The atmosphere starts well before the event. On social media, people are excited. They're sharing stuff, as you say. Quite often people will ask their audience for advice and help on what they should wear. It's just a good way of getting an interaction. You know, every time when you book accommodation, when you book your travel, tell people about it, and then on your way to the event, post about that travel, that journey. Here we go. We're off to the awards now.
Of course, if you post that and tag us, we're going to share that too. And it is great for us, without doubt. But the primary reason to do it is it's great. Obviously, for your own audience, they will watch this event with you effectively. You have developed this relationship with them throughout their wedding planning and on the day. Now what you're doing is extending that beyond and making them into what may be termed friends as much as clients.
So anything that you do towards the awards, use that as a chapter in that journey. There you go. It was a step in that journey and tell people about it. I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger, and you're listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast. I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you love, then you're in the right place. Let's get going with today's episode. Today I'm back with Damian Bailey, founder of the Wedding Industry Awards, for part two of our conversation. If you haven't yet listened to part one, then I suggest before you listen to this, you go back and listen to episode 129 because there was some great stuff in it.
Damien, welcome back to the podcast. Thanks very much. 130. What an honour. I know it's good we're so far through the podcast, and, you know, it's a real honor because there's only about less than five people who've ever been on my podcast twice, and you're now in that elite group. Wow. Well, I am delighted to be back. I really enjoyed our chat last time.
I've done several interviews and podcast eps over the last few years, and you asked me the best questions, so there's a bit of love in before we start. I appreciate that, and hopefully the questions are up to scratch again today. Now, since we last spoke, entries to this year's wedding industry awards have now closed, and I believe voting has also closed. So tell me, from your perspective, how are things looking in the world of the wedding industry awards? Well, yes, you're correct.
Voting and entries have both closed. It is always a little bit of a sigh of relief for me, but we have had, and you'll be the first to know this, Becca, and your lovely listener or listeners. We've had a record number of entries this year, which is very satisfying and also a record number of votes. So those two things tend to go hand in hand in hand. If you get more entries, you get more votes. So about 1500 entries ish and over 27,000 votes were cast.
So that takes a lot of admin and organization that is now done. And we move on to the judging panel and the judging process, which is a whole different bag of tricks, but perhaps no less challenging. Wow, that is some big numbers there. Congratulations on having so many people entering, and I just love the amount of people that have left feedback, because that's a huge amount of feedback and that shows how much couples value, the suppliers they work with, how they want to help them succeed.
And I'm excited for when people get to read that feedback. I know that comes in a little while, but that's a whole lot of feedback for people to read and I'm sure it's going to be really, like, on the whole, very positive. Yeah, you're right. People do vote positively in the main, but there's also some really useful little nuggets of information that entrants will be able to use to improve their product and service.
We know that from feedback from past entrance, but, yeah, generally, people love their wedding suppliers. It's because their suppliers are talented, hardworking, passionate individuals. So, yeah, it's a positive space, put it that way. Amazing. Now, if you're listening to this and you're thinking, oh, I didn't enter this year, I've missed the deadline, don't panic, because, as I always say, there's always next year. But also, there's going to be some great learnings for you in this episode.
Even so, because whether you've entered a different awards or whether you've just got something big going on in your business, we're going to be talking today more about how to make the most of the opportunity. Last time we talked a lot about the awards, how it all works, how it all fits together. This time we're going to be talking about making the most of the experience. So, first up, Damien. What I want to know is roughly those people who have entered, when will they find out?
Roughly whether or not they've been shortlisted. Okay, so the judging process started today. The first bit of that process is that we call it the regional shortlist selection process. Full details in very boring, dry format are on the website. That will take about a week. And so we will announce the finalists very early next week, probably Tuesday, maybe Wednesday, depending on how quickly I can get all the ducks in a row. So it happens fairly quickly because we want people to know.
They'll be sitting at home wondering and wondering. We do that bit fairly fast. So, yeah, early next week. That is very exciting for people. So when people find out, presumably they get an email, tell us more. What's going to be included in that email? Do you get some kind of badge that we can use? Because I want to think through how people can make an initial splash the moment they know that they've been shortlisted. No, absolutely.
