The Edmond Sun
EDMOND — Oklahoma City event planner wins coveted award
Oklahoma City event planning company About Last Night... was honored with a 2009 Gala Award by Special Events magazine. Owner Bea Penhall and About Last Night... won the 2009 Gala Award in a category for creatively planning an event for a budget of $1,000 or less per guest. Finalists were selected in each of 34 categories, and then were reviewed by a panel of judges, before being announced in a ceremony Jan. 15 in New Orleans. The Gala Award is the most prestigious award presented in the event industry and defines and recognizes innovative and outstanding work in the special event industry from all across the world.
As creative director and owner of About Last Night..., Penhall’s mission is to produce the most unique, exciting event, while always staying within the client’s budget. From intimate gatherings of family and friends to dazzling soirées for celebrities and sports figures, to corporate fundraisers and annual meetings, Penhall makes each client feel like guests at their own events.
About Last Night... events have been featured in People magazine, Southern Living and numerous local publications. The Oklahoma City Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners nominated her for Woman of the Year in 2001.
More information is available at www.aboutlastnight.net.
Career Tips
Agricultural expertise needed
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts 52,000 agriculture-related job openings for college graduates will be needed in 2010 — including those needed to teach ag science at the high school and college level.
Available jobs are expected in areas such as food, animal and environmental science. Jobs including animal geneticists, biochemists, botanists and food engineers will be needed.
“Perhaps most importantly — we will need qualified teachers to prepare students for these increasingly sophisticated professions,” said Jay Jackman, executive director of the National Association of Agricultural Educators.
World food demand is expected to increase 100 percent by 2050 due to a rapidly expanding population in countries such as China, India and the United States. And yet 963 million people, 14 percent of the world’s population, are already chronically hungry.
“To increase the supply of safe, nutritious and affordable food, we all share in the responsibility to ensure that those responsible for producing food have the knowledge required to do their jobs,” Jackman said. “For millions of people, it could be the difference between sustenance and starvation.”
Jackman said ag teachers will have enormous opportunities in the 21st century to contribute multifaceted, innovative solutions to the challenge of providing enough crops to feed the world and power the planet. “But these challenges can’t just be the concerns of educators — all citizens across the nation should advocate and support agricultural education — at both local and national levels so that we are preparing our youth for the challenges that await them.”
