TRENDY AWARD (FORMERLY ALL MEDIA CONTEST)

The BOMA Georgia Foundation was recognized by Association TRENDS with a 2024 Silver TRENDY Award in the eLearning and Live Training category. The award was received for the BOMA Georgia Foundation’s “CRE and the Bee” program.

To combat colony collapse disorder and the overall decline of the honeybee population, the BOMA Georgia Foundation developed a new CRE and the Bee live training program, held on September 20, 2023. The program was designed to educate commercial real estate owners and managers about the role they can play in protecting and rebuilding the population of these important pollinators in our ecosystem.

The educational program featured a case study of 725 Ponce, a multi-tenant commercial office building in downtown Atlanta that incorporated honeybee hives into its property. The educational program explored ways beekeeping can be incorporated into commercial properties; operational considerations for property owners and managers; and how to position these efforts as a value-add for tenants and building visitors.

The educational program was highly interactive and included a tour of the property and bee hives. Program attendees also learned about products made from the help of bees by participating in honey and mead tasting. Additionally, all attendees were given pollinator friendly seeds so that they could incorporate bee-friendly plants into their properties.

The educational program also promoted a research report produced by the BOMA Georgia Foundation under the same name, CRE and the Bee. This free report provided information about bees and beekeeping in urban settings. It compiled pertinent information about the benefits of creating bee habitat on commercial real estate building roofs across the United States; shared best practices for hosting thriving bee hives; and explained how real estate companies have leveraged protecting honeybees and other sustainability efforts to stand out from the competition, gain corporate recognition, and boost the bottom line.

The combination of a live training program and promotion of a complimentary research report available for download expanded the reach and impact of this educational program beyond those who attended in person and helped to increase awareness on this very important topic.

At the time the award was received, the mission of Association TRENDS, a for-profit entity owned by Columbia Books, was to “equip association industry professionals with the tools they need to better understand and serve their associations and the industry at large through research, publications, training programs, events, and more.”