Two days on, I still have a lovely warm glow from the 8th 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 UnAwards 2023.
I’ve said it many, many times but I am so fortunate to be able to run and host the UnAwards. And it’s a great excuse to unleash the velvet once a year.
It is quite literally my favourite work day of the year. And the feedback from many is that they love it too.
Thank you to everyone who made it possible and who came along and supported it.
What a room-full of talent we had in the 141 capacity audience.
What’s the film, Darren?
During the past couple of weeks almost every conversation I seemed to have with a comms person centred on the choice of film for the UnAwards!
I think some people were more excited about learning the identity of the secret movie choice than the actual UnAwards and ceremony itself, which I love and which makes me smile.
This year we had the element of an AI fuelled ChatGPT prediction via the clever Alex Waddington.
Did Alex and ChatGPT guess correctly?
They didn’t, but that would have been a very tall order.
The top 5 guesses and overall guess were mostly films I like, and in High Fidelity a movie I really do like and one with a cracking soundtrack.
Alex has said he will do the same again next year and it will be interesting to see how ChatGPT improves over the next 12 months and possibly gets closer with its predictions.
Oh, by the way, the film we did all sit and watch was Withnail and I which appeared to be a very popular choice. “I demand some booze!” was quoted many times in the celebrations and evening which followed.
Yes, the UnAwards is a work day.
As I always say, the UnAwards IS a work day, but work doesn’t have to be dull.
Over half of the audience were there for the first time. If that’s you, please let me know how you found it.
Attendees travelled from all parts of the UK. Some commitment given the state of our train network and a blast of snow for many to traverse.
Many attendees have been to the UnAwards multiple times.
And – I think I’m right in saying – Adrian ‘Ade’ Stirrup now hols the record as the only person other than me to have attended all eight. Wow. Emma Rodgers was gutted not to be there but stands on seven attendances along with a couple of other comms pros.
Ben Capper created a fabulous playlist for the big day and you can listen back to it HERE.
Talented teams, wonderful work – the highlights
From the 450 entries the team of 27 external judges whittled them down to 124 shortlistees, resulting in 13 highly commended entries and 21 winners.
Receiving ‘highly commended’ in categories with over 40 or 50 or even 60 entries is a serious achievement so very well done to everyone who achieved this.
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 2024 (more news on that exclusively here in the new year).
But, a few worthy of special mention are Bannau Brycheiniog National Park Authority’s two wins. I’m so glad the team where there to collect them. Hertfordshire County Council too picking up two important UnAwards. And Rachel Brown and CAN Digital pulling together a powerful and effective fostering video in conjunction with no less than 62 local authorities is both creative and collaborative. They walked away with two UnAwards plus a highly commended.
Local government were the big winners grabbing an impressive 14 UnAwards. For a sector under such extreme pressure it speaks volumes to the teams and individuals plugging away and still delivering quality work.
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 450 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.
I’ll share the pics from the big day as soon as they land.
And pencil in Friday 6 December 2024 for the 9th annual UnAwards.
Giving…
Each year the UnAwards supports a charity and this year it’s St Basils - a wonderful charity which looks after homeless young people in and around Birmingham. If you would like to support them you can do HERE.
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 UnAwards 2023 partners and sponsors: CAN Digital, Alive with Ideas, Hello Lamp Post, Orlo, Omnisis, e-shot, the Local Government Association, Perago, Sorted Communications, Seashell Communications, Gey Fox Communications and Marketing, Whetstone Communications and the Behaviour Change Network.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – there would be no UnAwards without you.
Finally, I have to say I feel very proud of our beautiful community 🖤
Darren Caveney is creator and owner of comms2point0 and creative communicators ltd
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