By GARRY HOWE STAR NEWS GROUP EDITOR
OH What A Night!
Frankie Valli and his Four Seasons could well have been referring to the inaugural Casey Cardinia Business Awards presentation dinner when they first crooned that famous line back in the ’60s.
The night had everything – made you laugh, made you cry – and there was a great buzz in the room.
Victorian Governor Alex Chernov added a bit of pomp and ceremony to the occasion as a surprise guest and won the crowd with charm and wit when he took to the stage.
The tone was set early when Jenny and Dan Patience from JD Propagation in Pearcedale made their way up to the stage to accept the first award, in the Agriculture and Primary Industries Category, and were followed by a conga line of staff. It seemed like half the room had stood to make the stage.
Highview Accounting’s Silvio Marinelli earned a playful punch in the arm from compere Tracey Curro when he pointed out that he had a poster of the glamorous TV journalist on his wall during his teenage years.
Silvio made his way to the stage three times – accepting category awards for Business and Professional Services and Environmental Sustainability and the top gong as Business of the Year. He apologised for not being as articulate as he would have liked, reasoning that he was better with figures than words, then applied the numbers and declared that three awards added up to a pretty good night.
Touche!
There was hardly a dry eye in the house after Michelle Jankovic from Helping Hand Is Here accepted her award in the Home Based category.
Most were moved as Michelle explained how she had started the business out of the frustration she experienced as a mother of a child with a mild form of cerebral palsy trying to access medical and support services. Helping Hand Is Here now seeks to make that journey easier for other parents.
Social responsibility seemed to be a common theme among a lot of the successful businesses, a fact not lost on the Governor when he spoke, and they were certainly a diverse bunch.
The winners ranged from Berwick-based Australian Precision Technologies, which develops components to send worldwide to the likes of Boeing, to a group of mums making life easier for those in the preschool community under the banner of Kinders Together.
The winners and sponsors all spoke well and added to the positive vibe, although MP Inga Peulich should have more sense of the occasion and cut her political spiel by two-thirds.
Judges had their work cut out separating candidates in several categories, such was the depth of talent. Some may have left disappointed, but that always happens at award nights. All due respect to the Garfield girls, but this is not kindergarten and not everyone goes home with a prize.
Hats off to the economic development departments of Casey and Cardinia for bringing the awards together and putting on such an inspirational and uplifting night – and to Khan’s Catering for again feeding and watering the 420 guests so professionally.
There will be a bit of fine tuning with the process, given it was the first year as combined awards, but in the wash-up the 2014 Casey Cardinia Business Awards can only be deemed an outstanding success.
* Garry Howe has been a judge of the Cardinia Business Awards for the past six years and was also part of the panel for the first combined awards this year.