And it's a big thing for us because we want to arm people with the tools they need to make that splash. That is the whole point. And I think it's going to be the crux of our discussion today. They will receive an email. In the email, it'll say, congratulations, you are a finalist. And it'll confirm their region and their category, just in case they've forgotten where they live and what they do for a living. And the next thing they will see was download your finalist logo here.
They'll also be able to download a certificate with my own personal little hand scroll on, a digitized version. And those two things will enable them to, let's say, go to their next wedding fair, which there are quite a lot of them at this time of year, with their finalists logo on stuff and their certificate nicely framed, if that's what they want to do with it. The email also then gives information about the awards event in their region and how they can get tickets.
So that's really the crux of it, the feedback. They'll be able to get their voter feedback, but not until the end of the awards in January, after we've announced the national winners. So, yeah, the email is pretty straightforward. You have to get anything important has to be at the top of that email because they stop reading once they've seen that there are regional finalists. So we just squeeze it all on the top and off they go.
And then the social media blows up, because, of course, if you're sensible, you go off and you make a song and dance about it, as you alluded to just now. Yeah. So that's the big thing I want to start with, because if you are listening to this, and you do get that email next week. This will be very current for you and I want you to think about what you're going to do with that.
So initial thoughts from me are as simple as even if you feel like you don't have any time to do loads of social media posts, screenshot the part of the email that says you have been shortlisted and at a minimum, just share that part of the screenshot onto your social media stories and tag the wedding industry awards. Presumably you do a lot of resharing during that time as well. Yeah, an awful lot. Obviously it's good for everybody to do so.
I don't do that myself because that is not my wheelhouse, as they say. But we have someone, the lovely Rachel, who looks after our social media, who will be resharing everything. So the more you post and tag us, the more we can share and the better that is for you and for us. Okay? Now, I want to reiterate to all of our listeners how important this phase of the awards is.
Now, I believe, and this may be a little bit controversial, but I actually think this stage is the most important for most people listening. So the stage between finding out you've been shortlisted and the award ceremony itself, to me, is your biggest opportunity. Why? Because everyone's on a level playing field, right at this point, doesn't matter if you've won or you haven't won. Everyone's on a level playing field and therefore now is the time to absolutely maximize your promotion.
Shout about it, use that logo. Places. I love your idea of taking it to the wedding fair. Put it on your website, get it in an email, and really importantly, send an email and say thank you. If you've particularly been bombarding your email list, all your social media followers asking people for votes, have something prepared to now send out and say thank you. Because those couples have voted for you because they wanted to be part of this. Let's not neglect them.
And we need to remember to say thank you. What kind of things have you seen over the years, Damien? The way people do on the day that they find out that they're shortlisted. Have you got any ideas for people that you've seen before? Oh, gosh, all sorts of things, Becca. And actually, the things you mentioned are really excellent tips. It's about taking your audience with you on this journey in inverted commas. Heavy inverted commas.
Not a huge fan of the journey, but it is a journey, so take them with you. The special source on social media is content, and if you are involved in something that naturally creates a lot of content. Use it. So your idea of saying thank you is a really nice one. Oh, and guess what? It'll also alert them to the fact that the wedding supplier they booked for their wedding has now become a regional finalist. But in part thanks to them for voting.
They'll love to talk about that with their friends and family as well. They'll probably share your post just to say how amazing our wedding was. So that can really be powerful. It's not just saying thank you to them, they're going to talk about it with their friends. And we all know that couples will talk to other couples who are organizing their weddings and guess what? They might come and book you. So you're absolutely right. As for specific things that people do, I'm not entirely sure.
I've seen some amazing videos that people have made over the years showing their reactions and their kids reactions and all sorts of stuff. There's no limit here within your realm, within the realms of your own personal. So technical skill and your ability and desire to be in front of a camera, you can go for it. But you're absolutely right. Everyone is on a level playing field at this point. Everyone is just a regional finalist. No one has been announced yet. Make the most of it.
Taking them through that journey from that moment right through until the end of the awards, regardless of how far you get, I think is important because every time you mention that you have been, you're a finalist, is another little make people prick up their ears and pay attention. Yeah, it absolutely is. Now, the other thing I think people could be doing at this stage, and I don't know if you see many people doing this yourself, Damien, but I suggest this to my clients all the time.
