….as in the Marketing Communications industry awards.
Not the TV or movie award season that happens earlier in the year.
For the past 19 years, I have been a judge for industry award programs starting first in Toronto and now spreading around the world. From the International Association of Business Communicator global Gold Quill awards to Canadian Silver Leaf Awards, the Toronto OVATIONS awards and now numerous US regional awards shows like the Nashville Music City Gold Pens, Atlanta Gold Flames, Chicago Bronze Quills and other various award programs, I am honoured to be asked to serve as a judge.
The season is actually a lengthy one, now that I think about it. I started the process of judging submissions for one awards program back in January, I just finished another a week or so ago, and I’m gearing up to start on several others soon. It almost goes year round now.
There are similarities between each of them and differences. I find them all fascinating.
One of the reasons I enjoy being a judge is the opportunity to provide input to the award submitters on how they can make future submissions stronger. It is a learning process. You can be too close to the program you are working on and not realize that you are leaving out information judges need to truly understand how the program worked. It is hard to condense down hours and months of work into the mandatory number of words or pages of the submission. It can also be difficult to step outside the “in the trenches” mindset and prove tangible outcomes. But, in order to have a successful, award-winning program, that’s exactly what you must do.
I also just love seeing what people around the world are working on. What are they communicating? How are they communicating? I always learn something new, see another way of doing something, an enhancement…I love it!
If I had to summarize it a quick snapshot, I guess it would be that…the opportunity to teach, to share and to learn all at one time! Fabulous!
Have a great day!
