Sunday, March 3, 2019

Prince Rupert and area celebrates the Best of Business with Lester Centre Business Excellence Awards Show Saturday night

The Best of Business for 2018-19 was feted at the Lester Centre on Saturday night
as the Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce announced the
winners of the Business Excellence Awards

(photo from CityWest screenshot of BEA show)

Prince Rupert's Business Community came out in numbers on Saturday night, settling into the seats at the Lester Centre of the Arts for a salute to the entrepreneurial spirit and support of the community, as the Prince Rupert and District Chamber of Commerce presented the 2019 Business Excellence Awards.

In addition to the main event of the handing out of the Awards for the year,  the evening which featured music courtesy of the Charles Hays Jazz Band, a few snippets of the upcoming Lester Centre production of Rumours.

Also on hand with some brief remarks were Mayor Lee Brain of Prince Rupert and Mayor Knut Bjorndal of Port Edward, both of whom provided their own snap shots of the business climate in the region for the audience at the Lester Centre and those watching at home on the streamcast  by CityWest Community Television.

Chamber President Dave McKeever also provided a salute the night's participants at the beginning of the evening and returned  to congratulate the overall winners at the end of the night.

Lester Centre GM Michael Gurney hosted Saturday's
Business Excellence Awards celebrating
he best of the Prince Rupert and areaCommercial Sector

(photo screenshot from CityWest streamcast of awards show)

Hosting and ringmaster duties on the night were the domain of Lester Centre General Manager Michael Gurney who kept things moving along at nice pace, intermixing his legendary collection of puns and anecdotes with the presentation of the Awards.

He also outlined the unique nomination process this year, which featured the finalists from the public nomination period offered the opportunity to make a video presentation prior to the final voting by residents of the North Coast.

You can review all of those video presentations from the Chamber Facebook page.

The list of nominees and announcement of the winners provided a good snap shot of the local business and service sector, with a good mix of the old established names and some impressive new entries to the local scene.

The valued and appreciated support of the local community made for the themes of many of the comments from the winners.

Those taking to the Lester Stage Saturday paid tribute to the residents of the region who have continued to support local business, whether in the short period of time since they have started the ventures or through the may years on the local scene.

Two local businesses made return trips to the stage as the Wheelhouse Brewing Company and Not So Shaggy Pet Grooming both won two awards each

As each envelope was opened, those in attendance and watching along on CityWest heard "and the winner is" ...  thirteen times on the night.


Community Involvement 
Wheelhouse Brewing Company 

Dining Distinction 
The Pavilion 

Home-Based Business 
The Cook-A-Roux 

Indigenous Peoples Entrepreneurship
Genetics Fitness 

Individual Customer Service Excellence 
Rob Gruber/Good Times Games 

Industry and Manufacturing 
Sullivan Mechanical 

Not for Profit of the Year 
Hear the Wild Foundation 

Professional Excellence 
Great Bear Natural Medicine 

Retail Excellence 
The Argosy 

Rookie Business of the Year 
Not So Shaggy Pet Grooming 

Tourism and Accommodation 
Skeena Kayaking 

Young Entrepreneurship 
Not So Shaggy Pet Grooming 

Business of the Year 
Wheelhouse Brewing Company

You can review the list of the nominees for each of the categories from the Chamber's website and keep an eye on that page as well as the Chamber Facebook page for a link to the Red Carpet photo array which will show some of the pre-show excitement from the 2019 BEA's.

You can also watch the CityWest community channel calendar for any future encore performances of the night's streamcast.

Keep watch on the Chamber Facebook and YouTube pages as well, for possible encore opportunities as well.

For more items of note related to the Northwest Business scene see our archive page here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

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