Nashville's Music City Gold Pen Awards

Business communicators from across Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky recognized for their professional achievements and brand campaigns

NASHVILLE, Tenn.The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Nashville Chapter broadcasted the 2020 Music City Gold Pen Awards on November 2 on Facebook Live. Danielle Breezy, Chief Meteorologist from WKRN-TV Nashville News 2, served as emcee, and singer-songwriter and American Idol semi-finalist Sarah Lake was the musical guest. Thirty-six awards were presented in categories ranging from change communications to nonprofit campaigns. Photos from the broadcast are posted here.

"It is an honor for our chapter to recognize these communications professionals for their outstanding work and campaigns," said Mollye Dietrich, IABC Nashville president. "From internal communications teams to public relations agencies, this year's group of winners displayed the very best in business communications throughout Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky and are paving the way for our region to be recognized as one of the nation's top locations to be a communications professional." 

Sponsors for this year's event including presenting sponsor, StagePost, gold sponsors Keycom and The Vincit Group, and silver sponsor Exhibits South. The award winners represented a range of industries, including strategic communications, public relations, non-profit, marketing, media relations, health care, and more. The teams at GSH Media and Keycom both took home numerous awards for their work in media relations, non-profit campaigns, publications, audio/visual, social media programs and special events. Words By Joe Diorio received the Best of Show award for the writing entry "A Few Words About Words" that received the highest score out of all submissions. This year's award winners and categories include:

Centerstone, Audio/Visual
The Change Agent.cy, Change Communications
Frist Art Museum, Social Media Campaigns (2)
Gilda's Club of Middle Tennessee, Nonprofit Campaigns
GSH Media, Publications (6), Audio/Video (2), Social Media Campaigns
Jarrard Phillips Cate & Hancock, Audio/Visual and Special and Experiential Events
Keycom, Media Relations (2), Nonprofit Campaigns (2), Special and Experiential Events (2), and Writing (2)
Smith Communication Partners, Human Resources and Benefits Communication
Veritas Federal Credit Union, Communication for the Web
Volkert, Inc., Communication for the Web
Words By Joe Diorio, LLC, Writing and Best of Show
World Christian Broadcasting, Audio/Visual (2)
In addition to the Music City Gold Pen Awards entries, IABC Nashville also recognized individuals contributing to the chapter and profession with its 2020 IABC Nashville Leadership Awards. This year's award winners include:

Kellie Davie, APR, SCMP, 2020 President's Choice Award
Kristin Appelman, 2020 Rising Star Award
Michael Deas, ABC, SCMP, 2020 Communicator of the Year Award
Genma Stringer Holmes, 2020 Hall of Fame Inductee