The Kimberley and District Chamber of Commerce held its annual Business Excellence Awards (BEA) on Friday, March 22 at Centre 64, honouring the work done by local businesses and individuals last year in a wide variety of categories.
This was the second BEA for Chamber president Becky Warkentin. Some changes were made to this year’s event, including the addition of new award categories and the decision to host it at Centre 64.
“We switched to Centre 64 this year from the Conference Centre, to make it a little bit more of an intimate event and I think we really caught the feel of that,” Warkentin explained.
“Besides some technical difficulties with the presentation, the event was a lot more fun and engaging and I think we spent a lot of time actually conversing with the crowd and having fun with the whole event, instead of having it be such a big production and a little more staunchy than it used to be.
“It’s a little more engaging now, so that was the best part of this year’s event and how it went.”
This year there were three new awards: the Creativity Award, the Inclusivity Award and the Shop Pet of the Year Award.
“They’ve been using the same award categories for years and years and years and we wanted to make some that were a little more fun, a little more engaging and a little more reflective of the times that we’re in,” Warkentin explained.
Additionally, Warkentin said the Chamber chose to make the reception a little more relaxed, rather than a formal sit-down dinner, to allow for guests to get up and mingle with one another and enjoy appetizers provided by Healthy Kimberley’s Food Recovery Depot and music from the Little Jazz Orchestra.
The awards ceremony only took an hour, about half as long as anticipated, providing more time for the local business community to engage with each other.
The Business of the Year Award this year went to Kamu Sauna, a relatively new business in Kimberley, who create authentic Finnish-style saunas.
“Wasn’t everybody a little bit surprised that such a new business owner won Business of the Year?” Warkentin said. “And that’s just obviously reflective of the type of business and how they function, that that many people actually recognized the fact that they are deserving of that type of an award.”
Warkentin explained to the Bulletin a bit about how the award winners are actually selected. The Chamber asks the entire community for nominees, and then a bi-partisan group is assembled to choose who will be in the final three of each category. They ensure each one has enough qualifying attributes to fit that particular category.
Those finalists are then presented to the community who get one vote per person to decide on the winners.
“We have some metrics to make sure that we only record one vote per person,” Warkentin said. “We want to make sure that no one sees the Chamber as picking things themselves, or that we aren’t making the voting fair.”
She added that they generally get a turnout of over 800 people voting, representing roughly 10 per cent of Kimberley’s population.
“It’s pretty reflective of the community and what their ideas and beliefs about these business are, which is really nice,” Warkentin said.
The full list of winners this year are as follows:
•Creativity Award: Funk Haus Craft Lab
•Home & Mobile Business of the Year Award: Travelling Top-ups Mobile Refillery
•The Health, Wellness & Fitness Award: Sprout Health Market
•Retail Services Award: Sprout Health Market
•Business Services Award: Nicole Leclair Photography
•Trades Business or Person of the Year Award: Sommer Electric
•Tourism & Hospitality Excellence Award: Our Place Restaurant
•Inclusivity Award: Grow - Cake & Chocolate
•Stan Salikin Community Impact Award: Meant 2B Loved Pet Rescue
•Employee of the Year Award: Johnny from The Shed
•Shop Pet of the Year Award: Jasper at Purcell Outdoors
•Rising Star Award: Deer Park Diner
•The Keystone Award: Pedal & Tap
•Business of the Year Award: Kamu Sauna