Very few people take me up on it, but when they do, they often see success. And that is trying to get some coverage in your local press, because local BBC radio stations and local newspapers love a story like this. They love local news. So saying something like local Bedfordshire cake maker shortlisted for national awards often will get you into the local papers or into the local radio. Have you seen any of your people before doing anything like that? Yeah, absolutely.
And actually, what's nice is they, in order for us to see it, they sort of have to share it back to us and say, hey, look, this is what happened. And can you help share this as well? Which of course we do. Absolutely. I think that's a very. It's someone with a quite a savvy attitude to what they can achieve out of. Out of this. They know if you're getting a press release out there, they know that person knows what value this has.
No disrespect to journalists, but if you do their job for them, they'll publish your press release, they'll publish your story, local interest, local paper, send them a nice photo of you with your certificate or something, or doing what you do in the wedding industry with a press release and they will publish it. That can't hurt. It's a great idea. And you could even go as far as publications that are outside your region if you wanted to as well.
And when you get towards winning and national winning, then the national press starts to take an interest as well. We are actually going to provide this year a press release template for everybody that they can download to help them, because we appreciate that. Not everybody knows how to do that and it's not an easy skill.
So we're going to come up with something as a template that you'll be able to then download or finalists will be able to download, top and tail, edit if they want to, and hopefully send to the publications local to them. Great idea. Excellent. Excellent. I'm really glad you're doing that. And again, if you're listening to this, you're probably already talking yourself out of this idea. I know my client base you're saying, oh, but why would they want to hear from me?
Or I should wait until I win the award? Please don't wait. That's why I'm saying, this is your moment while you've been part of this, because if you wait till you win, you might not win and then you've missed the moment. Whereas they're still interested if you're shortlisted, as long as you big it up and you talk about the fact that it's this big thing, they will cover it. They like to have local good news stories. And you're right, you'll also be in a very, very small minority.
As mentioned previously in the last episode, we did. Not everybody, far from it. Not everybody enters these awards. As I said, 1500 businesses have this year. There are over, well, an estimate of about 80,000 wedding businesses in this country. You are in a small minority because, remember, not everybody becomes a finalist as well. About two thirds to three quarters will become a finalist and then you've got to break that down into regional categories, too.
So you will be in a very small minority. You have to ride that wave. Yeah, absolutely. And you will stand out if you are the one that takes action in that small minority. So do make the most of the opportunity. Get yourself out there. Now, on the flip side, Damien and I know that we have to see this from both sides of the coin.
We talked about this last time, but there may be some people that get an email that isn't such good news, that they may be read it and feel, oh, I'd had all these big ideas about how I was going to go to press and I was going to do this and actually, this isn't the email I wanted. Have you got any advice for anyone who maybe receives that? Just about how they can put it into perspective and then think ahead for next time. Yeah, you're right.
That's probably the least pleasant email I send all year. I don't like to send that email, but it's an awards, it's a competition, and not everybody gets a medal. What I would say is, get out in front of it. If you have used tweer already, your entry into the awards as part of your social media content, go out there and say, hey, I wasn't made a finalist. It's not my year, something like that. But I'm going to learn from this process.
I'm going to go and look at the people who have been made a finalist and continue to improve my business, my product, my service. I'm going to go back and I'm going to have another go next year. Thank you to everyone who voted, et cetera, et cetera. If you can spin it so that it's still a positive experience, even if you might not be feeling it, then I think, again, that's just good for your audience to hear, future couples to hear.
As for how you spin it in your own mind, again, we talked before about not making it all about winning, not making it all about being a finalist. What else can you achieve from these awards? For instance, you would still be more than welcome and able to come to the awards event. And whilst you might not, you won't be up for an award. There are still many benefits to being there. So things like that. But I appreciate that. It's not easy to do, but do do those things.
Look at who has become a finalist. What are they doing that you aren't? And when the winners are announced, what's that winner doing that you might not be? What can you take what you can glean from them and put onto your own business and then come back and have another try? I can think of one person in particular, but there have been myriad over the years who, when they first entered Twia, didn't become a finalist. Second year didn't become a finalist, but they're entering again.
