TNI Partners Recognize Outstanding Achievements at Annual Awards Presentations

As we near the end of 2021, we find ourselves in the mood to look back over the successes of the year. Indeed, the year has brought its challenges! Never in most of our lifetimes have we had to navigate so many obstacles in such a short period of time. While our personal obstacle courses have not all been created equal, we have all been tossed; willing or not, in shape or not, prepared or not, in the same finish line-less race (I promise things get cheerier soon).

One focus we all had this year was celebrating small (and big) moments. Our company saw staff experience births, marriages, new homes built and bought, promotions, reunions with family and friends and well deserved acknowledgement of hard work, grit and work ethic.

We are a business that relies on strong working relationships and friendships amongst our different teams, most especially in our agencies across the board, in Canada and the USA. A significant challenge we, along with many other companies were faced with this year, was adapting to connecting with each other through technology instead of through face to face interactions. Traditionally, TNI has held many events throughout the year that bring us partially or all together as a company. It has never been uncommon for our Agency Owners from across North America to linger for a few days after meetings are held in the Okanagan to take in a bonfire at President, Steve Allison’s home or enjoy a rambunctious, laughter filled meal with Partners Marty and Jenny. We’re people, people, after all! And we love our people!

Through the pandemic, we have all remained connected over Zoom, WhatsApp, email and other forms of electronic communication. We’ve held countless meetings, conferences, award ceremonies and even a couple of holiday events this way and while we are grateful that we could still see each other’s faces, albeit through a screen, through this all, we won’t lie, we missed actual human contact!

Towards the end of 2021, TNI held its first official (two-part), in person event since the COVID-19 pandemic rocked the world at the beginning of 2020. In accordance with local health regulations and in the interest of employee safety, we broke our annual, larger Owners Conference event up  into two separate weeks and had two selected groups fly out separately to attend a week-long event each. The events were joyous, informative, emotional at times and ENERGETIC. At both events, we saw attendees participate in focused group and one on one meetings where they learned about or brushed up on the fundamentals of running a successful business. Those in attendance also enjoyed networking with other Agency Owners and Head Office staff, taking in some fun team building activities and of course, ate and drank some great food (did someone say private chef?!) and Okanagan wines. Towards the end of both events, TNI held an awards dinner where some of the very hard working individuals in our business took home prestigious awards, given to them by the group of Partners and President Steve Allison. We’ll list our talented award winners at the bottom of this entry

The two events left our Agency and Head office hearts full, our minds clear, our bodies rested and most importantly, they left us all ready to collectively put our heads back down and “rhino” through the next set of challenges. Bring it on 2022! (That is NOT an official challenge! Down girl!)

2021 Agency Award Winners:

2021 Head Office Award Winners:

In addition to our fabulous Owners Conference events, we were thrilled to be able to host a pared down Head Office holiday celebration this year. At this celebration, the Partner group was able to take some time to recognize the hard work that was put in over the course of 2021. Much like we do each year with our Agency team, a small number of “Above and Beyonders” are singled out at Head Office and awarded with some fancy hardware. It felt great to get back to something as normal as handing out awards in person again, not to mention enjoying some great eats, some excellent beats and of course only the best company!