It's award season again here in the greater Charlotte metro area, and on this Thursday evening a rowdy mix of brains, athletes, basket cases, princesses, and criminals (thank you Breakfast Club) will get together for the local stage of the advertising industry's largest and most representative competition for creative excellence. Winners will go on to compete at the regional and, ultimately, national level. So if you work at a Charlotte marketing agency and want to have your work recognized by a jury of your peers for creative excellence (instead of client ROI), then venture down to the drafty event space on one of North Davidson's sketchier blocks for a few hours of small talk, drink tickets, and mini cheesecakes.

And if your prized ad/logo/brochure doesn't win a prize, then you can always enter work in one of the other advertising award shows that serve to massage the creative ego and fill the shelves in our conference rooms …

(… like the Ace Awards, the Ad Age BEST Awards, the AME International Awards, the ANDYS, the Art Director's Club, the A+ Awards, the Athenas, Auroras, CA Annual, Cannes Lion, the Caples, Clios, Creativity, Cresta, D&AD, Echo, Effie, Good Samaritan, Graphis, Icon, Interactive Media and Marketing, Kelly, Marcom, Mercury, Mobius, New York Festival, Obie, One Show, Portfolio, Print Regional Design, Reggie, Silver Microphone, Summit, Type Directors Club, Telly, or the Visual Club Awards.)