Last night, the Public Relations Society of America - Hawaii Chapter had its annual Koa Anvil Awards at the Halekulani. Individuals and agencies were honored for outstanding programs and pieces created in 2007 for their companies and clients. (For a complete list of winners, click here.)

As blogger Nathan Kam notes, it's a very rare night when PR people are in the spotlight, since we are usually working behind the scenes to promote our companies. One of the coolest things for me is being able to see so many of my colleagues at one time--in some cases, this is the ONE night of the year when I ever get to see some of these people! To see photos of my peeps, click here.

A record 111 entries were submitted this year, with 17 Koa Anvil or Hammer awards presented and 41 Awards of Excellence in each category. Just having something to submit is a feat in itself, so everyone really deserves a big pat on the back.

There are a lot of celebrations going on this weekend in honor of these winners, but I wanted to point out one in particular:  Nathan Hokama. He was given one of the highest honors by PRSA, the Gregg W. Perry Award (a.k.a. PR Person of the Year).  This is a huge achievement in a PR person's career, even more than getting accredited! It is given to a PR person who has dedicated a lot of time and energy to the advancement of the profession and has been active in PRSA. While Nathan has been active in PRSA for many years, he is especially notable for coming back to the board as treasurer this year  when the position suddenly became vacant. For one, PR people are not good at math, so getting a (willing) treasurer requires the planets to line up correctly and the Pope's blessing sometimes.  In addition, Nathan had cycled off the board many years ago after several years of service to PRSA, so getting an old fut like myself to come back also requires an act of God.  As a practitioner, he is one of the best crisis communications pros in town--I would name his clients here but I'm not sure if they are all confidential or not!

As I move to the weekend, I just wanted a quick blog to congratulate Nathan, as well as all of my colleagues on their very good work.  I'm proud to be a part of this profession, and proud to be associated with such great people.

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p.s. just a shout out to Amy Hennessey, a.k.a. the White Samoan, who has made it a tradition to let out the most authentic "chee hoo" whenever she accepts an award for PCC.

Tags: Amy Hennessey, Gregg Perry Award, Koa Anvils, Nathan Hokama, Nathan Kam, PRSA, PRSA Hawaii, public relations

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