We're expecting more than 300 women entrepreneurs and executives, and their guests, to attend tomorrow night's Stevie Awards for Women in Business in New York.  They're coming from all of the U.S.A. plus Australia, Austria, Canada, Germany, Israel Japan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

A PDF of the awards dinner program is now available on the awards web site.  Look for photos to be available starting Saturday, and video clips of the presentations sometime next week.

Here's the list of organizations that will be represented, as of this past Monday:

Accenture   Chicago IL

Accessibility Partners  Silver Spring, MD               

Advocacy & Consulting for Education  Wayne  PA     

Alacare Home Health & Hospice  Birmingham AL

Anisa International, Inc.  Atlanta GA    

Apps of All Nations LLC  Lynchburg VA       

Artitudes Design Inc.  Issaquah  WA       

Assurant Employee Benefits, Kansas City, MO      

Axis Teknologies  Marietta GA

Backup My Info  New York, NY          

Bhava Communications   Berkeley CA

Big Fish Nation   Solana Beach CA

Bistra Ilkova  Sofia  Bulgaria           

Bloomberg TV  New York NY             

Bowling Green State University   Bowling Green OH

Brickfish  San Diego  CA        

Campus Apartments   Philadelphia PA

Cbeyond  Atlanta  GA           

CFO Publishing  New York NY

CIGNA  Hartford  CT           

Citrix Online San Barbara CA               

Competence Call Center  Vienna, Austria            

Cvent  McLean, VA            

Decipher  Inc. Fresno  CA             

Designs by Lolita  Providence  RI              

Elite Editing  New York, NY                 

EmpowHER/HW  LLC Scottsale AZ         

emTRAiN  Sacramento, CA         

Everything Everywhere  London United Kingdom  

EXIT Realty Corp. International Mississauga ON Canada

EyeMail Inc.   Marietta GA

Farbman Group  Southfield  MI        

Felice Keller Productions  Los Angeles  CA       

GradeGuru by McGraw-Hill Education  New York NY           

GroundFloor Media  Denver CO       

Health Revenue Assurance Associates  Inc.(HRAA) Plantation  FL                               

Henkel AG & Co. KGaA   Dusseldorf Germany   

HJMT COMMUNICATIONS  LLC  Westbury  NY    

Holland America Line  Seattle  WA           

IntelePeer  San Mateo  CA

InterContinental Hotels Group Atlanta GA       

International Dance Supplies Ltd  Newton Abbot  Devon  England                              

International Financial Data Services Canada  Toronto  ON  Canada                                 

ITM Group  Inc. Ft. Lauderdale FL           

Kahosha, Inc.  Tokyo Japan

KeyBank Cleveland OH            

Kryon Systems  Tel Aviv  Israel            

Leading Women  Charlestown  RI        

Love to Swim and Tumble School San Antonio TX     

Loyalty Factor, LLC  Portsmouth NH

Luminex Corporation  Riverside, CA        

Marketing 24/7  Inc.  Trussville  AL    

Martopia  Saint Charles IL

Medicard Finance Inc.   Toronto Canada

Melilea International Group of Companies  Kuala Lumpur  Malaysia                           

Mom Central Consulting  Newton  MA         

MorrisAnderson  Chicago  IL      

MotherNet KK  Osaka Japan          

MWW Group  East Rutherford  NJ           

Northbound LLC  Sunnyvale  CA          

Nu Skin Enterprises  Provo, UT         

ODEL Limited  Rajagiriya  Sri Lanka           

Parties That Cook  San Francisco CA

Pediatric Therapeutic Services, Inc.   Conshohocken PA

Penmac Staffing Services  Inc.  Springfield  MO       

PetRays Veterinary Telemedicine Consultants  The Woodlands  TX                                  

PK Walsh  Needham MA

Plus Relocation Services  Minneapolis MN

Purry Communications Group Los Angeles CA   

R&J Elliott Incorporated  Normal  IL        

Renu Mobile  Boston  MA           

RockYou  Redwood City CA

Sanofi-Aventis  Istanbul  Turkey       

Savoir Media Co.  Belmont MA

SelectMinds New York NY             

SheTakesOnTheWorld.net  Kitchener  ON  Canada    

Smart Reader Worldwide Sdn Bhd   Kuala Lumpur  Malaysia                               

Softtek  Monterrey Mexico

South Miami Center for Women & Infants  Miami  FL   

SPARK Publications Mathews NC   

SpellSpace, Inc.  Lake Arrowhead CA

Spoilt Rotten Hair & Beauty Studio  Smeaton Grange Australia                           

Staff Management  Chicago  IL              

Teach For America  Miami FL

TechnoDyne LLC  Wayne NJ

Tenrehte Technologies, Inc.  Rochester NY The Ad Club  Boston MA

The Henker Group   Easton MD

TIBCO Software Inc.  Palo Alto  CA            

Trevena  Inc.  King of Prussia  PA       

Vantage Communications  San Francisco  CA       

VerticalResponse  San Francisco, CA         

What's On? Event Planning  Harrington Park Australia  

WildlyWealthy.com Mooloolaba QLD Australia         

Womenetics  LLC  Atlanta  GA        

Women's Intercultural Exchange  Charlotte NC   

Congratulations to Jeff Shuman, senior vice president of Human Resources and Corporate Relations for Harris Corporation, for being named to the Board of Directors of the National Association of Manufacturers. Read the press release here...

