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Click for larger photo
Massachusetts State Senator
Bruce Tarr (left) awards
Peter Van Ness an official
Citation commending the
Grand Opening Festival
at Cruiseport Gloucester

Selected Press Releases

Van Ness Group Launches New Official Visitor Website for the City of Gloucester, MA
February 28, 2011
With stunning visuals, expanded listings, a highly intuitive interface and search feature, the new content-rich GloucesterMA.com was built by Peter and Vickie Van Ness. The new site looks and works great on all smart phones. See full story and listen to pod-cast here.

Van Ness Group Produces Celebrate Gloucester
September 5, 2010
On Labor Day Sunday 2010, Van Ness Group produced a highly successful festival on a 2 acre waterfront parcel purchased in May by the City of Gloucester (see newspaper story) and raised $15,000 for charity (see story about the charities).

Van Ness Group Client Featured by Mass High Tech
March 9, 2010
Mass High Tech features Van Ness Group client Udine4Less.com as one of their Five High Tech Companies You Should Follow. (see Mass High Tech listing here)

Peter Van Ness Quoted as Expert in Pew Studies
February 19. 2010
Pew Internet's newest Future of the Internet Study was released in February 2010. For the third time, our founder, Peter Van Ness, was asked to participate. Among others writings, his thoughs on the question Is Google Making us Stupid are published here.

Gloucester's Downtown Block Parties a Huge Success
September 23, 2009
Gloucester Daily Times praises the spectacularly successful second year of Gloucester's Block Parties and recognizes Peter and Vickie Van Ness as two of the founders. See editorial here.

August 19, 2008
Van Ness Group co-founded and co-produced music for Downtown Gloucester's wildly successful Block Party on August 16th.
(see newspaper story here)

Peter Van Ness chairs first Board of Trustees ever to be awarded a public school charter in Gloucester, MA
May 7, 2009
Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester officially handed the charter to the Peter Van Ness, chair of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School Board of Trustees in a ceremony hosted by Boston Preparatory Charter Public School. Commissioner Chester also read a proclamation from Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick proclaiming May 4-10, 2009 Charter School Week (see photo).

Van Ness Group launches New Music Pipeline
April 1, 2009
As managing partners of Legal Music, LLC., Vickie and Peter Van Ness officially launch gimmesound.com the New Music Pipeline™ featuring independent artists in over 80 musical genres from over 50 countries. See press from gimmesound.com.


Van Ness Group Announces
Rhythms & Flavours Summer Extravaganza
June 2, 2008
Van Ness Group is producing a free concert in Gloucester, MA on September 7, 2008 featuring Henri Smith Friends and Flavours with special guest Allen Estes, The Runaround, Brazilian DJ Adriano and an exclusive appearance by Gerald The Giant French.
(see newspaper story here)

Cape Ann TV Launches Web Site
February 21, 2008
Van Ness Group launches a Web site introducing the new Cape Ann TV. See story here.

Travel Web Sites Celebrate Season's Success
February 15, 2008
The Cape Ann and Rockport Massachusetts chambers of commerce announced spectacular results for their award-winning Web properties built and promoted by Van Ness Group in an article published in the Cape Ann Beacon. Read it here.

Massachusetts State Senate Honors Peter Van Ness
Summer 2007
The Massachusetts State senate recognized Peter Van Ness with an official citation commending his work producing Celebrate Gloucester and promoting the grand opening festival for the city's first cruise ship terminal on May 25, 2007 see photo.

Van Ness Group Produces Major Events
By harnessing the power of the new media combined with age-old production, marketing and PR techniques, Van Ness Group produces and promotes major events with remarkable success.

The Souls of the Sea World Premier Musical was extremely well received and attended on August 16th through 19th 2007. See Gloucester Daily Times Review. Written by Frank Tedesco with music by award-winning, national recording artist Allen Estes, the play explores the love, loss, triumph and the 10,000 Gloucester fishermen lost at sea.

American Idol Finalist Ayla Brown came to Gloucester, MA Saturday August 11, 2007 with national recording star Fly Amero of Orleans, award winning singer/songwriter Allen Estes and multi-platinum guitarist David Brown for a Concert from the Heart to benefit those in need of heart transplants (raised over $30,000.00) and to raise awareness of the need for blood and organ donation.

