Acceptance Speeches

When one is up for a major award, one often prepares a speech one would give, just in case all the stars are in alignment and one actually wins the coveted prize. But not always. At the recent Illinois Technology Association's cityLIGHTS Awards Gala, winners were spontaneous and genuine, not prepared or rehearsed. When Frank Gruber and Eric Olson won the big one, the cityLIGHTS Award for TECH cocktail, all seated at their table were stunned, especially Frank and Eric. Making their way to the stage to receive the prize was probably a long and thought provoking journey. Arriving on stage, photos were taken and Frank stepped up to the plate, er, microphone.

"All my life I'd been hoping to stand in front of a crowd like this for winning an award as a Chicago Cub, but that didn't work out so well. This is a pretty good substitute, however," and he went on to thank the organization, the crowd, Eric, and especially the Chicago technology community for attending all of the TECH cocktail mixer events. Clever guy -- who doesn't love the Cubs? A video of the acceptance speech can be seen at the popular somewhat frank TV, or at somewhatfrank.com

Frank and Eric were genuine in their gratitude and graciousness at the event and in all things they do. Congratulations on the win --- next time do what the nominees for the Oscar's appear to do: jot down a few notes, just in case.
Photo attribution: somewhatfrank