By Mark Edward Nero
The Port of Grays Harbor is one of three seaports – and the only one on the West Coast – to be named a winner of the American Association of Port Authorities’ Communications Awards Program’s annual excellence award.
In addition to the Port of Grays Harbor, the other two recipients of the 2016 Overall Award of Communications Excellence trophies are Port Everglades in Florida and St. John’s Port Authority in Newfoundland and Labrador.
In total, the AAPA plans to recognize 25 seaports for exemplary communications projects and programs at its annual convention and awards luncheon this fall. Winning entrants in the Association’s 50th annual Communications Awards Program are to be lauded at an Oct. 26 awards luncheon in conjunction with the organization’s 105th Annual Convention and Expo in New Orleans, set for Oct. 23-26.
Other West Coast ports announced as winners in various categories include those in Longview, Washington; Los Angeles; Long Beach, California; Stockton, California.
“This competition helps our member ports by rewarding effective communications and highlighting best practices and lessons learned,” AAPA President & CEO Kurt Nagle.
The Communications Awards Program utilized 48 professional public relations practitioners from the Washington, D.C. area who cumulatively spent nearly 200 hours over three weeks judging the 15 classifications of entries, ranging from advertisements and periodicals to videos and websites.
Based on the number of points awarded each entry by the judges, three entries earned an Overall Award of Communications Excellence and 31 entries earned an Award of Excellence, while 46 entries scored an Award of Distinction, and 26 entries received an Award of Merit.
All 106 of the winning submissions in the 2016 AAPA Communications Awards Program can be seen at http://www.aapa-ports.org/unifying/content.aspx?ItemNumber=21375&RDtoken=21609&userID=5980.
