Trophies2Go Blog

For a fun entertaining idea this summer, host a cook-off! Friendly competition, especially involving food, is always a good time! With a little planning ahead of time, you can relax at a stress-free event. Here are some tips to get the party started.

1. Invite a good mix of people – those who love to make BBQ and those who love to eat it!

These Stars & Stripes serving dishes from Sur la Table make your Fourth of July BBQ theme complete!

2. Theme – A great theme sets the stage for an awesome party. Choose something summer related, such as 4th of July, Luau, or Beach theme, or you can choose your favorite BBQ to feature. Ribs? Chicken? Brisket? Your theme is the star of the party that you can use as a jumping off point for your music, decorations, and side dishes, so put some thought into making it a good one.

3. Music - Create an iTunes or Spotify playlist of your favorite summer jams to keep the party vibes going all day long. Don’t just stick to one genre of music – mix it up with some country, pop, oldies, rap and dance. As long as it’s upbeat, your tunes will keep the energy up and the party pumping!

4. Decorations – Let your theme be your guide! Table cloths, streamers, plates, centerpieces are all fun, inexpensive ways to deck out your space. Check out Pinterest for inspiration! For even more fun, consider creating a photo booth with props related to your theme. Then your guests can share on social and remember the fun after the fact!

Keep thirst under control with delicious drinks at your event!

5. Bevys - Offer lots of beverages to rinse the palate and stay hydrated! Consider making a signature cocktail to match your theme. Or buckets of beer on ice is always popular and easy! For non-alcoholic drinks, a big container of lemonade hits the spot. And don’t forget the water!!! Stumped for ideas? Check out this list of 25 Essential Cocktails.

6. Awards! To add hype to the completion, don’t forget the awards! Engrave some BBQ cookoff awards such as the Barbecue Magic Trophy Award or BBQ Cookoff Chef Trophy with your event name, theme and winning category. Or get creative with your own joke trophies, such as the Victorious Hulk, Gut bomb trophy, or a dead last toilet trophy for the last place finisher!

7. Make sure you have a plan for people who have a little too much fun at the party. Assign a designated driver to taxi your guests home. Uber is also a great option for getting your guests home safely.

Make it a summer to remember by hosting an epic BBQ cook off, full of good food, drinks, music, competition, and memories!

Cheers,
Jessica

This morning I received an email from customer Tom Edwards who sent me a photo of his "Top Mixer" Trophy along with an article he wrote for the Audio Engineering Society Journal.  I am sharing it below so you can find out all about the AES Nashville event, this amazing trophy and what it represents!  Here's Tom:

AES Nashville – 13th Annual “Spring Mixer”

The "Top Mixer" perpetual trophy.

"The Nashville Section of the AES held its thirteenth annual “Spring Mixer” competition on April 28. Area schools with audio recording programs were invited to participate in the annual student mixing competition. Participating from area schools were students from Belmont University, Middle Tennessee State University, SAE Institute-Nashville, The Art Institute of Tennessee – Nashville, The Blackbird Academy, and University of North Alabama.

Each team was given identical raw original studio tracks recorded at Blue Grotto Sound studio in Nashville, identical mixing environments, and eight hours to create a stereo mix and complete the paperwork as recommended by the AES and the Producer / Engineer Wing of NARAS. Entering the competition, the students were only informed of the judging criteria and what equipment they would be using. The mixing was performed on April 23 and 24 in six identical Pro Tools HD mixing rooms at the Country Music Television audio post rooms in Nashville, TN. The students were informed as to what version of software to expect on the Pro Tools, room monitoring equipment, and what plug-ins would be available on those systems.

Rules prohibited any materials being brought in, re-recording of any new material outside of the Pro Tools systems, or any outside assistance.

The final mix created by each team, using tracks from a recording session of “Summer Days” by the group Track 45, was judged on six elements, Fidelity, Imaging – Width/Depth, Dynamic Range, Mix Balance, Preparation for Mastering and Documentation-completion of page 5 of AES/P&E Wing Session Documentation.

This year the mixing engineer, Sean Spence, spoke to the students before the session and made them aware of the sound he was going for on the finished mix and emphasized the feeling of the song.

