What does an event planning company do during a global pandemic? Well, you reminisce a lot about all the past events and quickly forget about sore feet and aching backs and all those crazy event hours! We also finally found some time to enter a few of our events for award competitions for the first time ever!
One of our favorite resources to turn to for event inspiration, ideas, trends and news is BizBash. Each year they hold their annual BizBash Event Style Awards, with categories ranging from Best Event Décor to Best Press Event to Best Event Concept to name a few. This year, they expanded the awards to include categories under Best Events of the last Decade. After much research and review of our events, we decided to submit two events – one corporate event under Best Event Concept for Corporate Event – Budget Under $250,000 and one non-profit event under the Best Events of the Decade for Best Event Concept.
The submission process included several pages to fill out including general event info, the goals and purpose of the event and then, how you reached and exceeded those goals, along with client testimonials, pictures and videos. We submitted our nominations to BizBash in October and then went back to some pandemic-friendly event planning for one of our corporate clients.
In late January, I came across an email in my junk folder announcing that we were a finalist for one of our event submissions – the Columbia Public Schools Foundation 20th Anniversary Event “Under the Stars” for Best Events of the Decade, Best Event Concept – Budget Under $250,000.
We were invited to attend a virtual awards show announcing the winners in February. As we looked further into the information sent and who we were competing against, we realized that this was a really big deal. We were one of three finalists in our category!
Best Nonprofit Event Concept—Budget Under $250,000
CanWaCH Canada Pavilion
Submitted by ConnectSeven Group & Canadian Partnership for Women and Children’s Health (CanWaCH)
Columbia Public Schools Foundation “Under the Stars” 20th Anniversary Celebration
Submitted by KMC Events
The Humane Society of the United States’ “To The Rescue!” New York Gala 2019
Submitted by Eventique
On the day of the big virtual awards show, the KMC team Zoomed together to watch. The show was filled with various speakers, case studies, entertainment and announcements of the winners of the various categories throughout the four-hour program. We waited and waited for our category… and similar to the Oscars, we realized that ours was one of four final awards to be announced at the end. In the end, we were not the winner — the award went to Eventique for the United States Humane Society “To The Rescue” gala. Regardless, there were some impactful realizations made that day:
- We do really good work and can stand up against the best in the industry!
- We have an awesome team that works hard.
- We pull off amazing events for our clients here in mid-Missouri that are innovative and cutting edge.
- We make a difference and contribute to the success of our clients.
On a personal level, though, through all of this and this pandemic year, I returned to my WHY of doing what I do. I love being creative, brainstorming event concepts, thinking through the details and flow of people, watching an idea on paper come to life, and working with different clients on different goals. It’s all in the details – and I love it!
KMC Events is proud to celebrate our work and as we move forward this year, we remain grateful for our clients and look forward to celebrating again soon.