IN MY “EDITOR'S PAGE” last December, I offered my own wish list for the special event industry, a list of the gifts I'd like to receive on behalf of this business. But as I sat planning this year's list, I realized it was time for me to say thank-you for the many wonderful things that this industry has given me. This is only a start, but ….

Thanks for repeatedly topping yourself.

Most people are perfectly content to keep repeating a success. But not you in special events. Put a tent in an impossible location? Turn a room in a heartbeat? Whatever you did last year, you seem determined to do it bigger and better next year. You have inspired me to say to myself in my own job, “How can we improve on this project when we do it again?” “What could we accomplish if we didn't keep stopping ourselves with ‘but we've never tried this before’”?

Thanks for showing that every detail matters.

The stilt-walker at the shuttle loading area to keep guests entertained while they wait. The stamp on the invitation's envelope, rather than a meter mark. It takes a great deal of imagination to come up with all the aspects of an event that influence the impression that the guest receives, and even more discipline to devise and implement the appropriate elements. The care you put into making every aspect of an event as perfect as it can be is a good, swift kick in the pants for me anytime I begin to persuade myself that “good enough” is ever good, or ever enough.

Thank you for demonstrating a wonderful generosity of spirit.

I know quite well that you all are barraged by requests for donations of your money, your time and your talent, always for the very best of causes. (As Jan Rocco of Houston's Party Props wrote so memorably in Special Events last October, “I'm all out of free!”) Yet you keep on giving. And giving. And giving.

Just this week, I got word from Joann Roth-Oseary, head of Tarzana, Calif.-based Someone's in the Kitchen, that she is going to downtown L.A.'s Skid Row on Dec. 7. Along with Extraordinary Events, Regal Rents and Brite Ideas, her team will close off four blocks and treat some 600 at-risk children plus hundreds more homeless adults to a Chanukah-Christmas-Kwanzaa buffet with entertainment and gifts. Next month will bring yet another SEARCH Cabaret at The Special Event, where many of you will either get up on stage or sit back and applaud, but all will open their wallets to support the needy in our own business.

Thanks for teaching me that it takes a great heart to create great events.