Six months ago, I was preparing for a trip to New York to accept my first Stevie® Award for Women in Business. So it’s a bit surreal to see my name in the finalist column once again for yet another prestigious Stevie Award, except this time, it’s for Communications or PR Campaign/Program of the Year – Reputation/Brand Management.
For this Stevie Award, also known as the American Business Award (ABA), there is no special female designation. I’m competing with the big girls and boys, and it feels great! I’m nominated for my team’s work on Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade’s Campaign: Reinventing a 73-Year Tradition.
A little background on how Durée & Company made the cut again: In the ABA system of judging, all entries that receive an average score of at least 7.0 out of 10 in the preliminary round of judging become finalists, regardless of category, and are eligible to be included in final judging. The number of finalists in a category is a general reflection of the number of entries in a category. This year, roughly 35 percent of the more than 3,200 nominations considered became finalists.
Finalists were determined by the average scores provided by more than 140 executives over five weeks of judging in April and May.
Although this is the second time I’ve been nominated for an ABA award, it’s a “first” in this category and at this level. This is definitely becoming a year of “firsts” for Durée & Company – first time being honored as one of the “100 Outstanding Women of Broward County” by Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, first time being featured with my daughter on the cover of South Florida Parenting Magazine, and first time opening a new office.
Juggling a growing list of clients, fantastic partnerships, a great team and all of these “firsts” is making 2013 a memorable – and exciting/exhausting/never-boring – year, to say the least. But now, I get to add a trip to Chicago for the ABA banquet on June 17 to the “to-do” list, and I couldn’t be happier.
See you in the Windy City!