And then they became a finalist for a few years and then they won or highly commended and then won. So they went up sort of through the ranks, if you like. And in her interview on the night she won the regional award, I mean, she was beside herself because she couldn't believe that she got that far. And she could see she understood the progression and transformation in her business. Not because of Tuiya, but Tuiya was just part of it. She was just trying to get better each year.
And at the end of the day, that's what we're trying to promote, what's. We're trying to help people achieve, to provide the tools to help with that growth and to recognize that growth. And it was delight. I was delighted when she did so. Yeah, it's not an easy thing to do if you don't become a finalist, but you have to just think of the positives you can gain from it. Yeah, absolutely. And just don't think too deeply as well.
I think sometimes we can self reflect and we can go down into a pit of despair. And actually, it probably. It doesn't mean that your business isn't good enough. It doesn't mean that you're not doing good business. It could be that you didn't get enough people voting for you or you just didn't have the time to put into the work, into your entry. You know, there's a whole load of reasons why it might be, but don't take it personally, but I love the idea about getting ahead of it as well.
And I think there's something really commendable and something that looks really positive from a pr perspective when you do that and when you congratulate other people who could be seen as your competition, I actually think customers look at that in a really, really positive light. We had a thing when we.
This is not to do with the wedding industry, but when we moved to our village where we live now, and we wanted to put an offering on a house and we weren't sure whether what we were being offering was any good, and we actually went to a rival estate agent and asked their opinion to ask if we were being ripped off and the rival estate agent said, no, you should go with the other estate agent. And that really spoke to me in a really, really strong way.
And the next time we moved house, we actually used that estate agent. So by going on there, even when you don't feel like it, and congratulation the other people that the outside world may see as your competitors, that's a really, really positive message to your potential customers. Yeah, I think you're absolutely right, Becca. It actually shows a real confidence and a comfort with yourself and your situation. That's a really impressive thing to do. You see it actually all the time.
For those of you that are sports fans, you'll see it all the time. When the losing manager or players are interviewed in any sport, one of the first things they'll say, because they've had a bit of media training, is well done to the team that won or the player that won. I think doing that publicly tagging them in a post can't hurt, you know? Yeah, you're absolutely right.
It's about spinning it as positively as you can publicly and then getting that positive positivity for yourself personally as well. Yeah, absolutely. And there is another way to do it. If you don't feel like you want to do that, if you don't feel like you want to go public with it, you can just make this stuff disappear as well. So, you know, it may be big in our heads. In our heads. We're thinking, oh, all those couples are going to wonder whether or not I got shortlisted and now I haven't.
And we go down this spiral. But actually, they probably haven't even remembered. They've probably moved on with their lives. And it's a much bigger thing to us than it is to them. And the imaginary everyone coming to us and asking us about whether or not we got shortlisted for these awards probably isn't ever going to happen. So there's kind of two ways to go about it.
Depending on how you feel, you can make it disappear and just move on and think about it again next year, or go for it and make it into a pr and marketing spin. Your choice. Okay, let's get back to the people then who have been shortlisted. So we talked about making that initial splash, but then we need to talk about the lead up to that in person regional night. So once you've been shortlisted, I highly recommend, if you can do it, get along to the in person event.
I think that is going to be the most impactful way for you to make the most of this opportunity. So if you decide to go to the event now, we need to think about the lead up to that event is taking people on that journey again. So what are some ideas that people could be doing, you know, in the week before the event, as they are trying to talk about it on social media, maybe on email marketing as well? So, good question. The atmosphere starts well before the event on social media.
People are excited. They're sharing stuff, as you say, a lot of the. Quite often people will ask their audience for advice and help on what they should wear. It's just a good way of getting an interaction. So if you choose to wear a dress to an event like this, then maybe have a choice that your audience could help you decide with videos or photos. The phone is such a powerful tool and it's very easy to make videos like that, even if it's not your thing. Things like that.
