Quick Hits

A few brief notables from the last week at GraVoc:

• The company would like to offer its sincere thanks and a fond farewell to Senior Associate Ron Davis.  Ron, who has handled business development for half of GraVoc’s sixteen-year history, is stepping down Friday afternoon and going into semi-retirement.  Going forward, Ron will spend much of his time assisting his wife Debra in her entrepreneurial pursuits.  The Davises own and operate Chili Choice, a New Mexican cuisine retailer and distributor in Gloucester.
• Another update on the rubber chicken video:  DivergingSoul’s footage has now even caught Keith Olbermann’s attention.  See his commentary from an episode of MSNBC’s “Countdown” by clicking here, browsing the “oddball” section, and clicking the April 28th edition (the one about the Obama nightclub).
• Director of Information Security Nate Gravel will be competing in Sunday’s Cox Sports Marathon in Providence, RI.  Nate, a competitive runner formerly of Peabody Veterans Memorial High School and Trinity College, should be among the leaders of the race, as his previous best of 2:30:00 in the 2008 Madrid Marathon is several minutes faster than the Providence course record.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, based in Peabody, MA, is a full-service technology consulting firm offering a dynamic range of services to clients in greater Boston, New England, and beyond.  Founded in 1994, GraVoc specializes in the practices of information systems, information security, and professional services.  For more information about the firm, please visit www.gravoc.com or feel free to browse previous posts of the GraVoc News Blog.

Update: Rubber Chicken World Record Set

Last week, the GraVoc News Blog brought you the news of a world record attempt being held in Boston for the most rubber chickens tossed at the same place, at the same time.  As expected, the world record was set pending the approval of the Guinness Book of World Records staff—and caught on video by GraVoc’s DivergingSoul Media Production team.

DivergingSoul’s Brian Gravel captures the tense moments before the record attempt.  Photo courtesy Haywire Group.

Officially, 265 rubber chickens flew during the promotional event for the Haywire Group’s Flickin’ Chicken game, which raised money for the Charles River Watershed Association.  DivergingSoul’s video was picked up by several media outlets, resulting in a great deal of publicity for the game manufacturer and its beneficiary charity. 

GraVoc Associates, Inc. is a full-service technology consulting firm located in Peabody, MA specializing in the practices of information systems, professional services, and information security.  Upon the firm’s joining forces with DivergingSoul Media Production, clients in Greater Boston, New England, and beyond contract GraVoc for services ranging from the implementation of ERP systems to business continuity planning to filming the flight of hundreds of rubber chickens.  For more information about the company and how those three services could possibly be connected, please visit GraVoc.com.

GraVoc to Film World Record Attempt

In what is rumored to be the organization's first project in the rubber chicken throwing industry, GraVoc Associates will be filming a world record attempt in Boston this Sunday, April 25th. GraVoc's media production staff will be on hand as the folks at Haywire Group are orchestrating an attempt to set a world record for the largest number of rubber chickens tossed simultaneously.



The event will take place on Artesani Park on Soldiers Field Road in Brighton, MA Sunday at 3:00 PM, and the public is encouraged to attend, witness, and participate in the event. Rubber chickens will be available for purchase for $1 and all proceeds are to go toward the Charles River Watershed Association. This event is being organized by Haywire Group, a Western Massachusetts firm that designs family board games including the popular "Flickin Chicken" game.



Most world record attempts require the presence of an official adjudicator or a long list of evidence to verify the record. The DivergingSoul team (now a division of GraVoc) is responsible for compiling video evidence of the event. Audio/video production of events like Haywire's world record attempt is one of the services regularly offered by GraVoc's media production team.



GraVoc Associates, Inc, a Peabody, MA-based technology consulting firm, expanded into media production in 2010 with its acquisition of DivergingSoul Media Production. Together they serve Greater Boston, New England, and beyond with media-related services such as A/V production, web design, web 2.0 services, and the popular DS2 digital signage network. GraVoc also specializes in the practices of professional services, information systems, and information security. For more information about DivergingSoul and GraVoc, please visit http://www.gravoc.com/ or http://www.divergingsoul.com/.

GraVoc to Attend Great New England Credit Union Show

Next week, GraVoc Associates, Inc. will be sending some of their information security team to the Great New England Credit Union Show in Boxborough, MA.

