HUNTINGTON -- Anne Durham is meeting a lot of new people and hearing from folks she hasn't talked to in years.

The buzz of activity started right about the time that her company, Mountainside Media, opened at a new location in downtown Huntington. They put their sign up at 1009 5th Ave. in December, and the phone started ringing.

"It's funny that we've been here for 15 years and some people have found out about us for the first time," she said. "Moving to downtown Huntington was huge. The phone started ringing, and e-mails started coming in from people I haven't talked to in a long time. It's been a great move for us."

Mountainside Media provides communications services such as video production, Web site design and graphic design, primarily for social sector organizations, such as nonprofits and higher education institutions. It just produced a YouTube segment for one of its clients, Durham said.

"It's always something new these days," she said.

It recently opened a new division, BizGigs, which will offer complete meeting logistics services, including planning, meeting facilitation, audiovisual support and other needs for groups of all sizes.

One of its clients is Autism Services in Huntington. It has worked with Mountainside Media for several years and has been impressed with the videos the company has done. One of the videos was honored by the Autism Society of America.

"I have nothing but accolades for the work they've done for us, how they throw themselves emotionally and technically into the work they do," said Autism Services CEO Mike Grady.

Another client is TEAM for West Virginia Children.

"As a nonprofit organization with a limited budget, we have found the services of Mountainside Media to be reasonably priced," Laurie McKeown of the organization said. "Even more importantly, their work is not just high-quality public relations. Their staff is engaged in moving the human services field to a new level of messaging aimed at affecting real change."

Mountainside Media's staff is a small group, mostly family. Durham's husband, Byron Durham, does video production. Her sister in-law, Jenny Lancaster, is business manager, and brother John Lancaster is Web designer. Other employees are project managers Deborah Hancock and Monica Donohoe.

The back story for this small, family-owned company goes back 15 years to Lavalette.

"We started in Lavalette in our home -- me, my husband and my sister," Anne Durham said. They sat back-to-back in a room so small that when one person needed to come or go, everybody had to stand up, she said.

The company then bought a small house off 5th Street Road near the Ace Hardware store, and stayed there for about a year. It relocated to Pleasant Valley Drive for several years and moved downtown at the end of last year.

"I think Huntington has really grown, and there are more opportunities here than there were before," Durham said. "Our client base has always been out of town and out of state, and that has changed. We've started doing things for people in the city as well as outside the city.

"We really wanted to be part of the growth of Huntington and thought that bringing a creative agency would help continue to energize the growth of downtown. It's really exciting."

The business is having an open house from noon to 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12. Regular hours are 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekdays.

For more information about Mountainside Media, visit www.mountainsidemedia.com.

AP Video

Lori Wolfe/The Herald-Dispatch

Graphic designer Laura Gregory, left, and company president Anne Durham work on a discussion guide on Friday at Mountainside Media located at 1009 5th Ave. in Huntington.

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