by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
In order to celebrate the Laurel Awards, the Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Sales and Marketing Council is taking a step back in time.
This year’s theme is aptly titled “Renaissance Moderna” - noting a period of vigorous artistic and architectural activity.
“It’s actually Jacksonville’s Renaissance and how the area is going through a phase of rebirth and growth that is really unprecedented,” said Mark Berman, chair of the event and president of GarageTek. “We are really trying to celebrate that growth and rebirth.”
Berman said there are many surprises for those who attend the event.
“There will be a lot of entertainment to tie it back to this Renaissance themed concept,” he said.
The ceremony will be held at the Florida Theater from 6-10 p.m. on Friday, April 15.
The Laurel Awards recognizes outstanding achievement in creative sales and marketing in the First Coast development and homebuilding industry. Since 1994, the awards ceremony has showcased the talents of those who have demonstrated sales, building and design excellence.
“It really celebrates the best of the best in sales and marketing in the real estate business,” said Berman. “They are in fact the Oscars for real estate marketing. Real estate marketers work really hard. They are the people who make builder’s tick. Without sales and marketing people, builders wouldn’t sell anything and Realtors wouldn’t sell anything. There’d just be a bunch of empty lots out there. So, what we are trying to do is to celebrate the effort that sales and marketing people put forth.”
Since Berman was the chair of last year’s event, he has some expectations to meet.
“The expectation for every chair is to outdo the last year’s chair,” he said. “My problem is that I have to outdo me. Last year was easy because it was the 10th anniversary. It was easy to associate it with the diamond anniversary and come up with a Hollywood diamond theme. The 11th anniversary is frankly not a real big one, it’s pretty dull. I think it’s a lump of coal or something. So, we really had to struggle to come up with an appropriate theme and at the same time, try to outdo last year. So that is why we really wanted to celebrate Jacksonville’s Renaissance.”
Something different this year is how they will deliver the awards. In past years, anyone who had read the script knew who the winners were going to be.
“There are about a dozen people who know who won the awards,” he said. “We are trying to make it more like the Oscars with no one knowing the winners, including me. The only ones who will know are Portland (staff director Portland Stuart) and the judges, who are from out of town. We are going to try it, where we do an ‘Envelope, please’ type of thing.”
Also, they are going to have a reception in the park across the street from the Florida Theatre before the event with entertainment for the guests and a party after the event upstairs to showcase the winning entries.
“Last year was the first time we did the after-party upstairs and we kind of did it softly,” he said. “This year, we have sponsors for it and expect a pretty good crowd. That will be the dessert.”
Berman said the expectation from a numbers standpoint is in place.
“We higher sponsorships than we had last year,” he said. “We had more entries than we’ve ever had. Hopefully, that translates to a similar jump in crowd size.”
In addition to the black-tie cocktail reception and awards event, guests have the opportunity to network with top industry professionals in a relaxing, non-corporate environment.
“Laurel Award winners enjoy the added benefit of maximized credibility in their areas of expertise, thereby increasing their own public relations, marketing and advertising opportunities,” he said.
Since 1994, SMC has hosted the annual Laurel Awards in an effort to recognize and reward sales, building, development and design excellence within the real estate industry. Now in its 11th year, the Laurel Awards program continues its affiliation with the Florida Home Builders Association and the National Home Builders Association.