Cruiseport Grand Opening Festival a Resounding Success
Van Ness Group produced Celebrate Gloucester a highly acclaimed waterfront music and arts festival celebrating Gloucester's maritime and arts heritage and the grand opening of the city's first cruise ship terminal on Memorial Day Weekend, 2007. We heavily promoted the city of Gloucester, MA home to America's oldest seaport and art colony.
Web Launches and Marketing Campaigns

Rockport Website Caters to Busy People
Rockport, MA — August 16, 2006
(Reprinted by permission of Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce.
See full article See full article here.)

"Finding the perfect places to stay, relax, and enjoy exciting activities in the historic seaside community of Rockport, Massachusetts just got a lot faster and easier. The Rockport Chamber of Commerce ... unveiled www.rockportusa.com, their powerful new travel website, built by veteran Web developers, Van Ness Group."
...
"Using highly intuitive, color-coded icons, powerful keyword searching and plenty of tips and help, site visitors can easily find accommodations that match specific desires, such as beachfront, pool, waterfront, fireplace, handicap and Internet access. Budget minded travelers can sort by price, while sun worshippers can sort by distance from the beach."

Colette Phillips Communications Launches Second Edition of Kaleidoscope
Boston, MA — March 16, 2006
Colette Phillips Communications, Boston’s premier diversity marketing communications firm, launched a new version of Kaleidoscope - Greater Boston’s multicultural network. The Web site has been completely overhauled by Van Ness Group and early reaction has been extremely positive.

CapeAnnVacations.com tops Google list
and Receives Record Number of Visitors
Gloucester, MA — July 7, 2005
(originally reported in the
 Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce Newsletter)

Less than a month after launch of the new CapeAnnVacations.com on June 10, 2005, it has climbed to the top of Google listings for travel related terms, and on July 3, 2005 received over 3 times the number of visits it was typically receiving before its renovation. This is the first step in an on-going Web promotional campaign managed by Van Ness Group.

Internationally Recognized Experts
Our senior management are internationally recognized experts, invited often to speak on a number of topics, including user interface design, dynamic database Web applications, Web promotion & marketing and how to be a successful entrepreneur.

Internet Evolution
In the fall of 2004, the Pew Internet & American Life Project asked a select group of Internet experts from around the world to comment on the evolution of the Internet and to make predictions for the Future.

Participants included people from Internet2, Microsoft, Oracle, RAND, AOL, IBM, the FBI, the FCC; Stanford, the University of California at Berkeley, Harvard, and many other top universities; the Mayo Clinic, SBC, AT&T, Gartner, Jupitermedia and Van Ness Group. (See participant bios here.)

Results of the survey were published on January 10, 2005 (see it here), which include several thought-provoking predictions by our president and CEO, Peter Van Ness, on how the Internet will continue to shape our lives -- from social networks, families and health care systems to politics and the democratic processes. Peter's hopes for the future of the Internet are also included.

Consciousness, Business and User Interface Design
In October, 2002, the Association of Internet Researchers invited our CEO (Peter Van Ness) and CFO (Vickie Van Ness) along with The Rev. Dr. John H. Van Ness to form a panel to explore The Internet and the New Transformation of Consciousness at their third annual international conference in Maastricht, The Netherlands.

Prominent scholars, researchers, and practitioners from 43 countries came together to explore what we have learned about the Internet and on how to apply what we know theoretically in practice.

Speaking from the stage of the same auditorium in which European heads of state met to form the Treaty of Maastricht, our panel presented a creative demonstration, consisting of a multimedia presentation, hundreds of live Web examples and three research papers on the Internet and Consciousness, the Changing Workplace and Intuitive User Interface Design for Men and Women

Click here to read the papers.

Click here to inquire about having one of us speak or present a creative demonstration at your organization or conference.

In 1998, our CEO, Peter Van Ness, predicted that within 5 years time every business would either have a Web site or wish they did. People snickered.


In 2004, Peter was asked by the Pew Internet & American Life Project to be part of an elite group of Internet experts and share his predictions for the future of the Internet.
see predictions here

After 10 years of accurate predictions, Peter was asked to participate in more Pew surveys.
See 2004 predictions here.
See 2008 predictions here.
See 2010 predictions here.

Click for larger photo
Mass. Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester (left) hands Peter Van Ness the charter for the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School
L-R John, Vickie, Peter Van Ness
L-R: John, Vickie & Peter
Van Ness on the auditorium
stage, MECC Congress Centre
Maastricht, NL October 2002