This will be GraVoc's first appearance at the show, and they can be found in booth 70, in between Enterprise Car Sales and FMS (Financial Management Solutions). An estimated 700 attendees from credit unions across the New England region are planning to be at the event, which features thirteen seminars of interest to credit union executives. Additionally, eighty vendors are expected to exhibit.

GraVoc's information security team will be on hand to explain more about their wide range of information security services that can be found both on the gravoc.com website and in past posts of the GraVoc News Blog. The GraVoc booth will feature typical tradeshow fare, such as a video display, candy, and handouts. We hope to see many familiar faces there, as well as new faces.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, founded in 1994, provides a dynamic range of information security services to financial institutions throughout Greater Boston and New England. The Peabody, MA-based company specializes in business continuity planning, LAN/WAN testing, and risk assessments. Lately, among its more popular services have been social engineering testing and services to help clients comply with the Massachusetts Data Security Law. Beyond information security, GraVoc also specializes in the fields of professional services, media production, and information systems. For more information about the services GraVoc provides, please visit http://www.gravoc.com/.

GraVoc Participates in Peabody Education Council Events

In the last few weeks, GraVoc has made efforts to give back to the Peabody community through a pair of educational programs.  Historically, GraVoc has an ongoing relationship with the Peabody Ed Council, and President/CEO David Gravel is the council’s current chair.  Recently, GraVoc has participated in the mentoring program and in Friday’s Peabody Veterans Memorial High School Career Day.

Several students interested in various aspects of business visited GraVoc for a taste of job shadowing.  Students with interest in business administration, computer programming, and media production spent a few hours behind the scenes at GraVoc.  Programmers Matt Coraccio and Paul Lincoln offered advice to a student who was interested in programming but had not yet taken any programming classes in high school.  “I only took one programming class in high school, and didn’t take any more until my sophomore year of college,” Coraccio said.  “I told him not to worry, and he had plenty of time to take classes.  It was great to see a student interested in what we do.”

GraVoc also sent three representatives to PVMHS Career Day, also put on by the Peabody Ed Council, this morning.  Aside from the free stress balls and candy selections, students asked questions about GraVoc, the types of services they offer, the level of education achieved by their employees, and the fields of study GraVoc’s employees pursued.  As GraVoc is a dynamic business with employees from many different backgrounds, students were encouraged to study fields they were interested in as undergraduates.

GraVoc Associates, Inc, based in Peabody, MA and serving Greater Boston, New England, and beyond in the practices of information systems, professional services, and information security, is a 17-employee firm whose professionals bring backgrounds from accounting and finance to communications to English to computer science.  Like many small businesses, GraVoc prides itself on its time spent on community service.  For more information about GraVoc, please visit www.gravoc.com, and for more information about the Peabody Education Council, please visit www.peabodyedcouncil.com.

GraVoc Holds Compliance Consortium

GraVoc’s information security team would like to extend its gratitude toward North Easton Savings Bank for hosting the first quarterly information security & risk management consortium.  The event was held Tuesday morning March 30 at NESB’s new corporate offices in South Easton, and was attended by several GraVoc information security clients and friends.

Led by GraVoc’s Nate Gravel and Dan Vassallo, the meeting was the first of hopefully several where financial service executives both within IT and outside IT can share ideas, concerns, and observations regarding the current compliance landscape for regional financial institutions.  Among the many topics discussed this quarter were the changes in Regulation E that require customers and members to opt in for courtesy overdraft payment, challenges brought on by the popularity of social media outlets, and current patterns in regulatory exams.

The GraVoc information security team is grateful that some of its clients braved adverse weather conditions to attend the event, and hopes that all attendees considered the event a conduit for discussion that was worth the drive.  If you are interested in attending the next event, most likely to be held in June, please contact either Nate or Dan by calling the GraVoc offices at 978-538-9055.

GraVoc Associates, Inc., based in Peabody, MA, has served clients in greater Boston, New England, and beyond in the practices of information security, information systems, and professional services.  Some of the more pertinent services offered in the information security practice include business continuity/disaster recovery planning, Massachusetts General Law 93H/201 CMR 17.00 compliance services, and social engineering simulations.  For more information about the services provided by GraVoc, please visit http://www.gravoc.com.