Archive for the ‘Esprit Award’Category

Eventworld 2008


The Renaissance Vinoy Resort in St. Petersburg, Florida was the host hotel for ISES Eventworld 2008 on August 21-23.

What a blast! Hundreds of ISES members from around the globe attended EW this year, and experienced a variety of educational offerings, networking opportunities and well-deserved recognition for their work.

As I mentioned last week, I was really excited about this conference for a number of reasons… For starters, this was my first time attending Eventworld, and I was looking forward to catching up with old friends and making new acquaintances. Not to mention that I was all hyped up about the Esprit Awards and the Spirit of Excellence Awards. In addition to that, the Vinoy is one of my all time favorite hotels! It’s a historic hotel (c. 1925) that boasts beautiful views of the St. Pete Pier and waterfront, incredible cuisine and luxurious amenities (like fabulously comfy beds!)

Well, unfortunately, our “Gala at the Grove” ( 2007 ABC Gala) event did not garner the coveted Esprit Award – but we are still happy that our event and team received worldwide recognition as nominees, and it was truly an honor to be in such distinguished company. And sadly (sigh) despite our best efforts, our Orlando Chapter did not take home a Spirit of Excellence Award… Yet, we are quite proud that Orlando’s own David DeLoach was sworn in as President of ISES International. (This marks the third time that a Past-President from the ISES Orlando Chapter has served as International President.)

Following the Esprit Awards on Saturday evening, we enjoyed a fabulous dinner reception in the Vinoy Grand Ballroom. You can see from the photos that the ballroom decor had a whimsical & elegant black and white theme, and the lighting was quite stunning. I had the good fortune of sharing this event experience with my friend and associate Kerline Doctuer PBC. And to our delight, we were seated alongside Sasha Souza MBC – an accomplished and well respected member of both ISES and ABC. Sasha spoke candidly with Kerline and I about many issues that we face as planners, blogging and her involvement as Events Chairperson with The SEARCH Foundation (Special Events Assistance & Resources with a Caring Heart). (Perhaps more on Sasha in a future post…)

All in all, it was a wonderful conference, and an especially memorable evening.

© 2008 E. Delgardio All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of Elisa Delgardio. Shown: Eddie Diaz, Christine Logan, J. Michael Hicks, Awny Khashoggi, Richard Streitler, Kerline Doctuer

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08 2008

ISES – Orlando Chapter Installation at Isleworth & Eventworld

Exciting stuff to mention regarding ISES happenings!

On July 18th I attended the ISES Orlando Chapter Installation event at Isleworth Country Club. (ICC is truly one of my favorite venues… but I digress… )

The Installation event was lovely and dinner was wonderful. I was proud to be inducted to my second term as a Director at Large. I will continue working on the Programs and Education team and focus on arranging the educational content for our monthly meetings. I’m really looking forward to this year! Our team achieved some amazing things over the course of the last year, especially with regard to the “Class of 2008″ meeting series concept, and the level of excitement in our Chapter is really high!

Elisa with ISES Board Members & friends,
Eddie Diaz & Michele Philips-Bruno
As a matter of fact, this week many of us are headed to Eventworld 2008 – ISES’s annual professional development conference. This year’s event will be held in St. Petersburg, Florida – literally in our own backyard! Aside from great educational sessions and networking opportunities, Eventworld will give us the opportunity to gauge our (Orlando) Chapter’s accomplishments as compared to other Chapters. We have documented our efforts between 2007-2008 and are vying for a number of Spirit of Excellence Awards – including Chapter of the Year. I’ve got my fingers crossed!

While at Eventworld, I’m looking forward to attending the Esprit Awards Celebration. I’ve attended a number of industry awards celebrations over the years, but this will be the first time I’m attending as a nominee (!). I’m already quite honored to have my work recognized on an international level as one of the top three events in it’s category. (Wow!) In and of itself, the nomination is a huge feather in my cap; plus it will bring attention to key members of the event team who are also ISES members, and to the Association of Bridal Consultants because “Gala at the Grove” 2007 was also produced with the support of many talented ABC members. Of course if I actually take home one of the Esprit Awards for “Best ISES Team Effort” I’ll be over the top!

According to ISES, the Esprit Awards are “designed to acknowledge the extraordinary efforts, performance, and outstanding contributions of ISES members in the special events planning industry”. They serve as the mark of global distinction and the highest level of professional acknowledgement within the special events industry today. “The ISES Esprit Awards celebrate those event professionals who have turned their ideas into accomplishments”.

Wish me luck!

© 2008 E. Delgardio All Rights Reserved; Image courtesy of Christie’s

20

08 2008

Drumroll please….

Today started off with an interesting little situation… which I was all prepared to write about as it involved a fellow coordinator who found pictures from her website on another (newer) coordinator’s website. My mind ran wild with the editorial possibilities – but that was at 10 am.

At 11:30 I was scrambling to make it to a meeting with our ABC State Coordinator. We had an appointment to ‘catch up’ – as she is quite a busy lady and I always enjoy the opportunity to fill her in on a things I’ve been working on and hear about her latest projects.

Following that, I rush back to the office, pull email and start catching up on my to-do list… At least I tried. On the to-do list today: Make programs for Wedding #1 this weekend, prepare sales tax, return phone calls and email… Oh, the rental company can’t find my cc authorization so I need to re-fax… And, in the midst of all of this, I’m working on a special project for ISES which involves my typing a few pages of information for our Programs & Education binder (part of our “Chapter of the Year” submission). And so it went… and then something really fabulous happened…

About 5 pm I received an email from ISES Headquarters with information regarding the annual Esprit Awards. The email started off like this:

The 2008 ISES Esprit Awards Committee would like to thank the exceptional ISES Members who submitted an entry for the 2008 ISES Esprit Awards. Each and every entry represented the high level of professionalism practiced by ISES Members world-wide. You are all truly the best and brightest in the Special Events Industry!

Flashback (I may have to use this term a lot since my blog is new): A few months ago, with the help and support of a few colleagues and members of the event team, I submitted an event for an Esprit Award. Aside from sitting for the CSEP exam, it was literally one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done (from a professional standpoint). It took 3 of us about 80 hours to put this binder together – I mean, it was a very involved process – and all this going on right in the middle of prime-time wedding season. Somehow, we finished project, and it was actually quite impressive; we felt good about it and hoped it would do well in the judging….

So, the email says: Click here for the 2008 ISES Esprit Nominees – and I did….my heart was pounding as I scrolled through a long list of categories and names and then on page 11 I found my name! – and our event! – and my ISES Orlando team members!!! Oh my gosh- that was exciting! I took a few minutes to email our team with the news and and then it was back to work… another meeting from 6 – 9…

What an exhausting and exhilarating day!

© 2008 E. Delgardio All Rights Reserved

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06 2008
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