The eighth annual Saratoga Comic Con, a convention about all things comic book super heroes and pop culture, will be held Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 17-18, at Saratoga Springs City Center, 522 Broadway.

The event will run Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. VIPs get early access at 9:30 a.m. each day. An after-party is scheduled 6-10 p.m. Saturday at City Center, catered by Distinctive Catering.

The show floor will include: vendor and artist dealers from all over the world, guest artists, celebrities, gaming, Super Smash Bros. tournaments, Magic: The Gathering Table Top Gaming, cosplay contests, panels, events, tattooing, live podcasts, the 1966 Batmobile, a bouncey house, and other pop culture fun.

Article Updated November 21, 2018

By Maureen Werther

Nickolas Goupil, an engineer employed by Jeffords Steel and Engineering, sits in his private office with two large computer screens lit up in front of him, displaying engineering drawings and designs he is working on for his Plattsburgh-based company.  

He works remotely from his office in Saratoga CoWorks at 462 Broadway, part of an expansive 3,300-square-foot space above BurgerFi restaurant. 

Goupil and his wife moved from Plattsburgh to Saratoga Springs in August and they’ve been working out of Saratoga CoWorks ever since. 

“With technology the way it is, this makes working remotely very easy for me,” said Goupil, whose wife, Sarah Merkel, occupies another one of the seven private office spaces rented by her company, ETS Staffing, on a yearly basis.

The CoWorks location on Broadway is the second space of its kind. The first Saratoga CoWorks at 153 Regent St., in an historic building owned by drb Business Interiors, is currently bustling with activity from entrepreneurs and professionals in industries ranging from creative to accounting, to thoroughbred racing and “green” technology firms, and software developers to nonprofit organizations.

A product made by Legacy Juice Works, a Saratoga Springs-based wellness brand specializing in cold pressed juice and functional beverages, has been named a finalist in the 2018 World Beverage Innovation Awards for Best Juice.

The awards are sponsored by UK-based FoodBev Media and BrauBeviale in Germany.

Since 2000, FoodBev Media has specialized in reporting and analyzing change, trends and innovation in the international food and beverage industry. It is a multi-media business, delivering content through magazines, a website and across the world’s most relevant social media channels.

“We are so excited that the judges selected our Organic Tart Cherry juice as a finalist for the Best Juice category in this important global competition,” said co-founder, Christel MacLean.

By Susan E. Campbell

A new book by local business advisor Michael Cruz is aimed at helping managers at all levels acquire the skills to employ the best people and retain them longer.

“Hire The People You Want (And The Questions You Must Ask To Get Them)” aggregates the insights and tips Cruz has acquired helping clients of his consulting firm, Lighthouse Advisors LLC out of Queensbury, to manage their rapid growth, for which building infrastructure, support and an executive team are key components.

“Most people don’t have the skills to hire the best candidates and no one wants to take the time to learn,” said Cruz.

Before founding his firm in 1999, Cruz ran marketing departments in the corporate sector and honed his skills as a communicator.

Self-published and sold exclusively at Amazon, the 100-page book s priced at $9.99 for the digital edition and under $15 for the soft cover edition.

“This book helps companies develop a methodology and encourages making time to do this job right,” he said. “If the business owner or manager can’t find the time now, when will they find the time when they have to hire again?”

by jill nagy

Nicole Snow’s desire to learn to knit led to the development of Darn Good Yarn, her successful online business selling crafting supplies and clothing

Most of the product is hand-made in India or Nepal and most uses recycled materials.

A yarn spun from scraps of saris (draped female garments from India), brightly colored, silky to the touch and ideal for a novice knitter, was Snow’s first product. The yarn was hard to find. Only three suppliers in the United States sold it and it was a seasonal product. 

For the women who made the yarn, it was something they did when they could not work in the fields. Snow, who calls herself “a very accidental entrepreneur,” set out to change that. 

Drawing on contacts from previous work for a general import business, she contracted with cooperatives and sole proprietors in Nepal and India, providing about 600 full-time, year-round jobs at wages similar to the minimum wage in the U.S. and two or three times the local wages, she said.