POTSDAM -- SUNY Potsdam's one-of-a-kind virtual tour, www.virtualtour.potsdam.edu, has received top honors as Best of Category in Electronic Communications and Interactive Media at the SUNYCUAD awards ceremony in Saratoga Springs.

The online tour was recognized for its unique and dynamic interface as well as the creative and clean design allowing anyone in the world to get a flavor for SUNY Potsdam's location, people and programs.

The SUNY Council for University Advancement Awards for Excellence are distributed each year at the annual conference to SUNY institutions exhibiting the best work in marketing, media and development. "It is amazing for Potsdam to be recognized amongst her peer institutions as a leader in creative online environments," said Director of Web Communications Mindy Thompson who managed the virtual tour project for the College.

"The tour is a direct result of the creative campus environment at SUNY Potsdam," said Director of Marketing Deborah Dudley, "we are always looking for unique forms of expression and communication in how we show people who we are and what we are about."

Designed like a flow chart with bubbles representing various aspects of campus, the tour allows students to connect to the information they're seeking-including photos of Potsdam people and videos about what makes the campus a dynamic learning environment. Every user gets a different experience tailored to his or her interests.

With each click, the virtual tour expands into a growing, interconnected web, showing the wealth of possibilities available at SUNY Potsdam as well as how close-knit the campus is. The tour allows visitors to drag information of interest to a dock and save it to revisit later or to share through e-mail postcards with their friends and family.

"We realized that we had to go beyond maps and photos of buildings, because it's the people that tell the story of Potsdam best," Dudley said. "We also wanted to allow the visitors to guide themselves through their areas of interest and explore the cross-disciplinary nature of the College."

"There is no substitute for a real visit to campus," said Tom Nesbitt, director of admissions. "The online environment will be a great way for families to confirm that SUNY Potsdam really is worth the trip. When students come here they have a chance to meet the professors, other students and get a sense of how they could succeed here. That is critical to the process of selecting the right college for you."

The tour design was developed by the in-house Public Affairs team at SUNY Potsdam and built with the assistance of the Maryland-based IDFive Informed Design firm, which also collaborated with the College on the institution's award-winning website redesign in 2008.

To check SUNY Potsdam's new virtual tour out for yourself, visit www.virtualtour.potsdam.edu.