Five Years of Awards [1/3]
Posted by Alex on Mar 6, 2010 in Blog, Featured Articles | Comments
If someone had said to me 5 years ago that the award ceremony planned for the following week would make a large impact on my future in the events industry I don’t think I would have believed them. I had no idea that 5 years later I would be in Nova Scotia, Canada working on yet another successful awards project. I am writing this post to commemorate our 5 year anniversary (March 11th). I want to share some history with you and along the way show you some not so often seen footage and photographs and i will do my best to squeeze it all into 3 posts that i will publish this month.
The year was 2005. It was a funny year because as the summer approached I was just rounding off a project called the Somerset Variety Performance and had plans on running a similar project but on a bigger scale. My original plan was to go as far as including a few more counties and renaming it the SWVP (South West Variety Performance). Being me I decided to make some major leaps and went with a national variety show. This move made me one of the youngest Managing Directors of a national organisation in the country. The National Variety Performance ended up being a range of projects instead of one main show and part of which was an awards project that we planned to role out across different counties. The original awards project was named the Somerset Charity Awards. We were planning on seeking out those in our communities that had raised money for various local and national charities but we broadened things out more than planned and in the end went with the Somerset County Awards. This way we could award the “pride” of the community not just fundraisers.
The Somerset County Awards
Our first award ceremony was very different to the ones we run today. It was completely new territory to me and the team. At the time of the launch of this project the National Variety was going through some changes. I was saying goodbye to some staff and saying hello to some new faces. The transition from old to new came with its problems but at the same time solved a few too. I had huge visions for the National variety Performance and it was only right to let go of the ones that were holding the organisation back.
Nowadays for most projects we ask the public to nominate people for awards but back in the early days it was me, the team and enough newspapers to open a recycling plant. We visited community centers, workshops, schools and many other public places trying to find our award winners. I contacted people i had worked with on variety shows in the past and called in a few performers for the event. The awards were very traditional. Something you would expect at any award ceremony. To be honest the award ceremony was very traditional too but it didn’t really matter because it was a complete success.
After great feedback from the community we started work on a ceremony for the following year. 2007 was an extremely busy year for the National Variety Performance so the ceremony that year was non-existent. We just couldn’t fit it in. Instead we surprised people with their awards at unexpected times. Some people we visited at home and at work and others half way through their own events. We called it the ‘Winter Edition’. It was a shame that we didn’t have time for a full blown ceremony but i was committed to the NVP and other commitments to uphold. Over the next two years i was back and forth from Weymouth and London working on projects for the NVP and the awards was purely a sideline but we kept it up as best as we could.
The Pride of Central Somerset
Towards the end of 2008 the Somerset County awards had not seen a ceremony in a while so i wanted to think how we could improve what we already had. I wanted to make the project bigger and better. By this time the National Variety Performance was just a fond memory. It had been very successful that it became something bigger than i could have ever imagined but i am kind of restricted by an NDA so I’ll leave it at that. In November 2008 i contacted Mid Somerset News and Media and started to build a partnership with them. It makes sense to work with the people who distribute directly to the people you want at the ceremony. Now that we had a lot more access to press coverage in the local area we opened up nominations to the public and asked people to nominate those special individuals in their lives.
The Pride of Central Somerset was a turning point for me. The project had really evolved from its earlier counterpart. The planning was much more precise and the ceremony was grand and refreshing. I knew that after i finished this project i was heading to Canada for what could be the best part of a few years and i was worried that the project may not continue so some of the 2009 team are already on standby for this years awards project which will really kick in after nominations close in the summer.
This video is a clip that was taken at the ceremony during the interval.
We presented more awards in 2009 than any other year. It was the first year we introduced a category which normally goes against our rules but we felt that sporting achievements were being left in the dark hence the introduction of the sports category.
A few days after the ceremony i packed by bags and headed back to Nova Scotia.
The Haliwards
The Haliwards was never planned. I had no intentions on branching out in Canada until i knew where me and Tara were going to settle on a permanent basis but as time passed by i got rather bored. During the summer of 2009 i had worked with the Blue Nose Marathon and was preparing to work with the Tall Ships. This is when i met Haligonia. Haligonia is a small media group focusing on news and events across HRM. I agreed to do a video interview with them for their website about my previous work and why I was in Nova Scotia. A few weeks before I met with Haligonia I started to do some research on running an event in Halifax and I was thinking about running an event similar to the Pride of Central Somerset. I was slightly worried that I wouldn’t be able to get enough exposure so I discussed my ideas with the guys at Haligonia.
What most people don’t know is in the early project plan it was a joint project between me and the Haligonia group. As the Tall Ships approached Haligonia were very busy with the event as they were the New Media Sponsor so we went our separate ways. I had no plans on dropping the project so I tweaked the project plan and submitted it to City Hall.
After nearly a 6 month wait we finally got word from City Hall who rejected the plan until further notice as they were working on a new volunteer strategy. I really believe they just didn’t look at the plan properly or maybe not even at all. After taking a knock back from City Hall I ploughed on and we received hundreds of nominations. We are now only weeks away from the ceremony with barely a ticket left and a set of amazing award winners. What can i say.. i know what works!
What’s Next
The Haliwards is in full swing so it’s only a matter of time before we know how successful it will be but what was meant to be a low key pilot project is turning into quite an event. No complaints though! The Pride of Central Somerset 2010 is already in production and i am working with some members of last years team to put together the first steps. We are currently taking nominations.
This article is part of a series of posts that will be published during the month of March to celebrate 5 years of award ceremonies directed by Alex Maine. Stay tuned for the next post
