Engineering News-Record 41st Annual Award of Excellence Program
April 2006

THE CHALLENGE
Engineering News-Record magazine (ENR) was holding it's 41st annual Award of Excellence program, to honor the top 25 newsmakers in the construction industry. The black tie event is held annually at the New York Marriott Marquis, and the biggest challenge faced by ENR each year is to make it better than the year before. In 2006, over 1,400 construction industry leaders attended the event, creating logistical challenges in terms of seating and audio/visual support.

Each year, several members of the United States Military are either in attendance, or receiving awards, so their contributions must also be recognized and celebrated at the event.

THE SOLUTION
Brainium worked with both the publisher and editor-in-chief of ENR to produce a spectacular event. Projection screens were hung from the ceiling and installed under the balcony of the ballroom, providing direct line-of-site for every attendee. An audio system was installed to provide delay-free broadcast of every presentation and acceptance speech.

Lighting effects and videos were produced to highlight each of the 25 newsmakers, as well as the top newsmaker, the Award of Excellence Winner. Dwayne McAninch, CEO of McAninch Corp. was the 41st recipient of the Award of Excellence, for being the leading advocate for the use of global positioning technology in earthmoving. Once shunned at jobsites due to hardware and software glitches, the technology has made significant strides to prove that digital controls can boost equipment durability, and extend field efficiency by more than 30%. Many fleet owners now offer incentives to firms that use the technology.

Brainium contacted New York's Apple Brass, which provided a musical introduction to the program. Additionally, a joint services color guard from Fort Hamilton Garrison in Brooklyn presented the colors.

RESULTS
Jan Tuchman, editor-in-chief of ENR, said "you were marvelous! You can turn on a dime.great to work with you," and Jay McGraw, ENR's publisher, said that "the entire day ran very smoothly and many of our attendees have said this was the best ENR awards dinner ever. Thanks for making it easy for Jan and me, and for giving our guests a super show. Look forward to next year!"

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