Awards

Sundance Vacations reaches out once again to claim not one, but seven Stevie’s from the American Business Awards. The nominees are: Sales Department of the Year, Best Overall Company, Fastest Growing Company, Marketer of the Year (Doreen Miller), Support Staffer of the Year (Natalie Cassarella), IT Exec of the Year (Tom Berger), and Executive of the Year (John Dowd).

 In 2009 the Sundance Vacations King of Prussia office took home a Stevie Award for Best Sales Team in the Hospitality and Tourism category. Created to honor and publicly recognize the efforts, accomplishments and positive contributions of companies and business people worldwide, the Stevie is a highly coveted award. Best known as “the business world’s version of the Oscars” The American Business Awards are the only all-encompassing national awards program that honors virtually all types of business organizations.

The awards gala will take place on Monday, June 22nd at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, New York City. This is an exciting event for Sundance Vacations, and we will keep you posted on the results.

CONGRATULATIONS to all finalists! Sundance Vacations wishes you the best of luck!

Congratulations team, you did it!! Sundance Vacations was named as one of the Best Medium Companies to Work for in Illinois. Numerous Illinois employees anonymously participated in the survey process. Participation levels were so significant, that Sundance Vacations once again proves to be one of the best places to work, because of its employees!

“Sundance Vacations is very proud of our local Illinois management team. Maintaining a group of employees 600 miles away from the corporate office can sometimes be a challenge, yet the Illinois team does an exceptional job of helping every employee feel valued,” said Sundance Vacations President John Dowd.

This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Illinois, benefiting the state’s economy, its workforce and businesses. In 2008 Sundance Vacations was named #12 best large company to work for in Pennsylvania.
 
Sundance Vacations will be recognized and honored at the Best Places to Work in Illinois awards ceremony coordinated by The Business Ledger on May 19^th. The final rankings will be revealed at the ceremony. Stay tuned!
 
Join me in congratulating the one of the BEST PLACES TO WORK IN ILLINOIS!

Did you ever see someone blend a yard rake in a normal functioning kitchen blender? I know you’re probably thinking, yeah right! This is a true story. While attending the Social Media for Communicators Conference in Las Vegas I saw just that. Interested? www.willitblend.com.

Besides blending, the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh also attended the conference and gave a great presentation on what Zappos is all about. According to Hsieh, the ultimate aim of the Zappos brand is to be the very best when it comes to customer service and consumer experience.

Hsieh firmly believes in creating a ‘wow’ experience for the customer and investing in a corporate culture that allows employees freedom and space. “If you get the culture right, then most of the other stuff, like great customer service or building a brand will just happen naturally”, said Hsieh. Zappos has formalized the definition of its culture into ten core values and employees are hired and fired based on those values. The company culture is different because it is not driven by the CEO or Management, but the employees who themselves determine how they want the culture to evolve.

Needless to say, Zappos has Sundance Vacations CEO Tina Dowd in a frenzy and willingly changing the corporate culture at Sundance Vacations. Just check out the corporate intranet!

Gosh, this conference sounds more like a seminar for women. With blenders and shoes, one would think. But, it was actually very fulfilling and taught me a lot about all the different types of social media, blogging, vlogging, and tweeting. I learned a lot about web strategy and building a successful brand for Sundance Vacations. Also about building an online newsroom, which is currently in the works. Don’t worry, this isn’t the last you’ll hear of social media. Pretty soon I have a feeling Sundance Vacations CEO Tina Dowd will be tweeting from the moon!

The conference was presented by Ragan Communications and the Public Relations Society of America. The conference was held at the Encore at Wynn Las Vegas.

What companies have you been impressed by? What impressed you most?

The Sundance Vacations Dowers Grove office was selected as a finalist for the Charity Contribution Award by the Downers Grove Chamber of Commerce.

The award will be judged by the company’s unique or innovative approaches, community involvement, employee empowerment, and the vision and mission of the selected company.

The award luncheon will be held on Wednesday, February 11th at the Doubletree Guest Suites and Conference Center in Downers Grove, Illinois.

Congratulations to everyone at the Downers Grove office! Keep up all of the great work!

Sundance Vacations was selected as one of the best places to work in Pennsylvania on December 2nd, 2008. This was the second year the company participated in the program. Sundance Vacations placed twelfth in a statewide poll for the top 50 large companies. Competition was fierce as employees anxiously awaited the ranking alongside Sundance Vacations founders John and Tina Dowd. Nearly 45,000 Pennsylvania employees (a 100% increase over last year) filled out the survey. The combined scores determined the top company’s final ranking. The ceremony was held at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center in Hershey, PA. The attendance at the dinner topped over 1,100 people from 100 companies throughout Pennsylvania. “There are many companies who are disappointed, because they did not make the list,” said Acting Secretary, Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, John Blake. Sundance Vacations is pleased with their ranking, but let’s keep striving for the number one spot!!

What do you think would improve our ranking for next year? We would love to hear some of your suggestions!

Congratulations team, we did it!! For the second year in a row, Sundance Vacations was named as one of the Best Places to Work in PA. Hundreds of employees anonymously participated in the survey process. Participation levels were so significant, that Sundance Vacations proves to be one of the best places to work, because of the employees.

Companies from across the state entered the two-part process to determine the 100 Best Places to Work in PA. The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophies, systems and demographics. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. Nearly 45,000 Pennsylvania employees filled out the survey. The combined scores determine the top companies and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process.

This statewide survey and awards program was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Pennsylvania, benefiting the state’s economy, its workforce and businesses. Last year Sundance Vacations was named #8 Best Place to Work in PA. However, the company was #1 Best Place to Work locally.

Sundance Vacations will be recognized and honored at the Best Places to Work in PA evening awards ceremony on Tuesday, December 2, 2008, at the Hershey Lodge & Convention Center. The final rankings will be revealed at the ceremony. Stay tuned!

The Association of TeleServices International recently honored Sundance Vacations with the Call Center Award of Distinction. Sundance Vacations was recognized at ATSI’s 2008 annual conference held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in St. Louis, MO.

The award of excellence is a ‘mystery shopper’ program that provides individual testing for quality assurance in customer service levels. After six months of testing, a panel of judges scored call-handling skills for “enhanced service” applications focusing attention on customer relation management (CRM), courtesy, etiquette, and the use of proper call techniques, as well as response time and accuracy, the cornerstones of the Call Management Industry.

“We congratulate Sundance Vacations for their achievements,” said ATSI President Allan Fromm. This is the second year Sundance has received this honorable award. Be sure to congratulate the marketing team on their hard work!

Among the awards Sundance Vacations have received, what awards means the most to you or to your office?

Sundance Vacations has been selected as a Finalist in the 2008 American Business Awards. Companies as diverse as Accenture, Acxiom Corporation, Harrah’s Entertainment, KV Pharmaceutical, and Teamwork Athletic Apparel are among those vying for a Stevie Award.  More than 2,600 entries were submitted for consideration in more than 40 categories.

Sundance Vacations received two out of three nominations that were submitted to the awards judges. The two entries that were chosen for national recognition are Best Sales Team, and Best New Product. The company was selected because of the high average scores received during more than a month of preliminary judging. The next step is the Stevie Awards ceremony that will be held in New York City on June 12^th. Mike and Barbara Kasper will represent the sales team and Christina Allen and guest will represent the company for the VIP Program. This is an exciting time for everyone at Sundance Vacations, and we can’t wait to see the results!!

How do you feel about Sundance Vacations being recognized for this outstanding achievement? What do you think about the finalists? Make sure you wish them luck!

Sundance Vacations reaches out once again to claim a Stevie award for 2008. Our nominees are: Best New Product, Best Sales Team, and Best Customer Service Team. Last year Sundance was named as a finalist for Best Overall Company and for the Best Marketing Team. Joe Molitoris, VP of Marketing was named as a finalist for the Best Marketing Executive. Created to honor and publicly recognize the efforts, accomplishments and positive contributions of companies and business people worldwide, the Stevie is a highly coveted award. Best known as “the business world’s version of the Oscars” The American Business Awards are the only all-encompassing national awards program that honor virtually all types of business organizations. This is an exciting event for the company, and we will keep you posted on the results.

Do you have any great stories about our nominated teams?  Let us know who you think the winner will be!!   

Sundance Vacations was recently named as one of the Best Places to Work in PA for 2007.  The awards program, created in 2000, is one of the first of its kind offered by a state in the country.  The program is a public/private partnership of Team Pennsylvania Foundation, the Chamber of Business and Industry and the Central Penn Business Journal.                                                                           

This statewide survey and awards program is designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Pennsylvania, benefiting the state’s economy, its workforce and businesses.  The Best Places to Work in PA list is made up of 100 companies split into two groups: 50 medium-sized companies (25-250 employees) and 50 large-sized companies (251 or more employees).  Sundance Vacations was named one of the Best Places to Work in the large category.                                                                                                                                           

To be considered for participation, companies had to fulfill the following eligibility requirements:

-Have at least 25 employees in Pennsylvania;

-Be a for-profit or not-for-profit business;

-Be a publicly or privately held business;

-Have a facility in Pennsylvania; and

-Be in good standing with Commonwealth agencies under the Governor’s jurisdiction.                                                                                                                                              

Companies from across the state entered the two-part process to determine the 100 Best Places to Work in PA.  The first part consisted of evaluating each nominated company’s workplace policies, practices, philosophy, systems and demographics.  This part of the process was worth approximately 24% of the total evaluation.  The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience.  “We can’t wait to dive into those surveys.  Everyone appreciates positive feedback but I’ll save those for when I’m having a bad day.  I want to read the neutral and negative comments because that is where we can drive change and make improvements,” explains CEO, Tina Dowd.  Nearly 20,000 Pennsylvania employees filled out the survey.  The combined scores determined the top companies and the final ranking.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        John Dowd, Owner and President, made the decision to participate in the 100 Best Places to Work awards program, while I coordinated the application and survey process for all 350 Pennsylvania employees.                                                                                                                                                

Sundance Vacations will be recognized and honored at the Best Places to Work in PA evening awards ceremony on Tuesday, November 27, 2007, at the Hershey Lodge & Convention Center.  Our final rankings will be revealed at the ceremony.                                                                                                                                                                                    

For the Sundance employees who read this post, what benefits do you like?  What benefits would you like to have?  What changes would you make?  We appreciate your thoughts and ideas.  Send them to me at komara@vacmail.com or blog@vacmail.com.  If you wish your comment to be confidential, just mention it in your comment; I will remove your name and maintain your anonymity.                                                                                                                                                                                              

~ Kathy O’Mara