Today on the fourth floor, we’re proud to announce that our very own boss lady, Debra Goldblatt-Sadowski, is nominated for PR Professional of the Year in the first-ever BizBash Toronto Readers’ Choice Awards. The awards are based on reader votes, so we’re calling on our friends, family, readers and colleagues to help our fearless leader take the award this month.
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| #debgeeforthewin Photo credit: Jessica Blaine Smith |
You may know Debra from her work talent-wrangling at TIFF, managing the crowds at fashion week or any number of projects she’s worked on since founding rock-it promotions in 2000, but we want to bring you the inside scoop on DG. So today, we present 10 secret reasons why she deserves your vote:
1. Debra has a poet’s soul. No, really. She studied creative writing at Concordia University and always dreamed of becoming a poet. However, that soul also has a pragmatic side that encouraged her to channel her love of writing into something more lucrative than poetry.
2. She can hook you up. Not only is she keeper of the keys at some of Toronto’s most exclusive events, one of her first jobs was working for a dating service.
woman behind the man in the mask. From
working with Woody Harrelson, who starred as the comedic superhero
“Defendor” in the movie of the same name, to marrying Matt Austin-Sadowski,
who, once upon a time, was a green Power Ranger, DG is basically the industry’s
own Pepper Potts.
4. She’s also a fairy godmother. Or at least according to her adorable three-year-old daughter, whose favourite game is “Fairy Godmother,” with Debra cast in the lead role.
5. She tweets it like it is. Sometimes sweet, sometimes sassy, Debra’s tweets are always on the pulse of Toronto.
6. She’s a pioneer. A strong supporter of social media, she was one of the first PR pros to recognize the unique voice of social media, and in particular bloggers, creating controversy by inviting them into the tents at fashion week years before the term “street style” was part of our everyday lexicon.
7. She has great taste. Debra was the first person in Toronto to start a full service gifting lounge company called Tastemakers (along with VP of Operations, Leesa Butler). Modelled after swag lounges in the U.S., she recognized a missing niche here and eight years later, has sparked some competition, but still has the best lounge at the festival.
8. On the Fourth Floor. rock-it was the first boutique agency to start a daily lifestyle blog back in 2010. Not one day has been missed since it was launched. The Media, Darling feature is our most popular and has attracted praise from competing agencies and journalists, alike.
9. Once you are part of the family, you stay part of the family. Many of rock-it’s clients have been on the company roster for many, many years. Drake Hotel, Alliance Films, Loblaw Companies, Fashion Design Council of Canada, Frigidaire and Electrolux, to name a few. Debra considers all clients to be top priority and always goes the extra mile, whether on vacation, weekends or evenings.
10. She’s a cool boss. Do you get to Google Tumblrs, do each other’s hair and attend wine tastings
during office hours? ‘Cause we do. Plus, we love our flexible dress
code, the fact that we can bring our dogs to the office, and
occasionally start our emails to her with “Hey, man.”
For these reasons and more, please support #debgeeforthewin and help her take the award at BizBash’s Celebrate Toronto Events 2012 reception on May 22. Visit bizbash.com/torontovotes to cast your vote! Voting is open until Thursday, May 17 and you can vote once per day, every day.
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