ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 31, 1997 TAG: 9701310031
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: MARK CLOTHIER STAFF WRITER
A year and a half back, when Microsoft was readying its rollout of Windows 95, the corporate giant sent some folks here to film a promotional video.
They chose Blacksburg because they'd heard about its Electronic Village. Once here, the producer shot footage in Our Daily Bread, a popular local bakery on South Main Street. The filmmakers needed to feature a small business and the producer liked bakeries.
Since then, the Blacksburg company has become almost a Microsoft promotional regular, sort of a fixture in it's public relations rolodex. There was the Windows 95 promo and then a part in an educational series shown in small business development centers.
The latest: a role in a six-part series called America at Work. It airs Saturday at 9:30 a.m. on the USA network.
Each show focuses on how business owners use technology to run things more effectively. Saturday's topic is learning how to make your business more profitable and efficient. The show also features an Idaho company, Embroidered Corporate Image, and a Seattle insurance company.
The show, produced by Microsoft and sponsored by GTE and Hewlett-Packard Co., is part infomercial and part educational television. It was developed to address the technology needs of small businesses.
For owner Karen Iannaccone, it's been even more than that.
First the practical: Microsoft doesn't pay her for her time when they're filming, but they've upgraded her computer system and they pass on free software.
Then the cool: Three weeks ago, Microsoft's PR firm put in an order for 200 loaves of Our Daily Bread's Portuguese sweetbread to be baked and sent to Portland the next day. A few days later, the loaves arrived, as part of media packets, in newsrooms countrywide (including this one). Iannaccone's since taken large sweetbread orders from Tennessee and Oregon.
Iannaccone, 40, opened Our Daily Bread 1980 with three employees, 700 square feet and books kept on a manual ledger. She's since added 18 workers, 2,500 square feet, a computer, a wholesale and catalog line and catering.
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshot) Iannacconeby CNB