Jeff won the Stevie Award for Human Resources Executive of the  Year in The 2007 American Business Awards, has since then been a judge of the human resources awards categories in the ABAs, and is an all-around good guy. 

You can read Jeff's Stevie Award-winning nomination from 2007 on The American Business Awards web site.

Today we announced the Finalists in the 2010 (7th annual) Stevie Awards for Women in Business.  Personally this is my favorite Stevie Awards competition, because the stories of success that women entrepreneurs and executives tell are often so dramatic, and women give much better acceptance speeches than men do.  Find the full list on the Stevies for Women web site.

We had a record number of entries to the Stevies for Women this year - more than 1,200.  13% better than last year.  The majority of entries to this competition are still from organizations in the U.S.A. - I'd like to see this competition become more broadly international, and we're working on that - but we received entries from Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and the United Kingdom as well.

This year's awards dinner is back at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City, and tickets are now on sale.  Last year the event had more than 330 women and their guests from the U.S. and several other countries, and I expect this year's attendance to be just as strong.  Sara Eisen of Bloomberg TV will emcee.

Among the leading contenders with multiple Finalists are BGT Partners, Miami, FL; The Buildmore Group Pty Ltd, Caloundra, QLD Australia; Elite Editing, New York, NY; Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, New York, NY; JCPR, Parsippany, NJ; Kryon Systems, Tel Aviv, Israel; MWW Group, East Rutherford, NJ; ODEL Limited, Rajagiriya, Sri Lanka; Reserveage Organics, Gainesville, FL; and VerticalResponse, San Francisco, CA.

We're a week away from the October 15 early-bird entry deadline for the 5th annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service, and here are some thoughts about this year's competition.

Despite challenging economic conditions worldwide, I expect to see strong growth in the number of entries in the customer service awards categories.  Every organization worldwide wants to be known as providing great customer service, and winning a prestigious award such as a Stevie Award can be a useful tool to illustrate that one's peers, and perhaps customers, agree that you're achieving that.

Entries to the sales awards categories may be another matter, however, and I think that presents an opportunity for smart organizations out there.  Sales people love a pat on the back.  Strong commissions aren't enough to satisfy most sales professionals.  But many organizations hesitate to seek recognition for their sales teams when sales growth is stagnant or tepid at best.  And frankly, many organizations can't claim to be beating sales records in the current economic environment. 

And that's where the opportunity lies.  If your sales people are holding their own, if you have compelling stories to tell about the problems they're solving and solutions they're providing, then by all means, nominate them in the sale awards categories.  You're likely to have less competition than you would in years when all boats are rising.

Who doesn't want to hear their name spoken over a public address system...or a nationwide television broadcast...after those words?  We all grew up watching the Oscars and the Emmys and the Grammys on television (or some other assemblage of entertainment industry awards, if you didn't grow up in the U.S.A.).  We dreamed of climbing the steps onto that stage, while the audience roar their approval, to accept that massive trophy that weights about 10 pounds, while our loved ones weep tears of joy for us in the audience, and we thank our teachers and our parents and everyone else we've ever met in a 90-second acceptance speech that will be replayed in highlight broadcasts for decades.

We all want to be recognized for what we do, for what we accomplished.  And that's what this blog is about.  It's about giving people their "Oscar" moment for their workplace achievements.  The Stevie Awards are business awards.  We recognize companies and non-profits, executives and employees, teams and departments.  We'll blog about their achievements, and would like to hear your comments, suggestions, thoughts and ideas.

Tell about your achievements, about those of your co-workers and colleagues.  Point us to articles you've read about extraordinary people and their accomplishments, and we'll see about getting them even more recognition.

We staged the awards banquet of The 7th annual International Business Awards at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey on Monday, September 27.  What a weekend, what an event.  The hotel is lovely, and is about two stone-throws from the Bosporus.  Istanbul is a vibrant, busy, fascinating city. I had heard that Turkish food is good, but it was great and memorable!

The awards banquet was attended by more than 260 executives from 24 nations, making it the largest IBA awards banquet to date, surpassing Dublin, Ireland in 2008.  Thanks to the Turkish companies who participated in the IBAs this year for their strong support.  You'll find photos and video clips of the event here. 

It's easy to forget that even the most powerful business executives are just men and women who want to be recognized for their achievements like everyone else does.  Whether you're winning marketing awards, sales awards, public relations awards, or what have you, it's a moving experience to receive a substantial trophy, a round of applause, and a moment in the spotlight.

Here are my top five observations from this year's IBAs:

1. The Turks are on the verge of rivalling the Koreans for IBA dominance.  Turkish companies took home the most awards this year, but the event was on their home turf.  Nevertheless, I look for them to be a leader among IBA winners for years to come.

2. Korean companies are successful in the IBAs because they enter as a bloc.  They smartly concentrate their entries on a handful of categories, and dominate those.  More countries should follow their example.

3. The British give the best acceptance speeches.  Always engaging, always literate.

4.  Best acceptance speech of the night had to be Maxim Behar's, of M3 Communications in Bulgaria.  But maybe I'm biased because he wore a tuxedo?

5.  Best IBA meal ever.  Caviar, fine wine, fabulous olives.