Conversation, anticipation and a few hundred well-dressed people filled the double-height, window-walled space overlooking Central Park on the 35th floor of the Mandarin Oriental at the cocktail reception before OPC’s Annual Awards Dinner.
“For an industry that is supposedly dying, this crowd looks pretty good,” said Rosalind Massow, who has attended many of these evenings.
Felice Levin, Massow’s fellow OPC Foundation board member, said she prefers the opening reception to the event that follows the dinner. Why? The night is young and “people are lively and ready to party,” she said.
To many, the Awards Dinner prelude is familiar. Talk and drinks flow. It’s a time to greet and catch up with friends, colleagues and competitors, including some who traveled a great distance to attend. Even if you don’t know someone, you may recognize their name and find people or places in common.
Some, however, came with new eyes.
Teri Whitcraft, a senior producer for ABC News, had a supply of business cards and no trouble walking up to strangers. She said she was thrilled to be at her first OPC event, especially since she and her colleagues were there to celebrate winning the David A. Andelman and Pamela Title Award with “Giving Life: A Risky Proposition.”
Daniel Goldman, an editor-at-large for Bloomberg Businessweek, stood at an edge of the crowd, watching. He had won the Morton Frank Award for “New Oriental Cracks the SAT Code.” He described his story and said he wasn’t sure what to expect from the night, and then he spotted his wife and was off.
Printed excerpts from winning projects punctuated the room on large displays provided by Lenova, which sponsored the reception. Lenova, a first-time supporter of the OPC, also had a patron table at the dinner and gave each winner an Ultrabook laptop.