Elaine Sarsynski says she worked on the family vegetable farm in Hadley until she graduated from college — and she has the biceps to prove it.

WestMass Area Development Corp., which marked 50 years of existence this past spring, and is making note of that milestone at ceremonies in October.

Recent statistics show that the Bay State is outpacing the nation when it comes to job creation and economic expansion since the recession officially ended roughly a year ago.

Anderson, a mechanical engineer by trade and formerly a consulting engineer before coming to MassMutual in 2006, has made the trek up to the roof repeatedly over the past several months as work to design and install the solar installations has been completed.

Indeed, while he would like to say that there will always be hockey in Springfield, he knows he can’t really use that phrase with any degree of confidence. “I always like to remain optimistic that we can put something together and remain here long-term, but there are simply no guarantees anymore,” he said, noting that the hockey landscape has changed considerably over the past three decades and especially the past several years, and the challenges to existence, especially in what is now considered a small market, are mounting.

The recently initiated work to build a data center at the site of the former Technical High School in Springfield is unique in that the façade of the 105-year-old building will be incorporated into the design of the $110 million facility.

Shardool Parmar calls it a “fixer-upper — of sorts.” That’s how he described what is now known as the City Place Inn & Suites — formerly named the Inn Place, and known throughout most of its existence as a Holiday Inn — on Dwight Street in Springfield.

Tim Brennan says the Plan for Progress, the comprehensive regional strategic economic plan for Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties, receives a major overhaul every 10 years; the last one came in 2004, a decade after the plan was originally drafted.

The two partners said Viz-Bang is off to a solid start, with growth coming slowly and surely. They have been actively engaged in building awareness of their company, products, and services.

Russ Denver has a number of vivid memories from his ascent last December to base camp at Mount Everest, some 17,500 or so feet above sea level.

Massachusetts’ greatest natural resource is its stock of 535,000 college and graduate-school students. Human capital brings the ideas and entrepreneurship needed for regional success

Rudi Scherff started washing dishes at the Student Prince restaurant, then co-owned by his father, Rupprecht, when he was 12 years old. This means that, among many other things, he has a half-century’s worth of perspective on downtown Springfield.

There are a number of intriguing initiatives underway to help grow and strengthen the region’s precision-manufacturing sector — everything from a project involving UMass Amherst that will drive innovation, to a conference this fall aimed at spotlighting this sector and keeping business in this region.

A renaissance is taking place in downtown Greenfield. Old, vacant buildings are being completely renovated, and new retail, office, and living space, and a performing-arts center, are being created.

As part of Bay Path’s commitment to providing students with a career-focused education, the college has been fine-tuning its entrepreneurial academics on all levels, with offerings from graduate programs all the way to summer sessions for area high-school girls.

His destination this time was New Hampshire and several of the Yankee Candle stores there. Kent, who became CEO of the company last fall, does this often. He talks to the people who run the stores, and he talks to customers. The goal is the same: to find out if the store in question is providing the kind of products, services, and experience that the corporation demands of each outlet.

Eric Snyder, director of the Greater Easthampton Chamber of Commerce, said there is still some manufacturing in the city of just around 16,000. “Physically, we are not a big community, so any new industry wouldn’t have access to a large footprint,” he explained. “So that asks the question of how do we get the smaller-scaled businesses in.”

Lewis Kiesler was talking about how the hotel industry has fared since the economy crashed and how it has affected leisure travel.

Cindy Johnson has much to do these days as she goes about creating some long-term stability for the family business started by her father, Fran, 35 years ago.

Lisa McMahon agrees. “The most wonderful thing about Westfield is its community spirit,” said the executive director of the Westfield Business Improvement District.

When the economy improves and states have more flexibility in their budgets, Massachusetts and Connecticut have to get serious about properly funding the corridor, because the numbers do, indeed, jump off the page when you show them to people. By themselves, the Hartford and Springfield metropolitan areas do not exactly stand out with site selectors, largely because neither one cracks the magic 1 million mark when it comes to population or workforce.

Manufacturers in Western Mass. are skilled at putting the pieces together, so to speak, to create countless products. But they haven’t been as effective making connections amongst each other.