It was an impressive array of talent. No, not “American Idol” or “Dancing With the Stars.” I’m referring to the many executives who came to New York on May 7 for FCNews’ Award of Excellence dinner. It was truly an honor having so many people take the time out of their busy schedules and expense out of their pared- own budgets to spend an evening with us and their peers to accept their awards.

Even more gratifying was the effort so many put forth just to make the event after the weather played havoc with schedules. One company was in the car for five hours. Another was on two trains for about four hours. Yet another was stuck in an airport for six hours, three of which were spent sitting on a plane. In middle seats. One even flew cross country.

Yes, the Award of Excellence has come a long way in 13 years. It has become the industry benchmark for manufacturer distinction. And well it should. Although the recipients expressed their gratitude to us for their accolades, the truth is we didn’t do a thing—except host the event. It is the retailer, the manufacturer’s customer, who determined which of their suppliers best fulfilled their needs this past year in terms of product, service, quality, value, etc.

This year we had Mohawk taking down the granddaddy— Best Overall Manufacturer— for the second time in the award’s history and first time since 2005. That tells me the company must have done something better last year for its customers to return it to the winner’s circle after a four-year absence.

Then there were Mannington and Dal-Tile. No companies have dominated a category the way they have in resilient and ceramic tile, respectively. Mannington was winning for the 12th consecutive year and Dal-Tile the 11th. Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak will fall before these tours de force do. You know what this shows? In a word, consistency.

The accomplishments continue. What about Shaw winning its seventh carpet award. Or Armstrong winning its 10th Award of Excellence but first for laminate. Anderson was also a repeat winner.

Probably the best thing we ever did was splitting each category into two tiers three years ago. This gave some of the non mega-manufactures a chance to share in the glory. Take Mirage, which captured its third consecutive Tier II wood award, making it unbeaten in its category since the format change. And this year saw the return of a couple of companies after a 10-year hiatus: Interceramic and Formica, the latter winning for the first time under a license agreement with global leader Kronotex. It was also nice to see Royalty gain recognition with its first Award of Excellence. It was a long time coming.

Congratulations to the winners, and we can’t wait to see who shows up next year!