Last year we wrote…
“2019 oh what a year!
It’s been another 12 months of political turmoil, climate chaos and, of course, Brexit. But despite the doom and gloom, our clients have been shouting about their business successes and winning many awards to show how strong their businesses really are!”
…in hindsight, maybe 2019 wasn’t so bad!
Fast-forward to 2020, and this year has been one of the most difficult, tumultuous and downright stressful years, but thankfully it hasn’t all been bad.
We’ve had the pleasure of continuing to support our fantastic clients to benefit from a plethora of amazing awards (even when working from home!) including;
- The Lloyds Bank National Business Awards
- The International Business Awards
- UK Customer Experience Awards
- The Learning Awards
- Amazon Scale-Up Awards
- UK Employee Experience Awards
- National Technology Awards
- BITC Responsible Business Awards
- Marketing Week Masters
- BusinessGreen Leaders Awards
- Reuters Responsible Business Awards
- International Customer Experience Awards
- HR Champion Awards
- National Contact Centre Awards
- Great British Entrepreneur Awards
- And many, many more!
And with our Who Wins When you Win campaign we launched in Summer, we’ve been celebrating our clients’ success by donating and making an impact on others’ lives.
The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise
In April 2019, we celebrated our clients winning the prestigious Queen’s Awards for Enterprise!
We were so proud to support HIB to win in the Innovation category and this year, in particular, it really meant a lot for their team. Robert Ginsberg, Managing Director, said,
“Despite the difficult times many of us are facing, it is heartening to know that we can share some positive news with our partners, suppliers, employees and wider community and celebrate this significant award, which is a huge achievement for everyone at HiB.”
Winning Awards during a Pandemic
Every year we are always very fortunate to attend some of the biggest and best award ceremonies. But little did we know after attending the 2020 Learning Awards live Finals at London Hilton Park Lane in February that this would be the last live event for the foreseeable future.
We pride ourselves on the relationships we hold with our partners, including award organisers of some of the world's most-loved awards. And when the news broke of events being cancelled indefinitely, no one in the awards and events industry knew what would happen.
And after a short period of uncertainty, award organisers agreed the show must go on… online!
We’re lucky to operate in such a positive industry, celebrating success and recognising those that put the hard work in and make an impact. And this year the addition of celebrating the COVID-19 heroes, with dedicated categories to reward those who have gone above and beyond to help others.
So we want to express our sincere gratitude to the award organisers for the time, effort and dedication they’ve put in to switch to virtual ceremonies, to ensure their awards go-ahead and for those winning businesses to get the recognition they deserve.
We wrote about the success of the virtual ceremonies we’ve attended this year, read all about it here.
Team August
Here at August HQ, we have had quite the eventful 12 months!
We moved into our beautiful new office in January, starting the year off on a high. Unfortunately, we had to leave mid-March and switch to working from home – luckily, this was a simple switch for us.
One of the biggest challenges we had was taking our in-person live training event and making it virtual. But we can confirm our virtual Awards Accelerator training programme has been a huge success, with attendees winning awards not long after they’d completed the day! Like Tam Lever, Operations Manager of RoundPeg Search,
“I completed the August Awards Accelerator training in November and wanted to Thank Donna for delivering such an insightful and inspiring day! Before the training, I had no clue where to start, and no confidence that entering awards would be time well spent for the company. Within 5 minutes of commencing the training, Donna had blown all my misconceptions about business awards out of the water! The Accelerator training covered everything I needed to know, from how to build our awards strategy, right through to how to use awards for marketing our business. I'm looking forward to sharing my ideas with the rest of the company, so we can get cracking on our entries for awards in 2021. Thank you, August :)”
We can’t wait to hear some of the winning stories from this year’s cohort, and to continue training entrepreneurs and employees how to win in 2021!
And we are very excited to introduce our wonderful new Project Manager and Editor Ben to the team.
Ben joined us in November with vast experience in shaping, developing and growing brands from his work with Fulham FC and glorious Goodwood. He’s already making a huge impact and supporting our clients to grow their own brands through the valuable recognition awards bring, so do say hi to Ben and test his sporting knowledge next time you are in touch – he loves a challenge!
Celebrating Your Success
Continuing our support – we’re looking forward to celebrating even more success with our clients and training more entrepreneurs and individuals to win.
Winning Awards Podcast – we launched our Winning Awards Podcast in summer 2020, and we’ve had such a positive response, we’re looking to share even more inspiring stories next year (get in touch if you’d like to make a guest appearance!)
Partnering with The Girls’ Network – The Girls’ Network supports over 1000 girls each year across the UK to reach their potential. From January 2021, every time you win an award we will celebrate your success by making a donation to The Girls’ Network on your behalf, supporting them to inspire and empower girls from the least advantaged communities by connecting them to a mentor and a network of professional female role models.
With the impact of the coronavirus pandemic carrying over into 2021, it’s hard to imagine what life is going to look like in 12 months time. But there is definitely still a lot to look forward to!
THANK YOU
Finally, we would like to thank you for your continued support and wish you the very best for the festive season!
We will be closed from the 21st December and returning on the 4th January, refreshed and ready to make your 2021 award-winning.
Best wishes, Team August.
