{"id":22265,"date":"2018-11-22T10:20:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T15:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22265"},"modified":"2018-11-29T12:40:35","modified_gmt":"2018-11-29T17:40:35","slug":"innovation-collaboration-celebrated-at-business-excellence-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/innovation-collaboration-celebrated-at-business-excellence-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"Innovation, collaboration celebrated at Business Excellence Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Innovation and collaboration were the orders of the day as the Aurora Chamber of Commerce celebrated the best and brightest in local business at the 2018 Business Excellence Awards.
\nHeld at the Royal Venetian on Thursday night, the ceremony celebrated the achievements of large and small businesses, young entrepreneurs, business that have recently taken a bold step into the community, and those who give back.
\n\u201cIt is such a great pleasure and great honour to be here to recognize everyone who has been nominated,\u201d said Mayor Geoff Dawe at the start of the event, which showcased 21 individual nominated businesses.
\nBut, in the seven categories, there could only be seven winners.
\nTaking home top honours were Sigma Promotions and Cube Packaging, which were recognized with the Small Business and Large Business Awards respectively.
\n\u201cAt Sigma Promotions, the easiest way to look at what we do is put logos on products, but what we do that\u2019s different from our competition is teach people how to use those promotional products in a strategic way to grow their business,\u201d said Sigma founder Nikki Pett. \u201cAt the end of the day, what we do is we help businesses grow faster by the proper use of promotional items as well as cultivating relationships. What truly sets us apart is our culture. My priority is to grow a bunch of leaders who are full of confidence that feel empowered, that will grow other leaders in our community.\u201d
\nCube Packaging\u2019s Len Chopin accepted the Large Business award on behalf of his team of over 100 employees. Founded in 2009, he said Cube Packaging\u2019s operations have more than doubled since its inception, now calling a 170,000 square foot facility home.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s quite an honour and surprise,\u201d said Mr. Chopin at the podium. \u201cPeople are our strength and our key to success.\u201d
\nSigma was nominated alongside Skyview Family & Cosmetic Dentistry and Transcend Wellness, while Cube Packaging\u2019s fellow nominees included Almac Industrial Systems and Prime Data.
\nPeople are also the strength of Neighbourhood Network, whose win in the Non-Profit of the Year category coincided with its tenth anniversary. Nominated alongside Shine Through the Rain and Welcoming Arms, it was a fitting win for Neighbourhood Network because, as explained by Erin Cerenzia who accepted on behalf of the group, they work alongside both organizations every day.
\n\u201cThank you so much, first and foremost to the Aurora Chamber of Commerce for recognizing us with this award,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is an extra honour and privilege for us because we\u2019re actually recognized in the same category as two of the partners we work with every day. We\u2019re so proud to be able to support you in the work that we do. I would also\u2026like to honour and recognize my team behind me. You\u2019re not just a team, you\u2019re family and it is such an honour to work alongside you.\u201d
\nAlso recognized for their contributions to Aurora was Keller Williams Realty, which took home the Community Involvement Award after being nominated alongside Lighthouse Legal Services and Treefrog. Accepted by Keller Williams\u2019 Marvin Alexander, he said the company prides itself on being \u201can open book company that fosters a culture unlike any other.\u201d
\n\u201cWe pride ourselves and we give back to the community and we spend countless hours and raise tens of thousands of dollars annually to give back right here in the Town of Aurora,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is a wonderful feeling to be recognized for contributing to the community because it does mean so much to us. I would like to thank the Chamber and all the people who voted for us and nominated us. It really does mean a lot and we will continue to be flag-bearers for the community to promote Aurora to help everyone that we can.\u201d
\nNewer businesses also had their moment in the spotlight, with Drummer\u2019s Hangout taking home the New Business award, having been nominated alongside Aurora Borealis Orthodontics and the family-run Mexican restaurant Dos Mariachis.
\n\u201cWe opened our doors on Father\u2019s Day 2015 and haven\u2019t looked back since,\u201d said Drummers\u2019 Hangout\u2019s Murat Baslamisli. \u201cWe are a little bit different from other music stores I know where people come here from long distances and spend sometimes two or three hours here hanging out and watching drum videos, other drummers are in here all the time. There is no sales pressure. If they buy something, great. If they don\u2019t, it\u2019s still great. We talk about drums, have a drink and just have a great time. This is truly a hangout. We take drums very seriously, but we don\u2019t take ourselves very seriously.\u201d
\nWinning an award like this, he said, is not something people in his profession experience every day because drumming is \u201ca very niche thing, really.\u201d
\n\u201cA music market overall is a niche thing and within that a drumming market is one per cent, let\u2019s say. I\u2019m truly humbled and honoured to be here and recognized for this. Two and a half years of really hard \u2013 I don\u2019t have to explain how the life of an entrepreneur goes. Most of you know, but recognition like this definitely helps. It motivates people to work harder and I would like to thank the Chamber for this recognition. It is huge and unexpected.\u201d
\nAnother business receiving a good shot in the arm through the awards was Ginger\u2019s Cupcakes & Desserts, which took home the Young Entrepreneur Award in a field that also included BioPed Footcare and K+A Concierge.
\nThe award was accepted by owners Anna Herd and Amanda Spiteri who were excited by the opportunity.
\n\u201cThank you so much to our fellow nominees and the Aurora Chamber,\u201d said Ms. Herd. \u201cThanks for welcoming us to Aurora.\u201d
\nOne Aurora-based business has been recently been welcomed into another community as Honsberger Physio expanded operations into North York. The clinic took home the 2018 Innovation Award over fellow nominees STEM Minds and Ten Twonies Financial Literacy for Kids. The award was accepted by Robyn Honsberger, Business Development and Operations Manager for the multigenerational family-run business.
\n\u201cFirst of all, congratulations to the other two nominees. Watching those two videos and seeing what you guys do every single day is extremely inspiring and it makes what we do every single day seem a little bit less cool, even though I think it is amazing,\u201d she said. \u201cI can\u2019t believe I am up here tonight. I thought it was really an amazing, incredible nomination and I am here on behalf of a team of 29 people and my family. We have been in business now for 31 years now and we\u2019re just getting started. We just opened up a clinic in North York, so we have 10 facilities across York Region and the GTA. I can\u2019t thank the Aurora Chamber of Commerce\u2026for how much you have done for our business.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Innovation and collaboration were the orders of the day as the Aurora Chamber of Commerce celebrated the best and brightest in local business at the 2018 Business Excellence Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/2018-11-22-08.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5N7","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-26 01:31:37","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22265\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}