PLASA Announces Winners of Rock Our World and Stewart Awards

The Rock Our World Award and the 2012 Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award were presented at the PLASA Cocktails and Awards Reception on Thursday October 18, the evening before the LDI show.

The Rock Our World awards recognize ground-breaking achievement by PLASA Members were created to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designer or integrator who applies the technology in a real-world environment. Community members from the international industry submitted 25 nominations, and these were narrowed down to a shortlist of six finalists for panel of judges to review. The judges for this year's awards were Neil Austin, William Gorlin, Peter Nigrini, Gareth Owen, Abigail Rosen-Holmes, and Nick Simmons.

The judges' panel was chaired by Mike Wood, who said prior to announcing the winners "The Rock our World awards were born out of a desire to recognize the very best of our industry, in any aspect; a technical product, an application, or a collaborative project. A gadget, a show, or a building. A piece of equipment that breaks the mold, a design that pushes the limits, or an event that stuns the audience."

The judges were given free rein to select as many or as few winners as rocked their world, and the winners were ELC Lighting for the Green-GO digital intercom system and the Pan American Games in Guadalajara that involved PRG.

Mike Wood commented, "In all the years of the Rock our World Awards the Green-GO received the quickest agreement as an award winner that I can remember. The judges were universally enthusiastic in their praise, with Gareth Owen perhaps summing it up the best, 'This is bloody brilliant!'"

The judges were particularly impressed with the central halo at the Pan American Games and its rigging and use for lighting and projection.

The 2012 Frank Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award went to members of the Technical Standards Program's E1.6-1 Powered Hoist Systems Task Group and the Entertainment Technician Certification Program's Rigging Subject Matter Experts.

The award to the TSP was presented by the Chair of the TSP Rigging Working Group, Bill Sapsis. Sapsis told the crowd, "The effort put into this document has been staggering. While countless people have worked on this project over the years, the really heavy lifting has been accomplished by the current task group who took over the project in 2006." The members of the group are Joe Champelli, Kimberly Corbett, Chris Kaiser, Michael Lichter, Jack Miller, Jim Niesel, Pete Svitavsky, Steve Walker, and task group leader Harvey Sweet.

The award to the ETCP Rigging Subject Matter Experts was presented by PLASA North American Regional Board Chair Eddie Raymond who said, "These individuals volunteered numerous hours over the last year to the task of reviewing and updating the certification exams. This endeavor was necessary due to the success of the program and the number of certifications that have been awarded. This also assures that the exams are up-to-date with the latest rigging practices, equipment, and regulations." The ETCP SMEs honored were Patrick Bash, John Bleich, David Boevers, Marcel Boulet, Eric Braun, Olan Cottrill, Dan Culhane, Brad Dittmer, Jim Doherty, Russ Dusek, Tony Galuppi, Kelly Green, Tom Heemskerk, Dan Houser, Glenn Hufford, Ed Kish, Eric McAfee, Joseph McGeough, Brian Miller, Joe Mooneyham, Walter Murphy, Mark O'Brien, Michael Reed, Stephen Rees, Bill Sapsis (chair, arena SMEs), Peter Scheu, Loren Schreiber, Karen Seifried (chair, theatre SMEs), and Gil Vinzant.

The Frank Stewart award was created to honor Stewart's unrivalled service to ESTA during the 18 years that he served as its treasurer. This award recognizes extraordinary effort by a volunteer or group of volunteers during the previous year and is bestowed by the PLASA North American Regional Board.