KANNAPOLIS — The city of Kannapolis has been recognized with two national Savvy Awards for its communications and marketing initiatives by 3CMA, the city-county communications and marketing association that is the nation’s top professional group for government communication and marketing professionals.

The Savvy Awards, recognizes outstanding local government achievements in communications, public-sector marketing, and citizen-government relationships. The Savvies salute skilled and effective city, county, agency or district professionals who have creatively planned and carried out successful innovations in communications and marketing.

Kannapolis won two Awards of Excellence, competing with cities across the nation with populations of 85,000 and under. The city’s Downtown Parking Initiative won in the category of Communications or Marketing Plans and the city’s Economic Development Video won in the category of Promotional Video.

The Downtown Parking Initiative was honored for the plan implemented to share information regarding the new VIDA Parking Deck. When the city opened its downtown parking deck staff had the opportunity to launch the communications and signage about the deck to the public, nearby businesses, and apartment residents. The deck is unique in that it is shared with the city’s first downtown apartment complex and the public. Strategic communication materials were provided to the public and business owners including signage, a new webpage, permit hang tags, parking maps, informational flyers and ads, and printed parking citations.

The Economic Development video was created to demonstrate Kannapolis’ business-friendly climate, unique amenities, desirable location and skilled workforce. The video featured Gordon Food Service and why they chose to locate in Kannapolis. The video is being used in a nationwide campaign to attract businesses of all sizes to Kannapolis.

During the conference Annette Privette Keller, director of communications for Kannapolis, was elected to serve as vice president of 3CMA. She previously served as secretary, treasurer and conference co-chair. She has been with the city of Kannapolis for eight years and prior to that worked for other cities and school districts in North Carolina. She is the co-founder and former president of the N.C. City and County Communicators, a group dedicated to the professional development and networking of local governmental communications professionals in North Carolina.

She received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s in public administration from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She is involved in several civic and professional organizations including serving on the board of directors for N.C. Open Government Coalition and the Kannapolis Education Foundation.

3CMA was founded in 1988 and with approximately 1,200 members works to connect and further educate government communication and marketing professionals across the United States and Canada to effectively showcase the role of local governments in the lives of people.