Confex Roundup: Awards Day!

Another busy day at Confex yesterday, and this time the focus was on awards ceremonies. First up was inspiring talk from Caroline Jackson Levy, CEO of UBM Awards, explaining how to please all of the people all of the time. The key themes here were look after the customers (the award entrants) and grow the brand.

Unfortunately there wasn’t a magic wand to be seen, the big secret was making sure you look at everything from your entrants point of view. Although this may seem obvious, with our busy workloads it can be easily overlooked. Are you providing the right atmosphere for your guests? Does the food, the venue and the quality of the award match the aspirations of the brand? If you have delivered on the promises set out on your entry form, website and advertising you can be sure of repeat entries year after year.

The other big topic was brand, which was also discussed in the next seminar “Designing an award show to be a brand experience” hosted by Nicoline Refsing of Rockart Design. In the current economic climate budgets are shrinking and sponsors are requiring more for their money. This can lead to some difficult decisions, but ultimately the sponsors demands mustn’t overrule the requirements of the award entrant or have a negative effect on the event brand. If you don’t build a strong brand for your event then you will struggle to get enough entrants and gain sponsorship.

Sponsors and entrants have one thing in common; they both want to be associated with the best events. If you have aspirations for your event to grow and become the best, you have to be thinking “is this choice of lighting, trophy, stage, venue, theme something that people will be proud to be associated with?”

Why not contact Gaudio Awards to see how a custom award design can enhance your brand and increase sponsorship.