What's in an award?

Beverley Hoare, Deputy Director of MARC

Why do we bother to enter awards?  It’s a lot of time and effort for potentially nothing, isn’t it?

Gearing up for awards season

Well the Marcomms team have been busy submitting entries for a range of marketing and communications awards with HEIST, CIPR and IoIC, so I guess they think there’s a point, but here’s a few thoughts from me on why I think they are important.

A win or making a shortlist is a pat on the back - recognition from our peers that we are achieving the highest, most innovative standard of work.

We can learn from others who are showcasing their own best practice – they set the bar and we try to raise it.

We gain clarity about our achievements and what we had to do to make them happen.  The looking back exercise, pouring over data and evaluating ourselves is critical for future performance; the award submission provides the focus and motivation to make us reflect.

Busy cobbling together this years' @heistawards entry for @uniofbeds. Nothing beats an afternoon of number crunching data 🤓💼📊📝 #heist2017

— Sarah De Guzman (@Sarah_Hampton) February 22, 2017

It helps us to network; awards ceremonies are some of very few opportunities to get out of the University, share experiences with others and cement relationships with peers.

We can dress up and celebrate our achievements together, as a team – being nominated has a contagious effect on our mood.

Our @Beds Newsletter has been short-listed

I can say that all this effort has given us a pretty good run of award winning over the last 5 years, but wins at HEIST have alluded us recently.  So we’ve tried even harder and submitted a more solid entry this time.

I’m delighted that in the latest run of awards we have been shortlisted by the IoIC for our staff newsletter ‘A new lease of life for staff news’.  Jenny and Caroline will be attending the ceremony in York later this month and will hopefully come back with a piece of crystal for the bulging trophy cabinet. Watch this space…