When you book accommodation, when you book your travel, tell people about it. It's just another little step along the process. And then on your way to the event, if you absolutely might be going with other finalists or colleagues and friends, family, whatever, post about that travel, that journey. Here we go. We're off to the awards now. Of course, if you post that and tag us, we're going to share that too. And it is great for us, without doubt. But the primary reason to do it is it's great.
Obviously, for your own audience, they will watch this event with you effectively. They'll be excited. You have developed this relationship with them throughout their wedding planning and on the day. Now what you're doing is extending that beyond and making them into what may be termed friends as much as clients. And we hear that anecdotally all the time, such as the tight bonds between wedding suppliers and their couples.
So anything that you do towards the awards, if you like, towards going to the event, use that as a chapter in that journey. There you go. As a step in that journey and tell people about it. Yeah, absolutely. Content is king. And you get so much content out. Something like this.
The advice I would give people as well is just make sure you're taking photos of everything, but have your phone set so you're taking live photos because then you can put that all together, make a little reel, you know, after the event, make the most of it, because you can't recreate those moments. So even if you don't use all of those moments immediately, take photos, take a snap of you on the train, take a snap of the drink, the dress, the outfit, the. The journey.
People are more interested in that kind of thing than you think. And then afterwards, you can put it all together in a reel that says, you know, come with me to the wedding industry awards regional final and you've got all of those live photos ready to go. It shocks me, the amount of people that I go to with an event like this that are not doing that, that just have their phones in their bags and don't get them out all night because I'm like, I know you're having a nice night and I'm a big.
I'm a big fan of having your phone away on a night out of. However, this is a work event, therefore it's not really a night out. It's business. So you should be seeing it like business, and you shouldn't be saying, oh, we're here for a jolly, let's put our phone in our bag. You should be getting the content out of that night because you will do so much better if you do that. And you see the people who are doing that on the night.
You know, there's always a couple of suppliers when my local regional awards are going on that I know are good at content. And I will sit at home with my cup of tea, particularly watching their stories, because I know I'll get really good, up to date notes of what's going on and who's winning, because they're the people posting and that's the people that are getting the views. Yeah, you're right. I'm always amazed at our events.
We stand at the door welcoming everybody and ticking them off the list as they arrive. The number of people that don't bring a ticket, that's something. Top tip, bring your ticket. Why would you not bring your ticket if you were going to? If you've got an oasis ticket, you're lucky. Would you go to the event without it? Probably not anyway. But they don't come with even business cards.
I'm not sure whether they're fashionable anymore, whether people do them anymore, but the equivalent come with something so you can share your details. It's amazing how people don't. So, yeah, I'm with you. You're absolutely right. Live photos are better than stills because you can always make them. Still, if you wanted to videocon, just keep doing it all day and run up. And obviously at the event itself.
One thing actually, I would touch on as well is going back to your previous excellent point about if you don't become a finalist, perhaps congratulating those that did is continue to do that. So, looking forward to meeting you guys and then tagging the fellow finalists in your regional category. Because apart from anything else, when you get to this event, there's two ways, and maybe we're going to come onto this, I'm jumping the gun. But there's two ways in which you can benefit.
You can benefit by talking to other people in your other finalists in your category. You can also benefit by talking to finalists in other categories. And if you start that ball rolling before the event, I maybe even arrange to meet. If you go and go together, if you can drive or go on the train or whatever it is. But when you're at the event, maybe arrange to meet. Collaboration over competition is the name of this game.
And everybody needs a little network of suppliers to recommend when they can't do the work and vice versa. I'd be seeking out the venues because they're at the top of that pecking order. The venue gets booked first and guess what? They've got a list of recommended suppliers. Start that process as a finalist, as you were saying, and before the event, really looking forward to. Maybe we'll get to meet you. Your venue looks amazing, or blah, blah, blah, or something like that.
So continue that process of bringing other finalists into your sphere. Make them sit up and take notice of who you are, and they'll feel really flattered that you're doing that as well. So it all helps. But, yeah, I have a question for you, Damien. Do you publish a list of all of the short listed people for each region anywhere, or do people need to do digging to find that out? Oh, no, we publish it. Hell yeah, you will.
