IACC 2011 Gala Event - Report - Written by Shobana Daniell
The glitterati of the local society gathered on Nov 19th to celebrate the Indian American Chamber of Commerce of Central Florida’s annual gala and awards banquet. Over 270 people were treated to a lavish reception at Orlando's Rosen Centre Hotel Ballroom to honor the top entrepreneurs in the area. The awards recognize the achievements of those who have made a positive impact on the Orlando region’s business community and have broken new ground for Indian American entrepreneurs.
The events began promptly at 7pm with a social hour for the guests to network and enjoy the hors d’oevres, followed by the start of the award ceremony. Tino Patel – director of IACC welcomed the guests and talked about the award categories, Beena Parikh was the host of the event and she introduced the speakers, Varesh Patel – IACC director gave a summary of the IACC events of the year – 8 events this year. Sanjay Srinivasan, IACC director who will step down at the end of the year gave heartfelt thanks to all and said, “It was an honor to serve as the Managing Director of the IACC. I will continue to support the organization, in a smaller role on the Board of Advisors and hope to raise some more awareness in the business community here in Central Florida.” Mr. Srinivasan is the President of Global Eye Wear an international company based in Orlando
The annual Distinguished Community Service award was given to Sri Braham Aggarwal of Park Square Homes and Hindu University of America for his tireless service to the Indian American community as well as other Florida state, national and international groups and organizations. He has donated over one million dollars to Ekal Vidyalaya, (www.ekal.org) he was a board member of Community Foundation – a national group of donors. Mr. Aggarwal gave a rousing speech about the rich heritage shared by the Indian Americans and how we can help preserve and promote the Indian culture and spirituality.
The business category winners are as follows: Young Entrepreneur of the Year Winner – Prashant Patel - Third Eye Vision; New Entrepreneur of the Year Winner – Vasudev Punjiram - Shivam Distributors; Entrepreneur of the Year Winner – Anil Vallabh - Avista Properties. Recipients of the awards graciously accepted with words of thanks and thoughtful reflections about the honors. Other honorees mentioned were Hetal Engineer for his dedication to IACC in the past few years, to Neal Patel for his active role in organizing the 2011 IACC Annual Business Expo (held every April), Suresh Gupta for starting the annual tennis matches and Bennet Sebastian for taking charge of the regular IACC golf tournament.
The Awards are presented each year at the Gala in November. The success of the evening was achieved from the generous sponsorship of Private Wealth Management of Lake Mary; Vijay Marolia, Chief Investment Officer of PWM spoke about the investment strategies of the company. Other IACC sponsors Kovalam Consulting, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Principal Finacial Services, CAPI, Orlando Magic, Audi, Saffron Aashirwad, Gateway to India, and Park Square Homes.
With a red carpet welcome, a VIP reception, great food and the casino entertainment, exciting raffle draw and fabulous prizes, this was a party that you would not want to miss. This success was articulated by Mr. Ajit Nana, “Well done to the entire IACC team on a great event. Looking forward to next year Gala.”
IACC directors, families, volunteers are tireless professionals who devote hundreds of hours and are involved with the implementation and development of various outreach, educational and mentorship programs and social networking events to promote Indian American businesses. IACC encourages all business owners and professionals to sign up as members and participate their fabulous events in 2012.
For more information of the IACC winners and events, please visit: www.iaccorlando.com or call Mr. Tino Patel at 407-579-5050.
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