Two days on, I still have a lovely warm glow from the 7th annual UnAwards.
by Darren Caveney
I spent my Saturday morning wading through lovely messages and chatter on social and reflecting on the love, celebration, connection and atmosphere at the #UnAwards22.
There aren’t enough face to face industry events post Covid hitting our lives, and we know that the appetite for them is less than it was. But, there’s nothing quite like spending a day with peers, friends and new connections and, as I always say, the UnAwards IS a work day, but work doesn’t have to be boring.
Talented teams, wonderful work – the highlights
From the 342 entries the team of 27 external judges whittled down to 109 shortlistees, resulting in 28 highly commended entries and 19 winners.
Receiving highly commended in categories with well over 30 entries is a serious achievement so very well done for all 28 shortlisted teams.
There are too many great stories, pieces of work and wins to single out completely here – we’ll do that at the UnAwards Winners Masterclass in spring 2023 (more news on that exclusively here in the new year). But, a few worthy of special mention are Louisa Dean’s three individual and team wins. I’ve watched her journey over the past five years and this was a fitting result.
Celebration of the event goes to the excellent Rob McCleary of Gedling Borough Council for his celebration of his (and Nathan’s) win for best small team. Durham Constabulary were double winners, as were the county councils of Hertfordshire and Staffordshire. And Jude Tipper set a new - Bjorn Borg-esque – record fifth consecutive win for best guest post of the year.
Winners came from local government, police, fire, agency side and the water industry, and from the three nations of Scotland, Wales and England.
You can see the full list of winners and highly commended entries HERE.
What next?
Well I’m looking forward to reading through the entries I haven’t had a chance to look at yet with some down time looming in a couple of weeks.
The majority of the 342 entries this year will go into an updated new COMMS:FILES – surely the largest new treasure trove of comms goodness anywhere and all free to access and browse. I’ll work with UnAwards partner CAN Digital on this in the new year and shout when it’s ready.
And pencil in 1 December 2023 for the #UnAwards23.
Saying thanks…
Thank you to everyone who entered. Finding the time to enter can be tricky I know but it’s always a useful exercise and opportunity for self evaluation and reflection in my experience.
Thank you so much to everyone who came to the big day. I hope you enjoyed it. That’s always the aim.
And Special thanks too to the official UnAwards22 partners, CAN Digital and Hello Lamp Post, and to the official sponsors the Local Government Association, Alive With Ideas, Orlo, Perago, Sorted Communications, DigiKind, Amanda Coleman, Ruth Dale and Vanilla Ruffles. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – there would be no UnAwards without you.
I’m feeling very proud of this beautiful community 🖤
Take a look at all of the official pics courtesy of Edwin Ladd HERE.
Darren Caveney is creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd
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