2014 TOCA meeting takes on New Orleans, LM snags 11 awards

Karl Danneberger

Brandon Horvath

More than 70 Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association (TOCA) members attended the 25th annual TOCA meeting in New Orleans.

Among the largest highlights of the meeting, the 2014 TOCA Environmental Communicator of the Year Award was bestowed to Brandon Horvath, Ph.D., and Karl Danneberger, Ph.D., the “Turf Doc” for Golfdom (Landscape Management’s sister publication), was named TOCA Plant Health Writer of the Year.

Moreover, two members were elected to join the current board of directors: Marisa Palmieri, LM editor, and Ciara Ahern of Global Prairie.

There were more than 425 entries submitted to the 2014 TOCA contest. LM scooped up 11 honors, which included:

• First place for Cover Page Design (for the June 2013 issue);
• Merit for Overall Magazine Design (for the December 2013 issue);
• First place for Overall Company Web Design;
• Merit for Blogs;
• Merit for Websites;
• Merit for Innovative Use of Social Media;
• Merit for Writing for commercial publications, headline writing (for “B the Change” from the May 2013 issue);
• Merit for Writing for commercial publications, headline writing (for “Applied knowledge” from the December 2013 issue);
• Merit for Writing for special projects (for “The Industry Pulse 2013” from the October 2013 issue);
• Merit for Writing for special projects (for the “LM 150” from the June 2013 issue); and
• First place for Podcasts (for Landscape Live!).

Visit TOCA.org to view a full list of the 2014 Communication Award winners.

The 2015 annual meeting is slated for May 4-8 in Milwaukee.