Anne Walker enters centre stage at International Awards Ceremony on November 12 in New York as the world’s top entrepreneurs battle it out for the coveted prize of best entrepreneur for woman in business. Winners of The Stevie Awards, widely considered to be the world’s premier business awards, will be announced at a Gala Dinner at the famous Marriot Marquis Hotel, Times Square.

www.stevieawards.com/women 

With all the lights, glamour and razzmatazz of New York Times Square in full swing, Sara Eisen, Bloomberg TV’s presenter will, as the Mistress of Ceremonies, announce the winners of this prestigious event in front of an audience of the world’s top executives. The finalists, whittled down from over 1,200 applicants from around the globe … the largest yet, will wait with baited breath and excitement for their names to be announced. Broadcast live on USA’s TalkRadio Network, the deserving winners, recognised for their outstanding achievements, will make a short acceptance speech on the world stage!

Anne’s Story … 35 years ago, working as a dance teacher, Anne started making leotards in an attic bedroom as she could not find good quality, affordable dancewear for her own dance students. Armed with a £50 loan from her mother to buy a second hand industrial sewing machine, Anne has taken IDS from the attic to a thriving £8 million company.  In 2009, IDS launched a range of dance accessories in the USA … Accessories to make your Stars Shine – now selling into 33 States in the US.

Awards week … whilst on a recent US business trip Anne received an award from Anthony Giacoio Jr, President of International Division of Capezio … The 2010 Dance Stockist Award in recognition of our success in the Dance Community.

Anne Walker says “At IDS we never have time to stand still but these awards certainly have put a spring in the step of all 60 of our passionate team at IDS. Yes I am the driving force behind IDS but without great staff I wouldn’t be able to lead the way on what seems to be an incredible journey that I simply could only have dreamt about when I made that first leotard!”

We have 2 new amazing value Bloch tap shoes and the outstanding Amalgam leather jazz sneaker which comes in 3 colourways. I love the bright green! Visit our new look website and use the feedback button to tell us your favourite colour…..

I am currently waiting at Chicago O’Hare airport for the flight back to UK. I feel as though I have been away for ages and am really looking forward to getting back home.

We have met some great people on this trip and lots of new customers. There is nothing quite like meeting people face to face!

A big thankyou to all my team back at IDS who have kept everything running smoothly in my absence. Well done!

Another brilliant UDMA event and a very busy couple of days for us. We have seen literally hundreds of teachers who were thrilled with their goody bags and flowers-follow us on Facebook for lots of pictures.

However the happiest teacher was Kim from Pro Dance Elite who won the entire contents of our booth! Here she is after receiving the good news!

We have just landed in Chicago for the next UDMA Costume Show. New York was great and we had a wonderful time there. We watched class at ABT and also met up with Bob Rizzo. Bob is a great friend now as we have been selling his wonderful instructional DVDs and CDs for a long time.

Here we are outside the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Centre.

Here we are in New York City! It is very exciting to be here for a few days before we travel on to Chicago for the next UDMA event. Kate and Allison have gone back home to the UK but Ian, Andrew and I have stayed for some business meetings here in New York.

This morning we visited the offices of Dance Media where I was interviewed by Karen Hildebrand who is Vice President and the Editor in Chief of Dance Teacher.

This afternoon we met Anthony Giacoio Jr who is President of the International division of Capezio. We were thrilled and honoured to be awarded the 2010 Dance Stockist Award in recognition of our success in the Dance Community. Here is Anthony presenting the award to Ian and myself in the Capezio store by Times Square. Congratulations to the whole team at IDS!

We have had two wonderful days here in New Jersey and seen hundreds of teachers and studio owners. It has been great to talk to customers who have been so thrilled with the orders they received during the course of the last twelve months and we have taken orders from the show which will be delivered later on this week!

Here are some of those customers. Check out our US Facebook page (IDSdance) for more pictures and videos from the show.

Here we all are waiting to greet you at UDMA New Jersey!

Ian, Kate, Allison, Andrew and I are looking forward to meeting up with lots of customers today and tomorrow. Check out our US facebook page for more pics.

Now the political conferences are over it’s the turn of the catalogue and multi channel industry.

I have been at Earls Court for two days at ECMOD where Andrew our Development Manager and I were both speaking and five of the team attended seminars. One of the speakers today was the iconic Jonnie Boden who shared some of his brilliant story with us.

Here he is with me and here are Jonathan, Elaine and Jillian at a reception last night. Great networking opportunities!

It’s back! The new season of Strictly Come Dancing starts tonight and to celebrate the launch we have an amazing new range of licensed costumes. Quickstep, jive or rumba there is an amazing quality costume to suit every type of dance. Even if you are not strictly ballroom, these dresses are of a superb quality and will make outstanding show costumes for lots of different numbers.