Jill Courtney served as Mistress of Ceremonies. A panel of judges comprised of industry professionals graded the mixes and presented their critiques at the April 28 meeting. We returned to the West End United Methodist Church’s “Fourth Floor Theater” in Nashville. The judges included – Writer, Producer, Mixer – John Jaszcz, Sales, Promotion and Record Executive – Dick Williams, Live Sound and recording engineer – Randy Gardner, Producer, Engineer, & Mixer – David Thoener, Studio Designer and accomplished Engineer, Producer, and Studio Owner – Carl Tatz, and Recording Eand Mixing Engineer – Adam Smith. The judges were not told what mix went with which school.

This is quite likely the only chance for the students to be critiqued in a completely subjective environment. The winner of this year's competition was the team from Belmont University, comprised of Shawn Gough, Kevin Freund, and Tat Sablatura. Second place went to the Art Institute of Tennessee-Nashville, and third place was SAE Institute – Nashville. The winning school received a MikTek CV3 microphone and each winning team member received a MikTek C1 microphone, Avid Pro Tools, Slate Digital Everything Bundle, Auralex Roominators, Auralex MOPAD, and a half day mix session at Ble Grotto Sound studios. Other prizes that were so generously supplied by our sponsors – Fabfilter Pro-Q2, Presonus Studio One Professional and Presonus R80 speakers. Iron Mountain Entertainment Services partnered with the AES Nashville Section to furnish finely tailored upper torso custom garments (event T-Shirts).

Belmont University took home the coveted "Top Mixer" perpetual trophy that will be proudly displayed with appropriate bragging rights until next year."

Thank you Tom for sharing your story with us!  What an awesome event and can't wait to hear about next year's competition!

Cheers,
Jessica

Spring means breaking out the clubs and hitting the course!  If you are planning a tournament for your organization, country club, or work, below are our top awards for your event.  In a range of price points, there's a golf trophy for every budget.

Tournament players at Fairwood Golf and Country Club. Can you find Jeff?

High Budget: $100+

If your country club really pulls out the stops for your event, consider a beautiful crystal award for your tournament winners.  Sure to impress, crystal is the ultimate in awards.  Here are a couple of my favorites that your players will covet:

1.  Crystal Museum Bowl:  This award is deep etched with your club logo and champion around the edge.  Beautiful to display, this elegant award will impress your winners.

2.  Shinnecock Elite Crystal Golf Trophy:  This crystal award features a golf ball above a silver tee.  In three sizes, this makes a great 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place award.

3.  Expressions Green Golf Vase:  Vases are beautiful and functional gifts, especially for ladies golf tournaments.  The green crystal bottom radiates through the vase.

Medium Budget $50-$100

Most of our customers shop for golf trophies in this price range with many fun and creative awards available for your tournament!

Our Cameo Golf Cup Trophy is one of the most popular golf trophies we sell.

1.  Cameo Golf Cup:  This cup is our best selling golf award.  For both men and women, this resin cup includes an engraved plate attached to the bottom.

2.  Monster Golf Perpetual Trophy:  Another best seller, what is unique about this trophy is it can be passed around from year to year with winner's names engraved on the side.

3.  Golf Cart Award Trophy:  This trophy is a little different, which makes it fun to give at a tournament.  Another best seller!

Small Budget $20-$50

Even groups with a small budget can get awesome awards for their tournament.

1.  Burst Thru Golf Resin:  This attractive award features a golfer bursting through the background.  Available for both male and female golfers!

2.  Golden Throne Golfing Resin Award:  A hilarious toilet your loser will get a kick out of winning!  This loser toilet is a winner for your highest scorer!

3.  Duffer Trophies - Another joke trophy for both male and female players, our duffer trophy is a best seller.  For those tournaments that don't take themselves too seriously!

We offer dozens of other trophies for your event.  Browse our Golf category now to see all of the choices!

All of our golf award include engraving in the price.  For ideas of what to etch onto your award and which award categories to offer at your tournament, see my past post Golf Tournament Trophies.

Here's to spring and a well-played round!

Cheers!
Jessica

Name tags are a best seller at Trophies2Go, as we create name badges for many organizations across the country.  But what makes name tags a worthwhile investment for companies?  Name tags and name badges are useful customer service tools that can aid customer satisfaction in a number of ways.

5 Ways Name Tags Aid Companies

All the staff at Century Link Field, home to the Seattle Seahawks, wear name tags made by Trophies2Go.

1. Professional: Matching name tags to your company logo reinforces your brand and gives credibility to your employees.

2. Helpful: Name tags help identify employees and distinguish them from customers.  It's easier to get help from staff when they wear this visual queue.

