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As the U.S. economy rebounds, employees and executives are working harder than ever before. In order to shine a spotlight on the organizations, individuals and teams that strive for excellence in the workplace each day, the Stevie® Awards today officially issued the call for entries for its Ninth Annual American Business Awards.  (I say "officially" because entries have been coming in since October.)

The American Business Awards are the only all-encompassing awards program that honors outstanding performances in the American workplace. All organizations operating in the U.S. are eligible to submit nominations -- public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large and small. The entry deadline is March 31 and late entries will be accepted through April 27 with a late fee. The 2011 awards will honor work since the beginning of 2010, and the awards will be announced on June 20 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Entry details are available at http://www.stevieawards.com/aba/.

Nominations are accepted in various category groups including management awards, public relations awards, marketing awards, new product awards, HR awards, IT awards, web site awards, and more. New categories in 2011 include Executive of the Year - Health Products & Services and Best New Product or Service of the Year - Health Products & Services, and more than 40 new Marketing Campaign of the Year categories.

"The American Business Awards offer individuals and organizations the recognition they deserve for achievements in the workplace," said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards. "Each year our judges recognize organizations large and small, from the world's most famous companies to mom-and-pop startups, and I think 2011 is going to offer many stories of remarkable and inspiring achievement."

The 2011 American Business Awards will include the third edition of the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products(SM), in which the general public can vote for their favorite new products and services of the year. Each new product or service nominated in The American Business Awards will automatically be included in people's choice voting. Voting opens in May and winners of the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products will be honored at the June awards dinner in New York.

The Eighth Annual American Business Awards were presented last June to a diverse group of organizations including Accenture, adidas, Apple Inc., Boost Mobile, Ford Motor Company, Hilton Hotels, Nu Skin Enterprises, the Rubicon Project and The Timberland Company among others. For a list of winners and finalists of the 2010 awards visit: http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/awards/403_2183_20410.cfm.  

To request an entry kit for The 2011 American Business Awards, visit http://www.stevieawards.com/aba/.

Tomorrow - Wednesday, November 17 - is the first early-bird deadline for The 2011 (9th annual) American Business Awards, and entry fees are discounted by as much as 40% if you enter through tomorrow.

Entry fees will go up an average of $35 per entry on Thursday.  The next early-bird deadline will be December 15.  The final deadline isn't until March 31, but even then late entries will be accepted through April 27 with payment of a late fee.

Get your entry kit for the 2010 ABAs, then submit your entries online - it's very easy to do.

In case you've forgotten, The American Business Awards are the premier business awards program in the U.S.A.  There are categories to recognize achievement in the workplace in every facet of work life:

* Management Awards
* Company Awards
* Public Relations Awards
* Customer Service Awards
* Human Resources Awards
* New Product Awards
* Product Management Awards
* Marketing Awards
* Web Site Awards
* Video Awards
* Live Event Awards
* Annual Report and Other Literature Awards

and more.  Questions about how to enter?  Contact us.

Now that we're coming to the end of 2010 and we look back over the Stevie Award winners for the year, it's apparent that Weber Shandwick truly is the agency of the year for its haul of pr awards.

The agency won the Stevie for Public Relations Agency of the Year in The 8th annual American Business Awards back in June in New York.  You can read the full-text of their Stevie-winning nomination on the ABA web site.

Weber Shandwick Europe then won the International Stevie for Public Relations Agency of the Year in Europe in The 7th annual International Business Awards, which were presented in Istanbul, Turkey on September 27.  That award was accepted by Rose de la Pascua, Chair of Weber Shandwick Spain and Executive Vice President for Continental Europe.  Read the full-text of Weber Shandwick Europe's Stevie-winning entry on the IBA web site.

Members of the Weber Shandwick network around the world also won honors in Stevie Awards's public relations awards categories in 2010, including among others AC Sanafor in Finland, McCann PR in Romania, Corporate Weber Shandwick in India, and Weber Shandwick in Dallas, Texas among others.

In addition, the agency won a raft of other awards in 2010.

So who'll be the Stevies' agency of the year in 2011?

In 2010 we introduced a lot of new public relations and communications awards categories in The American Business Awards, and we haven't added any new ones for 2011.  But I thought I'd take a moment here to outline the categories that I think are the best fit for public relations, corporate communications, public affairs, and investor relations professionals, because not all of them are plainly labelled.

First off, there are those categories that are plainly labelled, and they include the many Communications or PR Campaign/Program of the Year categories we introduced in 2010.  Here are the main communications categories (the letter/nomination combinations are our internal category codes):

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