A practical guide to organize an awards presentation

In a previous blog post, we talked about the importance of introducing Employee of the Year style recognition programs at your company and the positive impact they can have on employee performance. But you are probably wondering, how do you organize an awards presentation?

Well, at the Trophy & Plaque Shack, in addition to offering a full line of corporate recognition awards, trophies and plaques, we would like to offer you this practical guide on how to successfully pull off the most memorable presentations.

Are you ready?

Organize your awards presentation

The main objective of an awards presentation is to show appreciation for the achievements of individuals or work teams. In some cases, award ceremonies can be used as a public relations, fundraising or political tactic as well. This makes your organization more visible to community members, potential business partners and customers, but requires a fair amount of time and precision execution.

Types of presentations

To begin with, it is necessary to clarify that there is no single or correct type of award presentation. When categorizing these events, two types of presentations are distinguished:

Internal

These are generally done for company employees. Often known as “Employee of the Year Award” or “Best Company Salesperson Award” or “Outstanding Achievement Award”. Everything that happens in this event is internal and no other companies or organizations are involved.

These types of events are often used as a teambuilding tool and to raise the morale of workers and teams. In most of these cases, this event is organized as part of a year end holiday event, annual planning session, sales goals kick-off meeting, company anniversary celebrations and sometimes during monthly or quarterly meetings.

External

These types of presentations involve an entire industry or community. That is to say: they are not organized for the benefit of a single company or group, but rather they seek to recognize the best of a whole community. Some examples of them are the Grammy Awards, Susan G. Komen or the Alzheimer’s Association. Awards given out are likely to have titles such as “For Outstanding Service” or “Community Service Award” or “Largest Donor”.

What we are focusing on here is your internal awards presentation.

Practical guide for your organization

Ready to prepare for your awards presentation? Here’s how to organize it to captivate attendees.

1. Give it a name

To start with, it is important to name the event. Think of an attractive name, that has a theme and that is related to the objective you are looking to accomplish. This ensures that everything will be “on-brand” with the objective.

But how do you come up with the ideal name? For this you can:

Check out competitors’ award presentations

This is to get a bit of inspiration, true, but also to make sure you have an original and unique name – so there will be no doubt that you are the best in your sector.

The power of words

Use words should be commensurate with your objective and theme. The latter may be directly related to the image of the brand.

Temporality: If the awards program is going to repat over time, leverage things like “The 5th Annual Recognition Awards Ceremony”, or the 20NNth, etc.

Something attractive, flashy and catchy that will look great engraved on the trophies or recognition awards themselves.

Brainstorming

If you feel that your ideas are not that good or could be improved, call on your collaborators to brainstorm. Remember that two heads are better than one. Maybe your team will see something that you haven’t seen.

2. Planning and execution schedule

If you want a successful awards presentation, you need to develop a planning and execution schedule. With this, you will be able to identify the milestones and deadlines necessary to achieve success.

It is important that you determine:

  • Scope of the event, the resources required
  • Deliverables
  • Schedule of execution of the day of the event
  • Timetable

Write down all the tasks that will need to be completed during planning. These may include:

  • Catering
  • Choice of location
  • Decor
  • Invitations

Among other approaches, if it’s large company, you can create small working groups, or committees, so that the work is spread among multiple participants and not so overwhelming.

Important tip: In this part it is important to define the budget for each of the campaign/efforts. Make sure it is respected, so spending does not get out of hand.

3. Choose your judges

Carefully select the selection committee that will present the awards. To do this, the criteria for choosing the winner must be clearly established in advance.

If it’s just you – that’s great. If it’s a group of peers, make sure you choose people of good repute and integrity. This will ensure your award presentation will be authentic and well accepted by the other employees.

4. Remain attentive but enjoy

When the day of your awards presentation arrives, make sure to keep an eye out for any eventualities, but also enjoy.

You have already planned and organized your event, your guests are there and the prizes are about to be delivered!

If you’ve done all the planning successfully, your only concern will be that you don’t run out of wine early.

Are you ready to choose your award(s)?

Here are just a few possibilities for plaques, gifts and trophies specifically branded or customized for your awards presentation from the T&P Shack catalog. If you don’t see it there, be sure to ask one of our team!

You can even design your own plaque or trophy! Or we can offer recommendations. Contact us for more information.