News

Winner of the 3rd Annual Darlene Townsend Award announced

Darlene Townsend

In 2018, Third Door Media created the Darlene Townsend Memorial Award in memory of our friend and colleague who passed away after a fierce battle against cancer.

This award honors Darlene, comforts those she left behind, and recognizes a current team member for exceptional service to our clients, colleagues, and partners.

Third Door Media employees base their nominations on the following qualities. The recipient:

  • is a reliable team member who is enthusiastic and has a positive attitude even in the face of adversity.
  • supports co-workers by being considerate, empathetic, and flexible.
    embraces innovation and change.
  • goes the extra mile in service of our audience, customers, partners, and colleagues.

This year, the third annual Darlene Townsend Memorial Award was presented to Kathy Bushman, Director of Events (pictured below), at a recent virtual company-wide gathering.

Kathy Bushman

Just five months after joining Third Door Media, Kathy’s job description was effectively upended as COVID forced the entire organization to pivot from traditional in-person to virtual conferences. Those who nominated Kathy highlighted the specific qualities that would make Darlene proud:

“Kathy’s leadership, professionalism, and unwavering attention to detail allowed us to make our incredible pivot to virtual events a truly successful one.”

“She clearly demonstrated resilience in the face of constant change… and a willingness to accept when things were not possible or a decision was not one she agreed with.”

“She’s a great mix of professional, down-to-earth, tough, approachable, funny, focused, friendly, and fair.”

“Kathy came to TDM and immediately faced incredible pressure to revamp and rework established process for programming both SMX and MarTech – each different and challenging in their own unique ways.”

“I’m thrilled she’s part of our team and excited to see what she does next!”

In addition to well-earned recognition, praise, and a cash prize, Kathy also received $1,500 to donate to a charity of her choice in honor of Darlene. She selected St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which you can learn more about here.