SITE NEWS
Site announces Chapter of the Year and Excellence Awards winners Through the Chapter of the Year and Excellence Awards, SITE acknowledges the extraordinary efforts and performance of local chapter leaders and members, as well as recognising the importance of the SITE Chapter network to support growth and continued success of local initiatives that result in the strengthening of our incentive travel industry.
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his year, the Chapter Excellence Awards acknowledge the extraordinary efforts and performance of our chapters across the globe. Throughout the lockdowns and uncertainty in our industry, our chapters reached out to and supported members with both educational and spirit-lifting content. They truly demonstrated the importance of an industry community like SITE. This year, we recognised chapters in eight categories and received submissions from seventeen different chapters. A judging panel of 29 volunteer leaders anonymously judged the submissions. Our thanks to each of these individuals for their support of our chapters.
Rising Star Award The Rising Star is awarded to a developing chapter that has delivered exceptional benefits for their members across a number of key areas. Accepting on behalf of the winner, SITE Africa, was Tes Proos, 2020/21 chapter president. SITE Africa expanded from a onecountry chapter, SITE South Africa, to cover an entire continent during the qualification period, necessitating a strategy shift to engage new regions. Chapter outreach utilised regional ambassadors and strong education to 24 Business Events Africa March 2021
promote the chapter, as well as incentive travel in general, which is new to many regions of the continent. The approach successfully increased membership by 22 per cent and the chapter continues to gain traction throughout all of Africa. Ms Proos said, “Winning the SITE Chapter Rising Star Award came as a very pleasant surprise. It was an extremely challenging year with the world going into lockdown only a few days after we presented our strategic plan during Meetings Africa.” In spite of the Covid-19 restrictions, we still had growth in new membership and our members were completely supportive in attending our virtual events and discussions. Hence, I would like to dedicate this award to all our African members. 2021 is proving to be even more challenging but there is never a time like the present to seize the opportunity to develop our future leadership and hone our skills to be ready for when our groups may travel again.
Excellence in Young Leaders The SITE Chapter Excellence Award in Young Leaders is offered to a Chapter which has supported a strong and vibrant young leader community through various chapter initiatives, with a focus on
personal growth and development of these young leaders within the larger SITE community. Accepting on behalf of the winner, SITE Chicago, was Colleen Brzozowski, 2020 Chapter President and the board. SITE Chicago’s young leader programme includes a combination of separate young leader engagements, along with intentional interactions between junior and senior industry professionals.
Excellence for a Sustainable Event The SITE Chapter Excellence Award in Sustainable Event recognises a single Chapter event or activity that demonstrates excellence in sustainability. Accepting on behalf of the winner, SITE Poland was Grazyna Grot-Duziak, 2020 Chapter President. As part of a larger scale project to focus on sustainability, SITE Poland executed an event themed around # 12 of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals, which outlines responsible consumption and production.
Excellence for a Special Event The SITE Chapter Excellence Award for a Special Event is awarded to the Chapter www.businesseventsafrica.com
