And the Award Goes to...

Southwest Airlines!

Ok, so I'm going to brag on my Team for just a little bit. But I'm so excited and I want to share!!!

Back in November, SWA entered a variety of LUVLines articles (the Employee magazine that I write and edit) in a nationwide communications contest.

We found out that they had more than 450 entries, and that we were finalists in five categories. Tuesday night, we flew to Chicago for the awards ceremony. They called it "the Oscars of Corporate Communications" and we were competing against publications from across the nation and around the world!

Going in to the awards, I was nervous. What if we came home empty-handed after all that excitement and nominations? Would I be a good Susan Lucci? Well luckily I didn't have to find out about how I would handle the rejection. We won an award in every one of our categories!

We were awarded the second place (Honorable Mention) for our Cover Design, Executive Article ("Ask Colleen" a Q&A with our President), and Feature Article (a focus on Hurricane Katrina and it's effect on our Employees).

And, we were awarded first place prize (Award of Excellence) for an Employee Profile (an article called "The Heart of the Woman You LUV: Insight into the Life of Colleen Barrett") and the GRAND PRIZE for all Employee Publications!

It was so humbling to hear my name called five times that night! We had about half our Team there in Chicago, and I just can't wait to be able to celebrate with everyone! LUVLines has come a long way, and I can't take the credit for it, but let me just say how much fun I have with this job!

To celebrate our award, we went to a fun dinner on Wednesday night at Opera, an awesome Chinese restaurant in Chicago. And, we had gift certificates to pay for our dinner, so we went ALL out! Seriously, we ordered such a sampling of dishes that they had to pull up an extra table for us. All the food is served family style, but still, it was a feast! The chef came out to meet us at the end of our meal! We certainly kept him busy! Maybe it's because we were there for three hours, but we just laughed and laughed and had such a good time enjoying the whole experience!


So, it's good to be back in Dallas, but we sure did have a great time in Chicago! Oh, and while I'm talking about Southwest's communication, I thought I'd pass along a new blog you might find interesting. www.blogsouthwest.com It's a fun look into the "nutty" Company I work for...