Update: Celebrating our Music City Gold Pen Award winners

A message from IABC Nashville President Kerry Burke:

As you may be aware, we sadly had to postpone our virtual Music City Gold Pen Awards ceremony last week due to cyber security issues. This was an extremely unfortunate occurrence, and does not reflect our organization, nor does it take away from the accomplishments of the award winners. I’m proud of our board’s quick response in getting out timely communication and outreach, and we are eager to move forward and celebrate Music City’s top communicators.

To properly honor the outstanding accomplishments of our award winners, we are shifting our virtual celebration from a live Zoom event to a social media campaign Monday, September 20. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, as we share individual posts recognizing our community’s award-winning communicators and their entries. Please join us in celebrating our winners by liking, commenting, and sharing with your networks. These winners deserve all the praise in the world, so help let’s spread the word and cheer them on!

As members of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC), an organization with an emphasis on learning, we would like to turn our misfortune into a learning and teaching opportunity. We will focus our next professional development event on video conferencing, cybersecurity, and ways to keep your presentations and organizations safe. We will also hear from experts in these fields. Please keep an eye out for details coming soon.

I’ll end by touching on one of the many lessons I am taking away from this experience – that when unexpected challenges arise, people can show up in the kindest ways. Our chapter leadership has received many messages and phone calls over the past few days – not criticizing or blaming, but offering support, compassion, and encouragement. This is a testament to our IABC organization and the support we have for one another in good times and in bad.

Thank you to our communications community for your understanding, kindness, and support. We look forward to “seeing” you soon.