Public Invited To Watch The Chamber Awards Thursday
February 27, 2021 at 12:41 a.m.
Public Invited To Watch The Chamber Awards Thursday
By David [email protected]
Businesses are encouraged to have watch parties for the event, which debuts at 3 p.m. Thursday.
“Historically, the Chamber of Commerce, in accordance with our bylaws, has to have a membership report done in the first quarter. And we ask, in our bylaws, that 10% of our membership attend that meeting. So, this year, getting 10% of our membership – we could probably do that, but most of our annual dinners, at least over the past five years, we’ve had close to 500 people or over that and, under the current guidelines from the governor and CDC, we would be hard pressed to be able to pull off an annual dinner with the amount of people that want to attend,” Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker explained in a recent interview.
Even with the restrictions in place, the Chamber still needs to get its membership report out in the first quarter, so it’ll do that virtually.
“But that does not mean that we’re not going to do some sort of event this year when people have taken the vaccine, been immunized and we can see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, which, I’m thankful to say we’re getting really close to that,” Parker said.
For the awards ceremony aspect of the event, instead of a live video conference, the Chamber decided to videotape everything and splice it together like a television show.
“So this will be a produced video. It shouldn’t be more than an hour long and it will include videos of individuals in the community, what they’ve went through, their struggles, their successes, and then we have the whole section on the business awards and the individual awards that the Chamber gives out,” Parker said.
He said he was “so proud” of the people in the community who have stepped up and have done amazing things in the past year.
“We just really don’t want to lose sight of that aspect of that annual dinner. So we don’t want to delay that, we want to get it out, we want to make sure people are aware of the companies in our community, and the individuals, that just make this community a place that I think all of us are proud to live in, a place we are proud to call home,” Parker stated.
Lauren Klusman, marketing and communications manager for the Chamber, is putting the video together for the virtual event. Parker said she is “super talented” with video.
“We’re so blessed to have her on staff,” he said. “So she’s doing all the video work, putting it all together.”
Parker said the Chamber hopes everyone watches the annual awards when the event debuts at 3 p.m. Thursday.
“Just because there’s people there you’ll recognize, you’ll know, including the prestigious Woman and Man of the Year Awards,” he said.
The Woman and Man of the Year Awards are sponsored by the Times-Union and 1st Source Bank, respectively.
Once the video is played, anyone will be able to access it at any time.
“We’re going to try to make it a big event through Facebook Live and our YouTube channel, and other ways people can access it,” Parker said, but noting that 3 p.m. Thursday is when it’ll first go online. “We encourage businesses to have watch parties. Kind of see who has been nominated, who won, and especially for the Man and Woman of the Year, it’ll be a complete surprise.”
What will be fun this year, he said, is how some of the videotaping was done.
“People don’t know who have won yet, so as we do some candid videography, it’ll be a surprise to them. So they’ll be amazed and shocked that they won the award. Their emotions will be very close to the surface, which is something that is really cool when we announce that – the Man and Woman of the Year. Every time somebody has tears in their eyes, and it’s such a great feeling to see people appreciate that award so much,” Parker said.
It’ll be just like the Oscars.
“We want to make it a good show, and we’ve done that really well in our annual dinner. So it’s disappointing that we can’t do that. I can’t say that enough,” Parker said.
An event later this year will bring the award winners back on stage and plug next year’s event.
“I want to find a way that we can really celebrate with first responders and the healthcare workers. A fun event, that they can come to, perhaps some food and music, and if it’s part of this, I don’t know (yet),” he said, adding that it’s early in the planning stages.
Parker encouraged everyone to watch the annual awards presentation, which is free because of the “gracious sponsorship of our partners,” he said.
The virtual (main) sponsors are Lake City Bank, 1st Source Bank, Silveus Insurance Group, 212 Media, Robinson Construction, Warsaw Buick GMC, Grace College and Seminary, Core Mechanical Services Inc. and Wildman.
There’s also the award sponsors and the Silver sponsors. The Silver sponsors are the table sponsors. “So when the time comes that we can come together, everybody who has been a sponsor has already bought their ticket and will already be invited to that event and they won’t have to spend any extra,” Parker said.
