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An award ceremony is an event dedicated to recognizing and celebrating the achievements of individuals or groups in a particular field.
Anybody can organize an award event, but not everyone can deliver a successful and memorable awards ceremony.
The ceremony can be stand-alone or part of a conference. It can also be within an organization or community, or inter-organization or acknowledges people across different communities.
Regardless, these trophies are great ways to recognize and motivate hardworking employees at a company. They are also fantastic in inspiring more contributions in a field.
If you are looking to host an award ceremony but do not know where to start, this article will guide you on how to make your award event successful and memorable.
Determine your why
Generally, an award ceremony is to showcase individuals or groups' achievements or contributions to a field or project. Organizers who intend to start such events need to first determine why and how they intend to impact the careers of the recipients.
If organized to motivate employees, the employer will need to evaluate the kind of impact they intend it to have on the company’s recognition culture.
Presenting recognition trophies can motivate other employees to become more productive.
If organized for businesses, it might be to encourage fair competition in the industry or to celebrate an innovative firm.
Regardless, determining your why for the event will make organizing the program a lot easier. It will also help you identify the right targeted audience.
Research and understand your targeted audience
An award is useless if no one wants it. Research your targeted audience and determine why they will be interested in winning the trophy.
Most recipients will become more interested in the event if receiving the recognition will improve their brand or personal image.
Understanding them and identifying what could spark their interest in the event will help determine the tone to set for the event.
You can designate different categories to resonate with the audience and the purpose of the ceremony.
Picking a theme can also help unify the ceremony’s visuals, music, and the general atmosphere of the event.
Draft a brief
Draft a brief that shows the purpose of the event and how or why the winners are selected.
The purpose of the event might simply be to raise funds for a good cause and to attract more donations you will need to select winners that can help achieve that.
However, if the winners will be selected based on their career performance or contribution, then you will need to draft criteria to shortlist nominees.
You may also need to select judges who are experts to choose the winner that is most deserving of the recognition.
To make the event memorable, you need to recruit speakers. People appreciate being presented with a trophy by industry experts they respect.
Set a budget
While the winners at the ceremony may not necessarily be presented with a cash reward for their recognition, you will need money to organize the event.
Setting a budget helps you plan effectively. The budget will be influenced by different factors such as whether entrance is free or paid; sponsorship and charity donations.
The budget should account for all potential expenses including venue hire, catering, decorations, custom-made trophies, audio-visual equipment, event promotion, and the cash prize to be received by winners.
Research prices and consider more than one vendor to ensure you are getting the best quotation. You may also contact past organizers of similar events to get first-hand insight into what to do and mistakes to avoid.
Choose a venue
The venue is as important as the purpose of the event. A perfect understanding of the targeted audience will give you an insight into the kind of venue they will find worthy of the event.
Typically, the venue can be either virtual or in-person. Depending on the targeted audience, such as if they are scattered across the globe, a combination of virtual and in-person might be needed.
Some of the things to consider when searching for a perfect venue include:
- Location
- Size and space flexibility
- Services and amenities
- Security
- Parking and layout
- Insurance
- Property management team
Create space and time for networking
Not all attendees at the event are winners or nominees. Therefore, you need to incentivize them to encourage more attendance.
Tweak the layout of the event venue to create spaces that encourage people to mix and mingle. This will allow guests to network.
To encourage networking, create an online community for the event, and include in the order of program mid-session activities.
You may also create badges that make introduction easier among guests.