event recap: CBC Magazine’s Connectors Choice Awards

Team PIP had some serious double booking issues on Wednesday, February 23rd. Luckily, we’re getting pretty good at juggling our schedule and managed to make it to two exciting events in Cleveland that evening.

First up, we headed downtown to the House of Blues for the 4th Annual Connectors Choice Awards:

(picture source)

From the CBC Magazine website: Presented by Cleveland Business Connects (CBC) magazine, the Connectors Choice Awards (CCA) is an annual awards presentation that is dedicated to recognizing the best and brightest individuals and groups that represent the local corporate event-planning industry as well as the professional networking community.

I was honored to be a finalist in the Rising Star category for this year’s CAAs. What’s the qualifications for being a “Rising Star” you ask? The Rising Star Connectors Choice Award will be presented to an individual event industry professional who has been in the event industry for five years or less, showing great promise of becoming an industry leader or major player in the years to come.

I was so excited just to be selected and I really had no expectations to win. My expectations for the event including seeing old friends (including Twitter folk @rft3 and @divabling) and meeting some new ones (including @TheEventsGuru). After a Cajun style dinner, the awards presentation got going and by the time it was over, I had one of these:

I WON!  With nothing prepared, I managed to put together an acceptance speech before walking dumbfoundedly back to my seat. I was shocked. I still am! The next thing I knew, my good friend and event planning diva Deb Hermann (@divabling) won Best Corporate Event Planner! I’m so proud of her and am grateful for her friendship and fabulousness!

The entire list of winners can be found on the CBC Magazine website. Overall, the event was a nice mix of fun, food and networking. Stop by the CBC Magazine Facebook page for more coverage and photos. I’m not going to lie – it’s always nice to attend an event and not have to worry about planning it!

I am so incredibly thankful for being chosen as CBC Magazine’s Rising Star for 2010 by all those who voted – that includes many members of the PIP readership, so thank you!

With award in hand, we walked back to our car – still on a high from such a surprise. We knew we wanted to celebrate and our second half of the night was the perfect place to do that. A recap of the latest Emerging Chefs event is on the way! SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO!