At CCW Excellence Awards, Inclusion, Equity And Excellence Are The Real Prize
Attendees, honorees and award winners celebrate.
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At CCW Las Vegas 2023 once the speaker sessions wind down, the red carpet gets rolled out and the cameras start flashing, you know that you’re about to encounter the biggest names in customer contact that any conference can offer.
Each year, the CCW Excellence Awards recognize the most innovative companies and top-performing executives for their extraordinary contributions to the customer contact profession. When it comes to raising the bar for the CX and EX practices, you can count on each year’s honorees and awardees to have experience, insights and expertises more valuable than your casino blackjack hand. This year’s gala held July 20 at Ceasar’s Forum was a long anticipated reunion of both customer contact’s best-in-show and CX’s most noticeable up-and-comers.
Throughout the ceremonial evening CCW Digital caught up on-site with event attendees, honorees and awardees to feel the pulse of this year’s gathering. As these conversations will show you, it turns out that customer contact superstars have not just high hopes and high expectations, but an even higher vision for the future of customer contact.
On her way to the Main Stage, Kathy, a manager with UPMC Health Plan, shared with CCW Digital that she came to Las Vegas not just to learn more about AI and customer engagement, but to bring home an Excellence Award. “UPMC is in the running for the top contact center, so let's hope we win,” she told CCW Digital. “We're hoping to bring home a win!”
Donna Anderson, also on the UPMC team as a customer engagement manager at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health Plan, shared that for her CCW Vegas is all about moments of connection like those found at CCW Vegas and the Excellence Awards.
“The conference has been very educational. I love the interaction. I love meeting the people, hearing about how they run their call centers, the software that they employ, how they manage their hybrid employees,” she explained.
“And I'm just looking forward to the expo tomorrow to see all about the new technology that's out there. I'm just really excited!”
Steve Handler, Vice President of Member Service with Members 1st Federal Credit Union, greeted CCW Digital with a cheer of excitement–he had broken out his tuxedo for a very special occasion: the chance for his organization to win the Excellence Award for Contact Center Leader of the Year.
Dressing to the nines appeared to be the theme for the night, and for CCWomen Hall of Fame inductee Kacey Felila Tolu, Senior Director of Channels and Self-Service at Marriott International, it was no different. She showed up in a floor length sparkling gown ready to not just express her gratitude for the honor, but to make sure her fellow CCW Las Vegas attendees were armed with knowledge about an inclusive space for women and allies in customer contact:
“The one piece of knowledge I’m looking to share with everyone is about CCWomen, empowerment and gratitude for the allies… I'm really honored to be able to follow in the footsteps of such powerful women,”
noting Kathy Phelps and Martha Sager among past inductees.
Opening remarks from the team at Arise echoed attendees’ feelings of excitement, inclusion and gratitude:
“We're confident that we will continue to drive equity and inclusion in these efforts. And we know there's so many folks working from anywhere, we may just reduce society's carbon footprint along the way. So let's partner together in this effort.”
Partnering together for the evening, Excellence Awards attendees enjoyed a magic show by NFL Long Snapper Jon Dorenbos, while celebrating the night’s honorable mentions, awardees and CCWomen Hall of Fame Inductees.
You can find the full list of CCW Excellence Award winners here.