3. Personal connection: when you know a person's name, it makes establishing a relationship that much easier. And in business, people buy from people they like, so creating this emotional connection between staff and customers is important for customer retention.

4. Accountability:  Employees know they have to do a good job when they wear a name tag.  No longer anonymous, employees are accountable for their actions.

5. Recognition from customers: When an employee goes out of their way to help a customer, a customer can leave a positive review if they know the person's name.

Choosing a Name Tag Style

A sampling of different name tag styles made by Trophies2Go.

Businesses of all kinds purchase name tags from Trophies2Go. We have a large selection of personalized name badges for every type of industry.  Popular materials for name tags are plastic and metal, which can be personalized in three ways:

1. Rotary Engraving: The plastic is etched with a diamond tip rotary engraver. The machine grooves the letters out of the plastic, exposing a different color.  This results in 2-color name badges.

2.  Laser engraving:  The plastic or metal is etched using a laser beam.  This method is useful for complicated logos and graphics that require fine details that a diamond tip engraver can't do.

3.  Sublimation: this process uses dye which is heated and fused directly into the name tag material.  Sublimation is the best way to create full color name tags with multiple colors.

Attaching Name Tags to Clothes

There are also many options for attaching name tags.  We offer 3 different styles of backing depending on your needs.

1.  Pin back - the cheapest option, this is the traditional way to attach a name tag, by pinning it to your clothing.  However this can leave holes in fabric and prick skin.

2.  Magnet back - a powerful magnet attaches the name tag through clothes without damaging the garment.   This is the most popular backing option we sell, but it is an upgraded cost.

3.  Alligator clip - this option has a clip back that can attach to a lapel, collar or a lanyard.  This option required a hole at the top of the badge in order to attach the clip.

All personalization, including employee name and job title, are included in the price of every name tag we sell - it's no problem to make each tag different.  To save time and money, batch your name badges together so that you can qualify for quantity discounts; they are cheaper when you buy in bulk.  Also our name tags can be made quickly, as fast as 1-2 days.  Just give our friendly customer service team a call to find out more.

Browse our Name Tags Category to see all of the choices.  Here's to marketing your business and identifying your staff to your customers!

Cheers,

Jessica

With the conclusion of spring break, we're on the home stretch of the school year. Next up in May is Teacher Appreciation Week, where parents and students celebrate the educators, administrators and staff at their local schools. Usually planned by volunteers, activities for the week include themed events with small gifts, catered luncheons, decorations, and pampering! My kids' elementary school always had teachers' doors decorated and themes for each day of the week, with luncheons, massages, and coffee for the staff.

Check out great ideas for teacher appreciation at our pinterest page!

If you are a room parent, PTA volunteer, or student, brainstorming ideas and then implementing a week's worth of appreciation for the entire staff at your school can be daunting. Here are some ideas to help with planning an awesome week for outstanding teachers.

Small Gifts: for small inexpensive gifts, use Pinterest as your inspiration. Check out our Teacher Appreciation Board for cute, inexpensive and easy ideas.

Large Gifts: If you would like to treat your teacher to a larger item for their classroom or a gift card to their favorite store, consider pooling your class money into one larger gift. As a past room mom, I can tell you that this is a hit with teachers - they love it!

Apple Teacher Awards: We offer a number of different "apple" awards that teachers would be proud to display. Popular options include our 3D Apple Teacher Appreciation Plaque, Engraved Crystal Apple, and Red Apple Resin Award.

Kid-Made Items: Cards or letters made by students will touch teacher's hearts and will be cherished for years to come. Consider having the students write letters or draw pictures and put them in a binder for the teacher.

Ms. Inama from Enatai Elementary was last week's 'Teacher of the Week".

Award your Teacher: Nominate your teacher for an award to showcase their talents. Most schools offer Golden Acorn Awards that honor Outstanding Educators. Community organizations also honor teachers; here in the Seattle area, we sponsor the STAR 101.5 "Teacher of the Week" contest. Each winning teacher gets a check for their classroom, gifts and an engraved plaque made by Trophies2Go!

Volunteer your time: Teachers appreciate the helping hands of parents and other volunteers. Get involved at your school to see how you can help.

Be sure to participate in the 2016 Teacher Appreciation Week May 2-6! Teachers, administrators and school staff deserve recognition and thanks for educating our youth! Find out more at the National Education Association.

Cheers,
Jessica