President's Message
The Northeast Spa & Pool Association’s 2019 Outstanding Achievement Awards for both the Builders and Service winners will be presented at the 2020 Welcome Party on Monday, January 27th at The Pool & Spa Show in Atlantic City. You are invited to celebrate these builder and service winners with over 2,000 of your industry peers. The big party takes place at the Saloon Bar at the Wild Wild West (Bally’s Casino). To attend, you will need to make sure you are registered for a badge and you will need to buy a ticket to attend the party. See a total of 191 design entries – 83 medals and 22 Awards of Merit. In addition, all of the Service winners will be highlighted as well.
If you have never entered the design or service competition, it is a great thing to do for your company, for yourself and for your employees. My firm, The Land of Elite, has entered design competitions for many years and we have received recognition for our work often. We hang our plaques throughout our offices, on the walls of our meeting room and feature them on our website. They grab the customer’s attention and, frankly, boost employee morale.
That’s why we enter. What about other winners in the competition? Without revealing any of the names of the winners, we asked some why they enter the competition. Here’s their responses:
A Gold Medalist from New York State said: “If we win, we want to use those winning pools in advertising and on social media. It elevates our status.”
A Pennsylvania Gold Medalists told us that entering NESPA's Outstanding Achievement Awards allows the company to compare itself to other quality pool builders in the northeast. “We like to know that we are designing and building the best outdoor environments. That’s what we promise to our clients.”
A Westchester County, New York builder and service professional that took a Gold this year said that a core reason he enters the competition is to have his staff’s great work acknowledged by peers in the industry. “It provides a sense of accomplishment for our entire staff. It’s also great PR for the company.”
A consistent Gold Medalist from Connecticut said: “The design award program is validation to our prospective clients that our product is not just supported by architects, engineers and landscape architects, but also by our peers in the industry who recognize quality work. The second and perhaps more important thing to me is recognition of our staff and company.”
In New Jersey, a Gold Medal winner told us that she enters the competition to “stay on the cutting edge and to see what other great companies in the community are designing and developing. By entering NESPA’s Outstanding Achievement Awards program, we get to be involved with all the great companies and designs each year.”
That’s what some of our Gold Medalists had to stay. I look forward to seeing you at The Pool & Spa Show in Atlantic City and at the Welcome Party to celebrate all of our winners and to be part of a great pool and spa show.
Mitch Katz, CBP, CSP
The Land of Elite
NESPA President