When we announce the finalists, there'll be a little button in the top right hand corner of our website that says, see the regional finalists and that will take you to our directory where the home page home search function is solely dedicated to this year's finalists and winners. So it's a extremely powerful way of filtering wedding supplies for couples who are organizing their wedding. So on there, you'll be able to click on, for instance, the northwest and then pick a category like florist.
And all the northwest florist regional finalists will appear. So that's how. And then as the winners are announced, then the directory is populated with those winners as well, or that search function is populated. So, yeah, we definitely do announce those online, on our website.
And then over the course of the next few weeks, as the events come along, we'll be promoting those finalists on our social media, but also particularly, of course, the highly commendeds, if there are any, and the winners at the event as well. So, yeah, we do a lot of promotion of those people. Amazing. So if you are going to this event, and I say this about all networking events, you are, again, it's a business opportunity.
Before you attend your local regional final, go and look at the list of everyone who's going to be there, and work out if there are any particularly influential people in the room that you would like to have a conversation. Maybe there's some venues there. Look down the list of venues, see which ones are relevant to you that you want to try and have conversations with.
Look, if there's people in your category that you want to have conversations with, maybe there's planners you want to have conversations with. If you know who's going to be in the room before you are in the room, you can make a plan about who you want to try and connect with and meet. I think often people turn up at networking events cold. They just turn up and see who they meet on the night.
But if you want to get the most out of an event, you will go in with an idea in your head about the people you want to meet. And if you do that, I guarantee you will have a great night of meeting some really influential people. Because you don't want to just be stuck in the corner with someone that's not relevant to your business all night. Or even worse, just with everyone you already know. Although that's fun. You want to go out and think, right.
People say to me all the time, I really wish I could talk to more venues. Well, you're in a whole room with people who own or work at the top of venues. Why wouldn't you make the most of that opportunity? Absolutely. And as you said, up until the moment, you're not a winner, you're a finalist, and you'll always be a finalist, obviously, and you're all in the same boat. Everyone's going to be nervous and anxious and excited.
And venues, it's a great one, obviously, as I said, they're at the top of that booking pecking order, but they'll often bring their team. So it's not just the owners, it'll be the event teams, the coordinators, and sometimes even right down to chefs and cleaners. Because without them, the venue can't function properly anyway. So they use it as a way of saying thank you, and that's great, but you're absolutely right.
There are people in that room who will want to talk to you because they're feeling exactly the same. And if you can get ahead of it, have something to give them, maybe that has your details on that will end up in a handbag or a pocket. I would also say, within the bounds of sensible sort of reasonableness, terrible English to wear something that's memorable. We, our awards dress code, our events dress code is always awards chic. And of course that's really hard to interpret.
And we always get people asking us what that means, what we don't want to say is, look, it's not ball gowns and black tie. That's not who we are and what we do. But also don't come in jeans in a G Leisde, which I've seen people do come dress up. It's an awards. Make an effort, be noticeable so that you get noticed. Bring energy. You have to be sort of, even if it's not your natural sort of arena, try and be that positive, upbeat person that is going to bring that energy.
Because our events are energetic. That's probably a good way of describing them. I love that. Wear something memorable. Wear something in your brand color. Wear something that reflects who you are, what you do. I've seen people before as well and I always love this. It doesn't work for everyone who have, like necklaces, which has got their brand name and things like that. Just anything that's a talking point is a great way of being memorable.
Damien, do you want to know my secret to how I keep in touch with people after I go to a networking event or an award? I do, okay, of course I do, Becca. My secret is if I meet people that I want to meet, I always, always pull out my phone and I take a selfie with them. And immediately whilst I've got my phone, I'll say, I need to tag you in on Instagram in this picture. So then I'm getting their Instagram handle. So now immediately I've got a picture of me and them.
We've got the Instagram handle. It's going straight on Instagram. So they share it. And now I'm going to follow it up with a message literally minutes later going, hey, so and so. It was so good to meet you at the wedding industry awards regional final tonight. Let's chat more, blah, blah, blah.
Now, the reason I do that is because if I then get contact from them again in a few weeks or months time or I want to contact them again, I can remember what they look like and I can remember where I met them. So I was like, oh, yeah, I met you before at the regional awards final. So get your phone out, take a selfie and do that little trick because it's a great way of connecting, it's a great way of getting in their inbox and it's going to help you remember in the future, too. Absolutely.