People can register for Thursday’s event using the following link and the direct link to the video will be emailed to them if they register at https://tinyurl.com/kchamberawards.
Businesses are encouraged to have watch parties for the event, which debuts at 3 p.m. Thursday.
“Historically, the Chamber of Commerce, in accordance with our bylaws, has to have a membership report done in the first quarter. And we ask, in our bylaws, that 10% of our membership attend that meeting. So, this year, getting 10% of our membership – we could probably do that, but most of our annual dinners, at least over the past five years, we’ve had close to 500 people or over that and, under the current guidelines from the governor and CDC, we would be hard pressed to be able to pull off an annual dinner with the amount of people that want to attend,” Chamber President and CEO Rob Parker explained in a recent interview.
Even with the restrictions in place, the Chamber still needs to get its membership report out in the first quarter, so it’ll do that virtually.
“But that does not mean that we’re not going to do some sort of event this year when people have taken the vaccine, been immunized and we can see that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, which, I’m thankful to say we’re getting really close to that,” Parker said.
For the awards ceremony aspect of the event, instead of a live video conference, the Chamber decided to videotape everything and splice it together like a television show.
“So this will be a produced video. It shouldn’t be more than an hour long and it will include videos of individuals in the community, what they’ve went through, their struggles, their successes, and then we have the whole section on the business awards and the individual awards that the Chamber gives out,” Parker said.
He said he was “so proud” of the people in the community who have stepped up and have done amazing things in the past year.
“We just really don’t want to lose sight of that aspect of that annual dinner. So we don’t want to delay that, we want to get it out, we want to make sure people are aware of the companies in our community, and the individuals, that just make this community a place that I think all of us are proud to live in, a place we are proud to call home,” Parker stated.
Lauren Klusman, marketing and communications manager for the Chamber, is putting the video together for the virtual event. Parker said she is “super talented” with video.
“We’re so blessed to have her on staff,” he said. “So she’s doing all the video work, putting it all together.”
Parker said the Chamber hopes everyone watches the annual awards when the event debuts at 3 p.m. Thursday.
“Just because there’s people there you’ll recognize, you’ll know, including the prestigious Woman and Man of the Year Awards,” he said.
The Woman and Man of the Year Awards are sponsored by the Times-Union and 1st Source Bank, respectively.
Once the video is played, anyone will be able to access it at any time.
“We’re going to try to make it a big event through Facebook Live and our YouTube channel, and other ways people can access it,” Parker said, but noting that 3 p.m. Thursday is when it’ll first go online. “We encourage businesses to have watch parties. Kind of see who has been nominated, who won, and especially for the Man and Woman of the Year, it’ll be a complete surprise.”
What will be fun this year, he said, is how some of the videotaping was done.
“People don’t know who have won yet, so as we do some candid videography, it’ll be a surprise to them. So they’ll be amazed and shocked that they won the award. Their emotions will be very close to the surface, which is something that is really cool when we announce that – the Man and Woman of the Year. Every time somebody has tears in their eyes, and it’s such a great feeling to see people appreciate that award so much,” Parker said.
It’ll be just like the Oscars.
“We want to make it a good show, and we’ve done that really well in our annual dinner. So it’s disappointing that we can’t do that. I can’t say that enough,” Parker said.
An event later this year will bring the award winners back on stage and plug next year’s event.
“I want to find a way that we can really celebrate with first responders and the healthcare workers. A fun event, that they can come to, perhaps some food and music, and if it’s part of this, I don’t know (yet),” he said, adding that it’s early in the planning stages.
Parker encouraged everyone to watch the annual awards presentation, which is free because of the “gracious sponsorship of our partners,” he said.
The virtual (main) sponsors are Lake City Bank, 1st Source Bank, Silveus Insurance Group, 212 Media, Robinson Construction, Warsaw Buick GMC, Grace College and Seminary, Core Mechanical Services Inc. and Wildman.
There’s also the award sponsors and the Silver sponsors. The Silver sponsors are the table sponsors. “So when the time comes that we can come together, everybody who has been a sponsor has already bought their ticket and will already be invited to that event and they won’t have to spend any extra,” Parker said.
People can register for Thursday’s event using the following link and the direct link to the video will be emailed to them if they register at https://tinyurl.com/kchamberawards.
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092