Unless you’ve been hiding in the corner with your jumper over your head for the last few months you will have realised that AVEX 2015 is just round the corner.
There is buzz around this event like none other before. We’re expecting huge numbers of visitors, from the world of vending plus businesses we hope to amaze with our innovations and passion for service.
Planet Vending has loved being so involved with the show and I think it shows that we’ve been talking about it constantly for months.
It started gaining momentum with the announcement of the Vendies awards, with so many more categories than before. The fact that I was asked to be amongst the team of judges was a real honour and enabled us to have a true insight into the process.
We had been aware of some criticism of the awards in the past so I was keen to find out for myself what went on ‘behind closed doors’. And I was delighted to find that we had a group of people who were all motivated to get it right, as far as ‘right’ is possible under such circumstances. We had quite a mix of judges, all of whom respected in their own field, and yes, some of whom could have had a biased opinion but in fact I am proud to say that everyone was extremely supportive of every single submission to each category. Those who could have been seen to have had a vested interest declared themselves out of the vote, me included, or in the cases where a judge’s company had been nominated the judge left the room for the discussion and final vote.
In a previous life the companies I worked for were nominated for awards, not nominated; shortlisted, not shortlisted and won, not won. I can’t tell you the amount of moaning and groaning we did at each stage of failure, bosses included! The reason why we grumbled was glaringly obvious though. Everyone felt they should win, or they wouldn’t have competed in the first place. If you aren’t complaining then you don’t care, and if you don’t care, then you aren’t worth your salt in the business. You have to be passionate. We love to get to a “Yes” don’t we?
Planet Vending was absolutely gutted last year when we failed to win Best Ancillary Service because we passionately believed that we were, and still are, vending’s window to the world! Clearly not everyone thinks the same, but that’s ok. Someone has to win, and therefore there have to be losers. We can only play the game that’s offered, although next time we’d love another ancillary service category to go for!
So it’s fine in my book to have a moan about not winning, you wouldn’t be doing your job otherwise, BUT, and this is a big one, it’s not ok to assume that if you didn’t win that the judges have it in for you and that they are somehow on ‘the take’! I am here to tell you that was absolutely not the case. Why on earth would we jeopardise what is a fun event, and an opportunity to celebrate our own industry? Trust me, it didn’t happen. Believe me or don’t believe me, I’ll leave you to judge.
