What's the No. 1 question the Special Events team answers most often about entering the Gala Awards?
It's not about deadlines (Sept. 14) or three-ring versus four-ring binders (we get that one a lot, believe it or not—and both are fine).
Instead, would-be entrants ask if the competition is open to event professionals outside of the U.S. And the answer to that question is yes, yes and yes.
We are proud to receive work from event professionals from throughout the world. In last year's competition, event experts based in Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Russia Spain and the United States joined in.
At the latest Gala Awards ceremony, in Tampa in January, former Special Events Advisory Board member Richard Foulkes of London-based Imagination took the stage to accept an award for an absent winner. He noted that as our world grows smaller, event professionals—wherever they are based—are all "on a world stage."
I hope you will enter this year's Gala Awards competition so you show the world what you can do.