awards and getting out more

We staged the unawards and gave away 15 awards. It was an occaion to celebrate but also to connect.

by Dan Slee

There’s a good line about no-one listening to the Prophet in their own land.

I love it because it’s true.

My last job was working in an Edwardian Town Hall. It was as a proud declaration of civic pride built on hardwork and the town’s leather industry. On the outside there were gargoyles carved into the stonework and broad carpeted stairs that led to oak doors of meeting rooms. Inside those public rooms there were fire places and portraits of long forgotten dignitaries.

Visitors impressed would quietly tell me how it must be lovely to work in such a building.

I suppose it is, I’d tell them.

What happens day-to-day gets taken for granted and overlooked. It’s human nature.

It’s why awards can be so important.

I was involved with the comms2point0 unawards a few days ago. Fifteen awards were presented with a panel of 16 judges sifting through the 140 entries. Overall, there was more than 60,000 words of submission. I raise my hat to my colleague Darren Caveney for organising the inbox-stuffing judging and organising of the event.

Being independent of the judging for me is important. It means those winning or missing out know clearly that we hadn’t been involved. There was no favouritism.

Winning an award or is someone from outside pointing at the work you’ve done and saying ‘well done.’

It gives kudos to you and your bosses’ boss.

That’s really important. But the unawards reminded me that it’s not just the silverware that is important. It’s the meeting people, comparing notes and re-connecting.

You don’t need an awards event to do that, nice though that is. You just need to make the effort to get out more.

Dan Slee is co-founder of comms2point0.