On Friday, April 30th 2004, the Hyatt Regency Vancouver played host to the crème de la crème of the Canadian events and meetings industry when CEP Magazine announced the winners of the 7th Annual Star Awards. 32 Canadian companies were honored for their excellence as the star studded crowd roared in a tremendous show of peer recognition. Winning events included Toronto's famous Fashion Cares Gala, The World Weight Lifting Championships, Rendezvous Canada, the World Conference on Lung Cancer to name a few. The Star Awards, which moves to a different Canadian city each year, was held in Vancouver for the first time in 4 years. In 2005 it moves to Toronto and will take place as part of the 2005 CEP Special Events and Meetings Expo in the early spring.

This year's Gala theme was Event Sensations and was expressed through the colorful and creative table designs put together by Inflated Ideas and Table Trends Enterprises. Eclipse Productions designed an incredible set and Pro Show Services (audio visual and sound support) and Q1 Production Technologies (lighting design and installation) absolutely blew the audience away with their superior technical support. Tim Lewis of Pro Show, Brian Konechny from Q1 and Mark Patterson of Eclipse created a one of a kind production that ranked up there with the best of them. Their generous support, along with all of the event sponsors, made the 7th Annual Star Awards a wonderful night for all the nominees and guests.

The team from Noteable Entertainment provided a unique and creative Emcee called ARC (Animated Real- time Character}. Walter, the animated Emcee, worked well with the real emcee Scott Barratt, who entertained the guests with his eloquent and comedic style. Walter was definitely the hit of the show as he entertained, bantered with Scott and broke up tense moments with his quick wit.

In between awards, the audience was wowed by an array of showcase talent including the sultry sounds of Jenn Beaupre, Da Boyz Tap Group, West Coast Contortionists, Sassabrass Music, Elena Hope, Fire*Man and Norma McKnight. Sassabrass provided both the orchestra stings and the after party dance band.

The 7th Annual Star Awards was supported by generous donations from Minuteman Press, Levy Show Services, Scott Barratt, CSES, ISES, Stardust Events, Coast Mountain Photo, Pacific Show Productions, Staged Right Entertainment and PacBlue Digital Reproductions.

Congratulations to all the nominees ands winners. Entry packages are available online in August 2004.