Summerlanders have been recognizing outstanding businesses as more than 130 submissions have been received for the upcoming Business and Community Awards.
The nomination deadline was Friday afternoon and David Hull, executive director of the Summerland Chamber, said the response was overwhelming.
“There’s been good uptake in the community,” he said.
While chamber saff are still compiling the submissions, Hull expects there will be between 80 and 85 nominations in the various business categories.
In some cases, several people submitted the name of the same business in a specific category.
There are 12 categories in this year’s community awards.
A category for Nonprofit Organization of the Year and a Business to Business Excellence award are both new for 2019. The Professional Services Excellence award has been renamed the Accredited Professional Services Excellence award. Other categories include Business of the Year, Hospitality and Tourism Excellence, Manufacturing and Production Excellence, Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Customer Service Excellence, Business Person of the Year, New Business of the Year, Retailer of the Year and Agriculture and Agri-Business Excellence.
Community awards will also be presented at the awards ceremony. These include the Arts and Culture Award and the Citizen of the Year Award. The Mayor’s Award of Excellence will be presented at the discretion of the mayor to honour a community organization.
Hull said the categories with the most submissions include Customer Service Excellence and Business of the Year.
The award winners will be decided by judging panels.
In each category, a three-person judging panel has been set up. These panels will hold 25-minut interviews with each nominee in the category.
Hull said this is a better method than having chamber members vote for the nominees of their choice.
“It was really important to return subjectivity to the process,” Hull said. “The awards are not a popularity contest. We are looking to identify businesses, individuals, and organizations who excel in their field. At the end of the interviews the panel will determine the recipient.”
The awards will be presented at a ceremony which will be held on Saturday, March 30 at Centre Stage Theatre.
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