By GREGORY ZELLER //
And the Emmy Award nominations go to … HJMT Public Relations!
Whether the Long Beach-based PR house walks away with a golden statuette remains to be seen – winners won’t be announced until September – but HJMT Public Relations has indeed been nominated for two New York Emmy Awards for its work on educational videos produced on behalf of the Long Island STEM Hub.
The oft-honored agency, founded in 1992 by CEO Hilary Topper, was among the nominees for the 64th Annual New York Emmy Awards, announced June 25 by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, New York Chapter. The academy praised two videos – one focused on cybersecurity, the other centered on biotechnology – in the “Full STEM Ahead Long Island” series, a 10-episode collection designed to attract young Islanders to future careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
The NY Emmy nominations are actually the second and third for the series, which also snagged a nomination for a 2020 award. That previous nomination didn’t bear fruit, but the new 2021 nods – covering works produced between Sept. 1, 2019, and Dec. 31, 2020 – are cherries on top of an enjoyable effort to highlight different members of Long Island’s STEM community, according to Topper.
Hilary Topper: Production values.
“Some of the highlighted companies were affiliated with the STEM Hub,” the CEO told Innovate LI. “Some were just random companies that are unique and do all kinds of different things.
“The goal was to get students to watch the series, so when they decide which career opportunities to pursue, they’ll look at STEM as a viable choice – and they’ll think about coming back to Long Island after [college],” Topper added. “It was a challenge, but it was totally worth it.
“Three out of 10 of our videos have now been nominated (for NY Emmy Awards), which is pretty cool.”
The series, produced in conjunction with Brookhaven National Laboratory and Bay Shore-based My Long Island TV, highlights a host of Island companies and institutions including BNL, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Northwell Health, the New York Institute of Technology, Great Neck-based Atlas Cybersecurity and Hauppauge-based GSE Dynamics, among others.
The STEM Hub funded “Full STEM Ahead” with a $320,000 grant from the Empire State Development Corp., obtained by the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council through Albany’s annual REDC competition.
Her 30-year-old PR house is definitely ready to produce more episodes – there are plenty of Long Island STEM stories to tell, Topper noted – but whether there’s enough money in the till to keep “Full STEM Ahead” going is another question.
The nominees are: “Full STEM Ahead Long Island” has now earned three New York Emmy Award nominations.
“We’d love to do another one,” Topper said. “But the grant ended.”
If that’s a wrap, it’s an undeniably successful one, she added, with three New York Emmy nominations – and perhaps a big win coming later this summer.
“I am so proud to have worked with two great partners, the Long Island STEM Hub and My Long Island TV,” the PR veteran said Tuesday. “We pulled together an awesome video series, and I hope that it helps some students decide to go for a STEM career on Long Island.
“[The nominations] are absolutely thrilling,” Topper added. “This is huge – probably the biggest nomination we’ve ever received, and we’ve gotten a lot of awards through the years.”
