The Communicator Awards, an international awards competition founded by communication professionals to recognize excellence in the communication field, attracts entries from advertising and public relations agencies, corporate communications departments, education institutions, government entities, designers, writers, video production professionals, broadcast and cable operations, and other business and individuals throughout the country. This year the competition drew more than 5,000 entries, which were judged in peer-level competitions. A complete list of Crystal Award of Excellence winners can be seen at: http://www.communicator-awards.com.

“We are thrilled by this recognition,” said G. Scott Shaw, Webmaster for IPRA, principal of CreatiVerge Communications, Inc., and board member of PRSA’s National Capital Chapter. “We know the Web is an important, and highly visible tool for our members and we are committed to providing them with an indispensable online resource.  In addition, we wanted the site to help organizations find the most qualified public relations professionals in the area to meet their ongoing communications challenges.”

Launched in 2003, the goal of the IPRA Web site was to establish the organization as the premiere resource for independent public relations expertise in the Washington-Metropolitan region. The site provides a central location for its network of more than 80 independent public relations professionals to develop their individual public relations practices through networking, listservs and professional development events. The site also allows visitors to search for public relations professionals using several criteria, including service, industry and years of experience, as well as provides them a vehicle to request proposals on upcoming projects or receive quick answers to their most pressing PR questions through an "Ask an Expert" feature.