ATLANTA – The conference planner for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s General Assembly has received an annual award for excellence in conference planning.

Susan Stewart, president of S. Stewart and Associates in Alpharetta, Ga., has been named the Meeting Professional of the Year by the Association for Convention Operations Management (ACOM).

Stewart said the award is based on an individual’s skill in meshing two teams – the convention center staff and the staff of the organization sponsoring the event. "It really focuses on working with the convention center and all of the vendors as a team. You have to have people working as a team from the busboy all the way through the general manager of the property," Stewart said.

Because individuals must be nominated for the award, Stewart was surprised when ACOM notified her of the honor two days before Christmas. She was nominated for her work during last year’s General Assembly in Birmingham. "I could have never gotten the award if the people at CBF hadn’t worked so closely with us. It’s a neat award for me, but to orchestrate a team, you have to have two good teams together," she said.

The award is an indication of the quality of CBF partners, said Bo Prosser, the Fellowship’s congregational life coordinator. "Having a nationally recognized meeting planner gives us a confidence that our Assembly planning will continue to be guided with creativity and competence," he said.

CBF is a fellowship of Baptist Christians and churches who share a passion for the Great Commission and a commitment to Baptist principles of faith and practice. The Fellowship’s mission is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.