And I actually, I wonder if there is a. I know people who've done this because they've told us and we've met them at the events, is instead of bringing their other half husband, wife, partner, whatever they brought a friend who is good on their phone, and that person is their official photographer and video creator all night. Content creator all night. That's their job. Okay, you bought them a ticket and they're going to have a couple glasses of fizz.
But actually, you might be in such a sort of crazy headspace because you're beside yourself with excitement and nerves. You need someone else who's slightly detached from that to help you with this. So if you're able to and you know someone like that, bring your best friend with their camera and say, right, all I need you to do is make all this content for me and I'm going to just bounce around like the regional finalist that I am. That that's. That works really well.
We mentioned, I remember mentioning to you before about people sometimes come on their own, maybe because they don't have someone to come with or can't afford to come with someone else or whatever the reason, but it can work really well because you're going to have to put your best foot forward to engage with people. We obviously want lots of people to come to our events, and people do, but I just think about, don't stand in the corner talking to your other half. It's just a bit pointless.
I know you might be nervous, but you have to get out there. You have to use this. And it's only an hour and a half. Remember, seven till 830 at the event is our drinks reception when people pitch up at last eight. I just think you've got this a bit wrong because you're missing this opportunity. So come early, use that hour and a half. Go for it. And there's also time afterwards. Maybe we'll come to the actual logistics of the event later. Perfect. Okay, so I turn up at your event. I'm on my own.
I'm thinking, Becca, you make it sound easy, but I'm not as outgoing as you. This sounds absolutely terrifying. I have turned up. I come to you, I show you my ticket that I remember to bring, and now I walk into a room of people, give me some advice about how to make myself feel more comfortable, where I should go, who I should stand with, or is there someone that can point me in the right direction from your team? Good question.
Again, we've always, first of all, we've always constantly trying to think of ways that we can help people connect to our events. It's really difficult, actually. We've got 27 categories. If we gave everybody a different colored badge or something for their category, then there aren't, you know, 27 colors would just get crazy, and it's just difficult to do. We've even thought, wondered if there's an app that helps people do it, but that requires everyone to download the app.
The bottom line is, it's really hard. The first thing I would say, if you come on your own, or whoever you are, whatever group you come in, if you're interested in talking to people, come and speak to me. I know I'm there ticking off on my list everybody who's coming to the event. I have a slightly strange, weird memory for everybody who's coming through. It's nice to put a part of my job is to put a face to a business name that we've seen repeatedly over the last few months on a spreadsheet.
I will be able to tell you eventually, once I've worked it out. Okay. You want to speak to other florists? Okay. I'm pretty sure they just walked in and they're a florist, go and speak to them. Or they're a venue owner, go and speak to them, or whatever you might want to do. So come and speak to me first. And the second option, I would say, if you see a large group of people, they're going to come from a business that perhaps employs a larger number of people.
So if there's a large group, maybe a venue, they might be. If they're all female, it's terribly sexist, but generally, they could easily be from a bridal retailer. So you might want to look for a mixed crowd. If you want to speak to venues, you can't second guess it. You just have to go up to people and ask and have a short conversation. If they're not the person that you or the type of the supplier that you want to talk to, and then make your polite exit and go and find someone who is.
But it's not easy, and we are. We do try to find ways in which we can facilitate. We've just never come up with anything. And if anyone has any ideas, please just let us know, because we'll try it. Yeah, I think coming to you is the best thing. I say that to people often at my events, because, you know, most of the people in the room, and you can connect people with useful people. And again, if someone's prepared and thought to themselves, this is the kind of person I want to meet.
That's a really easy question to you as they arrive, is, oh, I really want to meet someone from a cake bakery, well, then you can go, oh, I think that person over there, and then the easy intro is oh, hi, so and so. Damien just told me to come and meet you because you're great. Well, that makes them feel great. Now you've got someone to talk to. So I think coming to you or someone on your team who can point people in the right direction is definitely a good place to start.
