by Meredith Kinder

It started off with a social hour, complete with adult beverages and a slide show of past competitions judges' meetings and awards banquets. It then turned to a scrumptious Chicken Palermo entree and Preston Pie dessert. After stuffing ourselves with fellowship and food, Ann-Marie Grissino kicked off the 2007 Carolina Chapter awards banquet ceremony by welcoming everyone and thanking them for coming. As the competitions committee manager, Ann-Marie presented stats on past competitions and updated us on the stats for this year, which included 28 technical publications entries, 15 online publications entries, and 5 technical art entries.

Ann-Marie then turned the program over to Larry Kunz, the current Carolina Chapter president. Larry recognized Cindy Rickardson Decker and Meredith Blackwelder Kinder by awarding them the Distinguished Chapter Service Award.


Larry turned the program back over to Ann-Marie, who presented the online publication awards. There were two distinguished awards, five excellence awards, and four merit awards.

This year, Dan Sayre, Dean Sheets, and Leanne Underkoffler from American Research Institute (ARI) won the best of show award for their online training/tutorial, Anritsu Line Sweeping Course. As tradition has it, the best of show winner gave a presentation on their entry. Dan and Dean showcased their work and wowed us all with their creative and detail-oriented design and implementation.

Larry then presented the technical publication awards. There were three distinguished awards, 12 excellence awards, and eight merit awards. The best of show award was given to Coastal Heritage magazine for the second straight year. The submitters, Susan Ferris Hill, John H. Tibbetts, and Carl Turner, of South Carolina Sea Grant, were unable to attend the banquet.

Larry then turned over the podium to Sheila Loring, who presented the technical art awards. There were two distinguished awards, one excellence award, and one merit award.
The best of show award was given to the BÖWE BELL + HOWELL BCS Premium Mailing, an entry in the Promotional Materials Design category. Matt Kustka and Amanda MacDowell, from BOWE BELL + HOWELL, and Sherry Wells, from BP Studios, received the award. Matt and Amanda gave a brief presentation describing how they created the piece and the incredible 70% response rate they received from the customers who were sent the mailing.



Betsy Kent gave out door prizes (chocolates, a gift certificate for a wine tasting event, and an ornamental plant) to lucky attendees and balloon bouquets to the best of show winners.

Before leaving, attendees browsed a collection of entries and had the opportunity to chat with the Best of Show winners.

Please browse the collection of photos from this banquet, as well as past banquets, at http://www.stc-carolina.org/tiki-browse_gallery.php?galleryId=5.

Meredith can be reached at meredith dot kinder at sas dot com.