• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, October 3, 2016

Professional diversity organization ADCOLOR held its 10th Annual ADCOLOR Conference & Awards. The event honored professionals in the creative space who represent the organization's mission of helping
individuals and organizations celebrate and champion diversity in the creative industries.

The award portion of the event followed the ADCOLOR Conference, which featured a series of speakers and sessions featuring diverse influencers throughout creative industries. The day's activities operated under the theme of "Challenge Now" and outlined the importance of facing the challenges of our times with action, citing
the Black Lives Matter movement and #OscarsSoWhite hashtag as examples.

Of the event and the awards,ADCOLOR Director Christena Pyle said, "2016 is a banner year for challenges so we surrendered our stage to provide a safe space for tough conversation. At the end of the day we
are not a conference, we're a community of people challenging legacy thinking and old models that leave no room for inclusivity. People left feeling different and I believe challenged."

The event, which was cohosted by actor Wilson Cruz and lifestyle influencer Tai Beauchamp, took place in Boca Raton, FL at The Boca Raton Resort & Club and featured leaders from Apple, Facebook, Diageo, Bing, ADWEEK, Omnicom Group and GSD&M.

This year's honorees include:

THE RISING STAR AWARD: Babette Sullivan Puebla, Senior Copywriter at The Integer Group
THE CHANGE AGENT AWARD: John Seifert, Worldwide Chief Executive Officer of Ogilvy & Mather
THE INNOVATOR AWARD: Stacey Hightower, Chief Operating Officer of Group E DAS, a Division of Omnicom Group
THE ROCKSTAR AWARD: Luvvie Ajayi, Writer/Speaker
THE AD OF THE YEAR AWARD: "How Do You See Me?" CoorDown, Saatchi & Saatchi New York
THE LEGEND AWARD: Christy Haubegger, Executive, CAA Lucinda Martinez, SVP, Multicultural & International Marketing, HBO, Inc.
THE MVP AWARD: TBWA\ Chiat Day & MAL & Park Pictures
THE ONE CLUB|ADCOLOR CREATIVE AWARDS: Caprice Yu, EVP, Executive Creative Director, McCann New York, Terence Reynolds, Principal/Creative Director, The Richards Group
THE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS: Daisy Expósito-Ulla, Chairman/CEO, d expósito & Partners, LLC
Bill Imada, Chairman & Chief Collaboration Officer, IW Group, Inc. & J. Melvin Muse, Chairman & Chief Creative Officer, MUSE, INC.
THE CATALYST AWARD: Anjula Acharia, Partner, Trinity Ventures
THE ADVOCATE AWARD: Pamela Stewart, Vice President, National Retail Sales, The Coca-Cola Company
THE ADCOLOR in TECH AWARD: Tristan Walker, Founder & CEO, Walker & Company, Co-Founder & Chairman, CODE2040

Of her win, HBO SVP of Multicultural & International Marketing Lucinda Martinez said, "Receiving The Legend Award was a tremendous honor and privilege and I don't take it lightly. I hope I inspired the young professionals of color to continue in this beautiful struggle for representation in our industry. It's time!"

Beyond the conference and the awards event, ADCOLOR has partnered with Twitter to create a custom emoji celebrating the organizations values. The emoji, which is available until October 13th, appears in conjunction with the hashtag #ADCOLOR and will feature a celebratory fist bump. The emoji's design was led by ADCOLOR's creative agency, GSD&M.