The Building Industry Gala (BIG) Night is the most important night of the year for the housing industry! We’ve been celebrating and honoring housing industry achievements since the 1960s. As the association has grown, we’ve seen several iterations of the awards ceremony. Today, the BIG Night features not only an award presentation, but also delicious food and drinks, networking opportunities, the best emcee, and red-carpet photos. Hundreds of industry members gather each year for this popular tradition.
Since this year’s BIG Night theme revolves around our longstanding legacy, including 75 strong years of the Parade of Homes, we’ve been taking a walk down memory lane. Reminisce with us as we go through the earliest stages of the BIG Night.
The Reggie Awards
The earliest renditions of the BIG Night began way back in 1967, when the Reggie Awards connected with the Parade of Homes. The Minneapolis Builders Association and the St. Paul Area Builders Association—later the Builders Association of the Twin Cities (BATC) and now Housing First Minnesota—felt they needed a way to honor the hard work and innovation of local builders. Thus, the Reggie Awards were born, honoring just three of the leading builders in Minnesota.
The Reggies—and now the ROMAs for remodelers—are still one of the most important ways we recognize and thank the builders in our community. At the 2022 BIG Night, 20 builders received Reggie awards in price categories from $400,000-$449,999, all the way to $2 million+. 18 ROMA Awards were given out, also in different project and price categories.
Additional Awards
As the Parade of Homes grew, so did our awards program to include more industry recognitions. There are so many different elements that go into creating each home and upholding our industry—from trade partners and suppliers to young entrepreneurs and powerhouse advocates. In 1990, we began the Trillium Awards, which honors the associates who also worked on a Reggie winning home. The ROMAs began in 1994, and Robert L. Hanson Service Award was added in 2006, to recognize someone who has spent a lifetime in dedication and service to the industry. We’ve also added awards over the years for green building, advocates and the legislature, association recruitment, and best neighborhood.
Today, the Housing First Minnesota Awards are the backbone of the BIG Night. There are 12 different awards presented, many featuring multiple categories. These awards have grown significantly since 1967, and we hope to keep updating them anytime we feel someone needs to be honored. Read more about each of the awards here.
Event Iterations
We went through several different names and functions for the event before we settled on the BIG Night. In fact, the title “BIG Night” itself is relatively recent, only beginning in 2014. Previously, the event was labeled “Gala Awards Celebration, and “Awards of Excellence” before that.
These names were reminiscent of when the focus was almost entirely on the awards. Although the awards are the most important part of the BIG Night, it is also meant to be an evening of celebration where our industry can come together. It’s a networking opportunity, a buffet of delicious dishes, an open bar, a red carpet photo-op, and a time to congratulate all the hard-working industry members in the state. We wanted the name to reflect all of this, not just the awards given out. And thus—the Building Industry Gala (BIG) Night was born.
Although the BIG Night has been through a lot of changes in the past, at its heart its goal remains the same: to come together, to celebrate, and to remember the work we’ve all put in during the past year. It’s our favorite night of the year, and we hope to keep making it better and better. Each year it grows, beginning with a handful of select builders and growing to include over 900 attendees in one room.
We can’t wait to spend this Friday celebrating with you! If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet, register today at bignightmn.org.
