ASHLAND — A group of 49 businesses and organizations adorned Ashland University’s Upper Convocation Center for the 10th annual Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce Member Awards expo on Tuesday.
The event, typically followed by an award ceremony, saw a multitude of Chamber members sharing their unique associations.
There were 70 nominations for finalist awards, the largest amount in the Chamber’s history. The nominations were made in September by members of the Ashland community.
The awards ceremony and dinner will take place Thursday, March 4 to allow for social distancing practices including additional space between tables.
“There are some businesses that get nominated year after year, it’s incredible,” Director of Operations at the Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce Amy Daubenspeck said. “We have several new businesses who have never gone through the process before.
“This is the first time we’ve ever separated out the expo from the banquet.”
Finalists are judged by outside parties who have no bias in the Ashland community. These included individuals from the Holmes County Chamber of Commerce and the Wyandot Chamber of Commerce.
Over 500 people attended last year’s event. There will only be roughly 240 people in attendance this year to meet Ohio’s pandemic guidelines.
Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce Director of Programs and Finance Renae Osborne is the only individual prior to this Thursday’s revelation to know who won each award. Osborne said the chamber has a few surprises in honor of the anniversary.
“We’ve actually changed up the way we’re doing the awards presentations,” Osborne said. “We’ve got some new stuff added to that, which is going to be kind of a surprise for everybody.
“The finalists will be surprised with that. We know that our members have had a lot to deal with over the past year, and so we wanted to really focus in on the things they’ve done to continue to serve the community while keeping their employees, staff and their facilities safe.”
In 2012, former Chamber of Commerce President Barbie Lange and the staff decided to expand the traditional “Small Business of the Year Award” to include more members.
Eleven categories will be recognized at Thursday’s event, including Small Business, Agriculture, Industrial Business, Specialty Store Business, Health and Medical Services, Culture and Recreation, Sales and Marketing, Social Services, Commercial and Residential Services, Professional Services, as well as Retail.
“We have all these wonderful members and all these wonderful businesses that work so hard to make Ashland special, and we just want to celebrate that as much as we possibly can,” Daubenspeck said. “I hope people enjoy it.
“We really wanted to make this event a big one.”
