When IAVM Junior Designer Jamie Carney submitted an entry into Association Trends Magazine’s Salute to Excellence Awards in the category of Daily or Weekly Communication for her work in the creative of the redesign of the IAVM News newsletter, she did so with the confidence that there could be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow once the winners were selected in Washington, D.C. last Thursday.
“Definitely,” Carney said. “I thought I had a shot. I was just really excited about having a chance to redesign the newsletter. Given an opportunity to do that was good.”
It turned out to be more than good for Carney, who along with IAVM Director of Marketplace Sales Christy Jacobs was present for the gala. Having already been named a finalist due to receive a gold, silver or bronze award, Carney and Jacobs watched as IAVM’s name did not show up on the screen for the silver and bronze categories. That was when reality sunk in and the celebration began.
“They did the categories in alphabetical order,” Carney said. “When they got to our category, my heart started racing. I put my hand on Christy’s shoulder like, oh my gosh, this is it. We saw the first slide pop up and we weren’t on there, so I started slapping her arm because I was so excited. We weren’t on the screen so I knew that it was going to be the gold. Everyone at our table kind of looked at me funny and was really excited about it. It was really cool.”
And really cool describes the fortune that IAVM has with the talented and exuberant Carney. A graduate of Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, with a major in graphic design, IAVM is Carney’s first post-graduate position and one in which she has already made her mark.
As for the idea of submitting an entry, Carney said that took place last October, just months after her hire in April of last year.
“I talked to Christy about a redesign after we got back from VenueConnect,” she said. “It was after we got our new logo and had a new brand. We had an outdated newsletter that did not work with our brand. I wanted to make it look cleaner, reflect the brand, and overall more readable. It is important to give our members all of the information that they want every week from IAVM.”
Consider that mission accomplished with plenty encores certain to be a part of the talented Carney’s future.
