Bivona is gold winner in 2016 Best of the Web

Bivona Child Advocacy Center won gold at the Rochester Business Journal’s 19th Best of the Web competition.

The center, which specializes in child abuse response, healing and prevention, took its website live in 2004. The website (bivonacac.org) was lauded by judges as “honest-feeling, not flashy—just right for this category,” with a clean design, imagery, and typography. Soucier Design developed the website.

A crowd of some 300 business professionals attended the event April 14 at the Hyatt Regency Rochester. The competition has been held since 1996.

This year, two firms tied for the overall silver award: the Rochester Museum & Science Center (rmsc.org) and Carestream Health Inc. (carestream.com/expedition). No bronze award winner was named this year.

The 2016 Best of the Web award category winners were:

Banking and financial services
Reliant Community Federal Credit Union (reliantcu.com) won the category. The other finalists were DeJoy, Knauf & Blood LLP (teamdkb.com) and Masiello Retirement Solutions (masielloretirement.com).

Business and professional services
CMI Audio/Visual (cmiav.com) was the winner in this category. The other finalists were CaterTrax (catertrax.com) and Complemar Partners Inc. (complemar.com).

Community
Causewave Community Partners (causewave.org) received the award in this category. The other finalists were Lollypop Farm (lollypop.org) and Rochester Area Community Foundation (racf.org).

Cultural
The Rochester Museum & Science Center (rmsc.org) won the category. The other finalists were Fairport Music Festival (fairportmusicfestival.com) and George Eastman Museum (eastman.org).

Education
McQuaid Jesuit High School (Mcquaid.org) was the category winner. The other finalists were Penfield Central School District (penfield.edu) and Rochester College Access Network (rochestercan.org).

Health care
Carestream Health’s Ascend website (carestream.com/expedition) won the category. The other finalists were myROChealth (myrochealth.com) and Helendale Dermatology & Medical Spa (helendaledermatology.com).

Human services
Bivona Child Advocacy Center (bivonacac.org) won the category. The other finalists were East House (easthouse.org) and NeighborWorks Rochester (nwrochester.org).

Manufacturing
Newtex Industries Inc. (newtex.com) was the winner in this category. The other finalists were Eastman Kodak Co. (kodak.com) and Rochester Optical (rochesteroptical.com).

Real estate and construction
LeFrois Builders LLC (lefrois.com) won the category. The other finalists were Concept II (concept-ii.com) and Hamilton Stern Construction LLC (hamiltonstern.com).

Retail
Karma Culture LLC (drinkkarma.com) won the category. The other finalists were Carrie’s (gocarries.com) and Iron Smoke Whiskey (ironsmokewhiskey.com).

Tourism/hospitality
Visit Rochester (visitrochester.com) received the award in this category. The other finalists were Grappa (grapparoc.com) and Strathallan (strathallan.com).

Best mobile site
City Blue Imaging Services, a dba of City Blue Print Company Inc., (cityblueimaging.com) won the category. The other finalists were Eastman School of Music (esm.rochester.edu) and Embark Craft Ciderworks (Embarkcraftciderworks.com).

This year, the competition added three new awards: best app, designer of the year and digital developer of the year.

ESL Federal Credit Union won for best app, Brittani Riley of Archer Communications Inc. was named designer of the year, and Jon Potter of Dwaiter Design was the competition’s digital developer of the year.

Roberts Communications Inc. won this year’s Buzz Award, given to the business that creates the best social media buzz. The award is determined by online votes of the general public.

The event also featured the Business Transformation Award, handed out by Digital Rochester. Crazy Dog T-shirts (crazydogtshirts.com) won the award. The other finalists were Cam’s Pizzeria (camspizziera.com) and Golisano Children’s Hospital (urmc.rochester.edu/childrens-hospital).

Readers submitted nearly 200 nominations for the 2016 competition. A panel of judges selected by the newspaper evaluated the finalists based on content, usefulness, navigability, use of technology, design quality, e-commerce and likelihood of repeat visits. (The judges’ comments are at go.rbj.net/2016bestoftheweb.)

The competition was sponsored by Dixon Schwabl Inc. and Time Warner Cable Business Class.

4/22/2016 (c) 2016 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or email [email protected].