Business

AdvantageWest honored for communications work

By Bill Moss, Published: September 17, 2013

AdvantageWest, the regional economic development partnership for Western North Carolina, won five awards for excellence in communications presented by the Southern Economic Development Council.

SEDC is the oldest and largest regional economic development association in North America with 900 members in 17 states and the District of Columbia.

AdvantageWest won an Award of Superior for a brochure for the Advantage Opportunity Fund, an evergreen loan started by AdvantageWest to help launch high-growth startups in Western North Carolina. The piece showcases the successes of a diverse of mix of loan portfolio clients.

AdvantageWest also won awards for a branding package for the WNC Film Commission; an information card, "Business is Blooming," for the Natural Products Manufacturing Facility at Blue Ridge Food Ventures; and a rack card for the Certified Entrepreneurial Community program. In addition, the 2012 AdvantageWest Annual Report, "Tradition of Innovation," also won an Award of Excellent ─ the third consecutive year the annual report has been recognized by SEDC.

SEDC presented awards in more than 20 categories of marketing work, evaluating entries within four division-size levels. AdvantageWest, a nonprofit, public-private partnership covering 23 counties of Western North Carolina, competed in the Large Division, against economic development organizations in Atlanta, Dallas, New Orleans, Miami, Washington D.C., and other cities.

AdvantageWest is a nonprofit regional economic development partnership serving the 23 westernmost counties of the state, a geographic region of about 10,000 square miles or about the size of the state of Maryland. AdvantageWest's program of work focuses on advanced manufacturing, entrepreneurship, the film industry, the green-tech and clean-energy economy and agribusiness.