Red Door’s receiving the top honor in the small business category made the annual San Diego SHRM Workplace Excellence Awards event held on November 11 particularly exciting for us. The San Diego Workplace Excellence Awards educate and enlighten San Diego business leaders on the contributions that exceptional HR practices make to the success and profitability of an organization. The event showcases the true value of the HR profession and the tremendous impact effective it has upon all operational aspects of a business enterprise.

This recognition is very special to us. The criteria aligns closely with our philosophies about HR practices and the impact they have on our overall success. The high caliber of the judges and respect we have for SHRM both on a local and national level validate our HR strategies.

We’re extremely proud of being consistently recognized as an organization that prioritizes the development and well being of our employees. Most significantly, it shows that we have an exceptional group of people who consistently commit to grow individually and as a team. Maintaining that culture and tailoring our HR initiatives to their changing needs directly benefits our ability to help our customers profit from the Web initiatives we undertake on their behalf.

Our goal is to continue to provide the tools and focus for employees to define their career paths and create their own opportunities to advance because of the successes they help create for our clients’ businesses.

Every year, Red Door enters top creative to the San Diego ADDYs Creative Show. We’ve walked away with numerous awards over the years, but never anything quite like this.

This year, the San Diego Ad Club decided to host the first annual Pinewood Derby contest where local agencies race in-house designed boxcars. The Pinewood Derby supports this years ADDYs theme “Your ideas have legs. Now let’s see if they have wheels.” There were four awards given: Fastest, Slowest, Most Creative and Best Representation of an Agency.

The Red Door Creative team got together to concept some original ideas for our car while enjoying some Fat Tires during Red Door’s Beer:30. Beer:30 is a weekly event on Fridays held to boost morale by claiming 3:30 as “beer:30” and encouraging employees to take a quick break while enjoying a nice, cold beer if they choose. So, with a few gulps of  beer in us, what better idea then to make a Beer:30 boxcar! Our own Red Door brew to race down the tracks at the derby. Thanks to Will Hansen, Interactive Designer at Red Door, and his mad dremel skills, here is the final product:

The car represents the recent addition of Red Door Denver with the Fat Tire cap, and an agency branded label designed by Jeannie Fratoni, Red Door’s Creative Director, and Michelle Peck, Interactive Designer.

There was much hooting and hollering at the ADDYs Raid/Pinewood Derby last Friday evening as our Creative Team watched the Beer:30 car race down the tracks. While it wasn’t the fastest car of the bunch, it definitely stood out in the crowd. During the award ceremony, with gag-gift like trophies such as a toilet seat and brick, Red Door took home the golden prize (or golden syrup bottle) of Best Representation of an Agency. So, I guess our slogan “The best hour for freshly brewed ideas” proved to be true at the Pinewood Derby.

Wish us luck. We find out if we receive an award for our creative work at the ADDYs Creative Gala on March 20th.