I was so so excited when I received the invitation to photograph the Downtown Raleigh Alliance Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony. :) This year’s theme was Breaking Ground with the Creative Class and focused on bringing entrepreneurs and creative visionaries into downtown. Not that they’re not there already – downtown Raleigh is one of the most artsy, beautiful cities I’ve been in with very few chain anything, relying more on indie restaurants, shops, and boutiques that bring back their regulars again and again. Nonetheless, the Downtown Raleigh Alliance, which sponsors downtown activities such as Winterfest, the downtown Farmer’s Market, First Friday, and other fantastic events centered their annual meeting around Raleigh’s business owners and drawing more people to live and work downtown.

It was held at the Raleigh Convention Center which is a really modern and stunning venue. The decor was awesome (sequined purple tablecloths? yes, please!) and I had the opportunity to photograph Carol Colleta, President of CEOs for Cities. She was the guest speaker that evening, being interviewed round-table discussion style by Steve Daniels of ABC Channel 11 News.

What was extra special cool about this evening for me was seeing the Downtown Raleigh Alliance’s Annual Report, a printed booklet summary of all the awesome things the DRA  and Raleigh has accomplished in the past year. This year I was happy to find out see that the front cover, as well as a ton of pictures inside the Annual Report, were taken by yours truly. :) It never gets old to see your work in print, and I was very proud and thankful for the DRA for all the opportunities they gave me in 2010.