It was such a great honour and privilege to be the Master of Ceremonies (it sounds so much more posh than MC) for the 2020 Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year Awards!

The theme was "Prohibition" this year and I, having no sense of style and no discernable wardrobe to speak of, turned to the experts at Black Knight Tuxedos.  As you can see, they did not disappoint!  And I had more compliments on my shoes than I have in my entire life!

For a list of the winners, you can find them at this link. 

https://www.lacombeonline.com/local/red-deer-chamber-honours-local-businesses-with-in-person-award-ceremony

But aside from the glitz and glamour of the evening, I felt a real sense of relief in the air.  Yes, we had to follow a myriad of restrictions that a year ago we wouldn't have.  The event needed to be simulcast to three different rooms to keep the numbers in check. Masks and sanitizer and temperature checks were the order of the day and the normal buffet line for dining was traded in for well served perogy and mussel stations and individual charcuterie and dessert boxes.

But the nervousness of being in a social gathering for the first time in ages quickly melted away.  The organizers from the Chamber and venue staff from the Cambridge Hotel & Conference Ccentre did their very best to cover every Covid related detail. 

And because of all that effort, I don't think there was a single one of the close to 250 attendees that didn't feel safe or welcome.  The vibe of the party was an overall sense of relief that there may just be a light at the end of this tunnel. And that for now, with some extra effort and attention to detail, events like these don't necessarily have to be cancelled or be done virtually.  There's some hope that we can start taking little steps to moving in that direction, and as nervous as I was about the evening going in, this awards ceremony showed me that, a bit at a time and as safely as possible, we might just be able to find some pockets of normal in all of this. 

Don't get me wrong though, I was still nervous, but that had more to do with my MC duties than anything else.  The drawback of owning a Fitbit is knowing that your heartrate isn't dropping below 135 for the duration for the cermony. The upside though is that it mistook those two hours as cardio, which gave me leave to allow myself another one of those tasty dessert boxes!

Thanks again to the Red Deer and District Chamber of Commerce for putting on such an excellent event!

Me (right) with my best pal and former Sunny 94 guy, Juiced Audio & Lighting owner Dennis Allan. (It's OK that we're this close together, we're cohorts and note the masks)