Awards

SMPS CT Holds Marketing Communications Awards

Cathy DeFrances-Vittorio and Keith Claytor emceed the event. / Photos by Lisa Pavano

Farmington, CT – On May 12, SMPS CT honored local AEC professional service firms and marketers at its bi-annual Marketing Communications Golden Gala Awards ceremony.

The virtual event recognized excellence in marketing communications by professional services firms and dedicated SMPS marketers for their exemplary marketing projects, campaigns, and materials. Cathy DeFrances-Vittorio, director of business development for Fuss & O’Neill, and Keith Claytor, owner and photographer of TimeFrozen Photography, served as emcees.

Emcees Cathy DeFrances-Vittorio and Keith Claytor showed off their Zoom fashion.

BL Companies won in the Crisis Management and Communication category and the Best Internal Newsletter category.

BVH Integrated Services took the Video category; Elements won the Corporate Identity/Rebranding category; and Flow Tech, Inc. won the Special Event category. Lane Construction Corporation was honored in the Judges’ Choice and Social Media – Basic categories. Best Website went to QA+M Architects. The People’s Choice Award was a tie between BL Companies’ “The Owners’ Manual Newsletter” and Flow Tech, Inc.’s “You can BARLEY tell it’s work! The 6th Annual Flowtoberfest.”

The event also recognized three marketing and business development professionals with professional achievement awards. SMPS’s most prestigious award, the James Bancroft Lifetime Achievement Award, was presented to Bernice Rios Bako, FSMPS, SMPS president-elect. A member of SMPS for over 25 years, Bako has held several positions within the organization, most notably as president of SMPS CT when the chapter was awarded the 2002 National Striving for Excellence Grand Prize.

Audio-visual equipment was provided by Rockwell Communications, Inc.

This year’s Grace Waldvogel Member of the Year award honored Carly Olson for going above and beyond for the chapter as the 2020-2021 co-chair of SMPS CT’s Education Committee.

The Trail Blazer Award was presented to Julia DeFrances, chapter treasurer and a member of the newly created Education Committee.

As director of marketing, global development for Turner Construction Company (Turner), Bako develops and implements enterprise-wide marketing activities, manages marketing efforts for multiple market segments, oversees training and organizational development, and is manages the reorganization and branding refresh for SourceBlue, a Turner subsidiary.

As a marketing specialist for Lane Construction Corporation, Olson leads the company’s strategy in corporate branding and advertising, event coordination, and internal and external communication campaigns.

A marketing coordinator at BL Companies, DeFrances combines a love of creating with a passion for writing by developing communications collateral, proposals, and award submissions.