS), which was in its infancy when he joined. Over five years, he grew the board of directors and the membership, and has helped make YPS the top membership organization for young professionals in the region. He has conducted workshops with many high schools and colleges in the Northeast, and has mentored many startup organizations through Valley Venture Mentors, helping them get their businesses started and providing ongoing feedback as they grow. Plaut became an entrepreneur in 2009 after 30 years as a corporate ‘intrapreneur,’ developing new products, customers, markets, and businesses. Currently founding his third enterprise, he is a partner in InCommN and was a partner at Universal Quality Machine. He and his partners at InCommN teach the principles of Lean LaunchPad to entrepreneurs, nonprofits, and businesses with a need for quick growth in new markets. He also shares the tools of Lean LaunchPad and the Business Model Canvas with students at a number of local colleges, including Smith, Elms, and UMass. He is also a mentor and facilitator for early-stage startups at Valley Venture Mentors, and is a board member and mentor for a variety of early-stage enterprises. All events will take place on the Elms College campus. The cost is $250 per person or $150 for Elms alumni.

Holyoke Soup

Aug. 3: SPARK Holyoke, a program of the Greater Holyoke Chamber of Commerce Centennial Foundation, announced its third community-based crowd-funding event, Holyoke Soup, scheduled to take place from 5 to 8:30 p.m. at the Waterfront Tavern, 920 Main Street, Holyoke. Holyoke Soup is a dinner celebrating and supporting creative projects in Holyoke. For $5, attendees receive soup, salad, and bread while listening to presentations ranging from business ideas, art, urban agriculture, social justice, social entrepreneurs, education, technology, and much more. A new element has been added to this Holyoke Soup. Several local entrepreneurs who have completed the SPARK Holyoke entrepreneurship program will be showcasing their businesses beginning at 5 p.m. Each presenter has four minutes to share their idea and answer four questions from the audience. At the end of the night, the ballots are counted, and the winner goes home with all the money raised to help fund their project. Winners come back to a future Holyoke Soup dinner to report on their project’s progress. There is no admission charge to the event, but a minimum $5 donation is requested. All proceeds go to the presenter who receives the most votes. Anyone interested in presenting an idea at Holyoke Soup may apply at www.holyokesoup.com. Call Jona Ruiz at SPARK Holyoke at (413) 534-3376 with any questions.

Celebrate Holyoke 2016

Aug. 26-28: The planning committee for Celebrate Holyoke 2016 announced the musical lineup for this year’s three-day summer festival, highlighting a diverse range of musical favorites from around the region. “We’re really excited about this year’s lineup of musical acts and are looking forward to welcoming an even bigger crowd to downtown Holyoke,” said Jenna Weingarten, Celebrate Holyoke’s executive director. “It was important to us that our lineup reflected Holyoke’s diverse community, and we’ve worked hard to make sure there’s something here for everyone to enjoy.” Music will begin on Friday night at 5 p.m. and last throughout the weekend until Sunday at 7:30 p.m. and includes the following bands and artists: Friday, Aug. 26, 5-11 p.m.: Basement Cats, Sweet Daddy Cool Breeze, Jesus Pagan y Conjunto Barrio, and Joe Velez Creacion Latin Big Band; Saturday, Aug. 27, 12:30-11 p.m.: From the Woods, Skarroñeros, Paper City Exiles, Franny O Show, Trailer Park, Pabon Salsa, Eleven, and Brass Attack; Sunday, Aug. 28., 12:30-7:30 p.m.: Dennis Polisky & the Maestro’s Men, Union Jack, Los Sugar Kings, Dee Reilly, and Ray Mason Band. Celebrate Holyoke is a weekend-long festival featuring live music, entertainment, and vendors. Last year, the festival drew approximately 15,000 people into the heart of downtown Holyoke over the course of three days. Slide the City, an internationally known, 1,000-foot slip and slide, will return to Celebrate Holyoke on Saturday, Aug. 27. Volunteers and sponsors are still needed and are critical in ensuring the success of Celebrate Holyoke. Anyone interested in being a part of this community event should call (413) 570-0389 or e-mail [email protected].

Women’s Way Backpack and School-supply Drive

Aug. 4: The 11th annual “It’s Blooming Backpacks” backpack and school-supply drive is underway by the Women’s Way, a program of United Way of Franklin County. Every August, Women’s Way and community supporters of the popular event come together at Historic Deerfield to socialize, while supporting the needs of local school-age youth. This year’s main event is Thursday, Aug. 4 from 5:30 to 7 p.m., and costs $5 to attend, in addition to bringing one or more backpacks filled with school supplies (the address location will be given at the time of RSVP). To RSVP, call (413) 772-2168 or email [email protected]. Backpacks filled with essential school supplies are distributed to children and youth throughout Franklin County via the United Way of Franklin County’s 27 partner agencies. Backpacks come to the United Way in different ways. Traditionally, an individual donor will take on the task of buying and filling a backpack. Other ways include groups of co-workers or friends collaborating on filling a few bags; companies donating supplies or empty backpacks; businesses and organizations holding school-supply drives in the workplace; asking employees, customers, and clients to donate supplies and/or backpacks (sometimes the company will buy the backpacks) and having a ‘stuffing party’; and collecting monetary donations and letting the United Way purchase backpacks and/or supplies. No matter how you participate, you will make a difference in the life of a young person. Since the first annual “It’s Blooming Backpacks” in 2005, more than 2,500 backpacks with a value of nearly $200,000 have been donated and distributed. In 2015, nearly 500 backpacks were collected. For more information, visit uw-fc.org/its-blooming-backpacks, call (413) 772-2168, or e-mail [email protected].

Mini-Medical School

Sept. 15 to Nov. 3: Thinking of going back to school? Baystate Medical Center’s Mini-Medical School will give area residents an inside look at the expanding field of medicine — minus the tests, homework, interviews, and admission formalities. The Mini-Medical School program is an eight-week health-education series featuring a different aspect of medicine each week. Classes this fall will include sessions on various medical topics such as surgery, emergency medicine, anesthesiology, pathology, and several others. Many of the ‘students,’ who often range in age from 20 to 70, participate due to a general interest in medicine and later find that many of the things they learned over the semester are relevant to their own lives. The goal of the program — offered in the comfortable environment of the hospital’s Chestnut Conference Center, is to help members of the public make more informed decisions about their healthcare while receiving insight on what it is like to be a medical student. All classes are held Thursday nights starting at 6 p.m. and run until 8 or 9 p.m., depending on the night’s topic. Each participant is required to attend a minimum of six out of eight classes in order to receive a certificate of completion. The classes run from Sept. 15 through Nov. 3, and a full listing of topics and presenters can be found at www.baystatehealth.org/minimed. Tuition is $95 per person and $80 for Senior Class and Spirit of Women members. Slots are limited, and early registration is recommended by calling (800) 377-4325 or visiting www.baystatehealth.org/minimed.