Judging Panel Set for North American Marine Industry Awards
Seattle, WA: As the number of nominations continue to grow for the 2005 North American Marine Industry Web Awards, today, boats.com and the National Marine Manufacturers Association announced the judging panel for this prestigious new industry initiative. The Awards are designed to recognize companies that lead the North American marine industry's drive towards higher standards of excellence in website design and content. Closing date for nominations is Tuesday, November 30, 2004.
The judges are:
Sandy Marsico - Principal, Sandstorm Design, Chicago - Marsico is a specialist in website strategies, marketing communications, and identity programs. Her decade of expertise includes strategic branding and design for corporate organizations such as Allstate, Walgreen's and Pfizer. She is a member of the Adobe Advisory Panel, the CreativePro Leaders Panel and the American Institute of Graphic Arts.
Stephen Meade - President and CEO, GBUCS, LLC - Meade has been involved in
e-commerce for the past six years, having launched two successful e-commerce ventures; SiteVisions.com and VirtualSellers.com. This success has provided for an extended base of knowledge in the transaction processing and payment facilitation field. Prior experience includes serving as Regional Vice President with Travelers Group, a Fortune 500 financial services company.
James Nolan - Marketing/Public Relations, boats.com - Nolan has been involved with the marine industry at the senior management level for many years. He was Associate Publisher of Boating Industry magazine and helped develop its eNews letter and Internet advertising campaign. He recently wrote a number of articles for I.B.I. magazine about e-commerce as it pertains to the leisure marine industry.
Fernando Regueiro - Internet Services Department, NMMA - Regueiro has spent the last four years leading the Internet Services Department for the NMMA. He leads a team of programmers and designers who are in charge of the development and maintenance of the 39 websites under the NMMA umbrella. These websites comprise a total of 75 domain names including nmma.org, discoverboating.com and boatshows.com
Dana VanDen Heuvel - President, BlogSavant, Manager, Sales Operations, Schneider National Inc. - VanDen Heuvel is an Internet marketing consultant, author and blogger. He has directed Internet marketing at Krueger International and ran the sales force automation program for Warner Bros./AOL-Time Warner. He has published numerous articles and participated in panels relating to sales technology, Web technology and Web-centered integrated marketing.
About the North American Marine Industry Web Awards.
Five award categories have been created to honor different segments of the North American marine industry and the companies in those segments whose websites demonstrate creativity in design, ease of navigation and up-to-date, relevant content. The Awards have been organized to recognize the following categories:
| Best OEM/Manufacturer Site | For boat manufacturers' |
| Best Marine Equipment Site | For equipment manufacturers' |
| Best Dealer/Broker Site | For power or sailboat dealers and brokers |
| Best Marine Site - Overall | For all marine websites |
| Outstanding Contribution to the Online Marine Industry | Open to any individual or organization who has made a significant contribution to the development of the Internet within the industry. |
To nominate a company or an individual complete the online application on the new dedicated web awards website: http://www.boats.com/nawebawards/index.html , which includes all relevant award information.
Winning companies will hold one of the prestigious titles for a year and will also receive a trophy exclusively designed by world renowned yacht designer, Tony Castro to be presented at a special awards ceremony during the 2005 Miami International Boat Show, being held February 17-21 at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
About boats.com
boats.com provides marketing services to OEM's, dealers, brokers and service companies throughout the global recreational marine industry. The company provides an unmatched level of consumer access to information, boat listings, financial and insurance products. With more than 95,000 new and used boat listings from over 5,500 brokers and dealers, boats.com is the largest concentration of recreational marine industry marketing in the world.
boats.com represents the manufacturers of over 90% of all new boats in the U.S, along with new and used boat listings from dealers and brokers and an ever growing international presence. boats.com has received the exclusive Internet endorsement of the NMMA and MRAA.
About NMMA
National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) is the leading association representing the recreational boating industry. NMMA member companies produce more than 80 percent of the boats, engines, trailers, accessories and gear used by boaters and anglers in the United States. The association is dedicated to industry growth through programs in public policy, market research and data, product quality assurance and marketing communications.
Contact:
James Nolan
boats.com, Inc.
202-265-6303
202-478-1740 fax
[email protected]
Dan Green
NMMA
312-946-6269
312-946-0388 fax
