Best of Orangevale

The Latest OV Chamber Business Spotlight - Best of Orangevale By MaryAnne PoveyWas it a good year? A great year? Somewhere in between? Well, before we start looking to the new year, let’s take a moment to reflect on the highlights of 2022! What better way to do that than to recognize, nominate and vote for those you think are THE best for the 2022 Best of Orangevale Awards!The “Best of” program was a dream project for Lisa Montes, Editor of the Orangevale View who wanted a way to showcase the great people and businesses of Orangevale. Launched in 2016, the early days had humble beginnings, including manually hand counting and validating hundreds or votes emailed or mailed into the newspaper.With the ever-growing popularity of the annual event, something had to change and thanks to a serendipitous introduction and partnership with Voterfly software developer, Ryan Griffith, things are running much smoother these days!“The program is so much more streamlined to use,” said Lisa Montes , “It’s so user friendly and the visuals are great! We have a huge demographic of voters from 18 on up, so it's a perfect fit because the platform is simple.”Ryan Griffith, whose business Voterfly, created the user-friendly software program, originally stepped in to help improve the platform for the Best of Fair Oaks. Since then, he has continued fine tuning that program for other clients like Best of Orangevale among other chambers and clients from coast to coast!“It’s constantly evolving,” said Ryan, “There’s always something going on to improve it and to create a balance where all three of the end users, the client, the businesses and the voters get value. That’s really important to me.”Further, the client gets a user-friendly voting system, and Ryan hopes that “businesses will see value and that consumers also feel that they get more than just being asked to vote.” His goal is that it inspires them to try a new restaurant or some other business that they may not have considered before.“From a client perspective, it's not just a huge time saver, but a life saver in collecting and qualifying data,'' said Lisa Montes, “Every year, we’ve added a little something new to help qualify it more, making it more accurate, and weeding out potential for ineligible votes.”When asked what her favorite part of the Best of Orangevale was Lisa reflected, “Being in a room with all the people who make our community great, is so incredibly special. It’s not just about winning, it's bringing the best all together to celebrate and just being a part of that is awesome.”So what are the benefits for businesses or voters? Besides all the honor and glory of being the “people’s choice” and having a great time at the awards banquet and getting all the recognitions that go along with that, there's more! The information, the participants, the nominees, winners and sponsors are all listed online as a “go to” directory or reference guide for FREE for consumers to use at any time. A great benefit for all involved!For businesses wondering if it's worth being involved, consider this, in 2021 the voting site had traffic of over 18k votes and 100k page views during the competition and more are expected this year! The potential exposure is unmeasurable!So get ready to nominate your favorite business, individual or service group! Information is coming out late December, with the official launch starting in January. Voting will continue throughout the month of January. This year the winners will be announced at the award ceremony on February 11, 2023! There are lots of surprises included in this year's celebration. Be sure to watch for further announcements in the Orangevale View or follow go to www.bestoforangevale.com for more information.