UNITE established the "Star of Excellence Award" in 1994 in recognition of individuals who have unselfishly given of their time and talent to benefit UNITE. Recipients of the award may not be current members of the Board of Directors, Working Group Officials or Committee Members. Individuals are nominated by a member of the Board of Directors. 

September, 2004 the UNITE Board of Directors renamed the Best Presentation Award to the Donald J. Gregory Best Presentation Award in honor of Don Gregory, a long time friend of the Unisys community and supporter of UNITE, Don passed away on January 30, 2004. He will be sorely missed by his many friends and business associates. 

The UNITE "Donald J. Gregory Best Presentation Awards" are given to recognize excellence in both content and presentation by speakers at UNITE conferences. Generally one award is made by each Conference Planning Working Group at each conference.

The awards are based on conference attendee evaluation forms turned in for each session. Speakers are rated on session content, topic knowledge, presentation skills and ability to communicate to the audience. In addition, heavy weight is given to the session attendees’ recommendation to consider a session/speaker for a Best Presentation Award.

Recipients of the Best Presentation Award are honored in a public presentation at the Technology Conference opening session and are easily recognized at the conference by the Best Presentation ribbons attached to their name badges. Give a presentation and you may be recognized as a leader in our industry!

The Avinash Thukral Award, established in 2001 in memory of Avinash Thukral, is given for outstanding contributions to the UNITE/Unisys Community. Avinash Thukral was a major supporter of and contributor to UNITE and a tireless worker for the Unisys user community at large. Avinash’s contributions were many, including coordinating Unisys sessions at UNITE, working with the NFS process and UNITE requirements, production and distribution of the Unisys User Conference Notes, and organizing User Advisory Councils. Avinash attended every UNITE conference and every UUA conference and was a beloved presence at the conferences. 

The award is presented from time to time and is given to the recipient at the opening business session at the annual UNITE Technology Conference. 

UNITE invites nominations for this award from any member of UNITE. The nominee should be a current or former employee of Unisys, a Unisys third party vendor, or an organization using Unisys hardware, software, or services. The nomination should be supported by a minimum of three letters describing the nominee’s contributions and explaining why these contributions are deserving of this special recognition. It is important that the letters contain information describing the candidate’s specific accomplishments. Explain why this person’s achievements merit this special recognition. How has this person’s work changed the landscape? How has what this person did made an impact? 

Letters supporting the nominations should be sent to the UNITE Business Office. Nominations and supporting letters are due at least 3 months prior to the opening date of the annual conference. Any nominations received after that date may be carried over and considered for the following year’s award. 

Letters supporting the nomination may be used as sources for quotations about the recipient and his/her accomplishments in published articles and during the award ceremony.