The other place I always find easy to start a conversation is either at a bar or any kind of food or drink station, because immediately you'll stood there and you've got something that you can talk about. Also, people are going to stand there for a little while, especially at the bar. So even if you've got a drink, the bar is quite busy. At our events, funnily enough, people are nervous. Anything else on a Tuesday night or in November?
But yeah, people will linger there and you will be able to chat to them. And whilst you don't want to loiter in the ladies or the gents again, that is a place, certainly I know where ladies can congregate and it's a place where socializing can occur, but be careful with that. Obviously, I think as well, we have to just remember everyone's there for the same reasons everyone's in the industry. It's a safe place to start conversation.
Everyone's got that common theme that they're there for the same reason, pretty much. And so it is quite a safe space to just start a conversation. And actually, often when you go and start a conversation with someone else, especially if it's someone else who looks a bit lost, they'll really appreciate that because maybe they didn't have the confidence to do it themselves.
And now you've made yourself a friend, at least for the start of the night, and then two of you moving around together can be a little bit easier. Absolutely right. There are all sorts of things that happen at these events and we all anything that's slightly negative from our perspective, we always forgive people because theyre just nervous, theyre just anxious. Its you know, I understand.
I remember it myself when I was up for an award way back in the eons of time, standing there with my wife Anna, waiting, just waiting to see if my name would be announced as a winner. And I did not use that night very well. I did all the things that mobile phones didnt really exist. Thats sort of how long ago it was. Well, certainly social media didnt exist, so it was slightly harder to get the most out of it.
But I just stood there drinking probably one or two glasses champagne, too many, waiting and just waiting. So I know how hard and I'm fairly outgoing and I found that difficult because of the nervous state I was in. But you're right. Latch onto a group who you think seem nice and are happy to have you around and that you want to talk to and that want to talk to you. Go and save a seat. Our events are not sit down dining. We don't do that. The industry does not come in that format.
So it's theatre style with standing room only at the back. And we deliberately combine those two things because it makes for a good atmosphere. Go and reserve a seat, pick a spot that you like the look of and if you feel like you need to be near the bar or near the toilets, then you can stand at a poser table at the back. But it is. I know it's not easy and we want that. We want that feeling.
If people were blase about it when they arrived, about how they felt about winning or not, then that doesn't have the gravitas that we want it to have. We want people to feel that excitement because that brings the energy and that's why our events are loud and raucous and fun. Yeah, absolutely. You want people to want to win.
But equally, I think if you are throwing yourself in as an attendee and thinking, I need to get my content, I need to make my connections, that will help you not be so nervous about the award because you don't want that night to be a success or not a success based on whether or not you walk away with the trophy. Yes, that's the icy on the cake. You absolutely want to see yourself walk away with that. But you also can absolutely have an amazing, successful night, even if that doesn't happen.
And I think it's going into the event in that headspace and going, whatever happens, I'm going to make the most of this night and have a great time. And if I then win even better, then I can go for it. Now, my next thing on my list, I've written.
I've just written the words tag, tag, tag, because one of the other things that really frustrates me at these kind of events is that people don't remember to tag each other on social media and don't remember to take photos while they're there or, you know, connect with people. But absolutely, there are so many opportunities. One of the best ways to get in front of someone else's audience is to share a story, tag them in it, because then they reshare it on the night.
So things like if someone wins a category, take a photo of them winning their award and say congratulations to ex DJ on your award. Even if you've never spoken to them, never known them before, they will be thrilled. They will share it to their story and you've now reached their audience 100%. That's another reason why having two people there on their phones doing it is a good thing. So let's say you would alternate on the categories. So get in a seat where you can take those photographs.
You do the first category, I'll do the second, and so on and so forth because it happens pretty fast, but it just makes so much sense to you and I think, and to lots of your listeners, but to others it'll be a new thing. And I go, okay, yeah, I'm going to try that. But it's a job. We want that buzz. We want the cheering and the shouting and the clapping and the support and the love in the room for the community. But also you need to make time and space to do exactly what you've just said.
Tag, be engaged with other people's success. Tag them in photos because also they won't get that photo because they're too busy going up and getting an award. So they'll love you for that. We're going to give them some footage ourselves as well. But they won't. They want as much as they can get. So they'll thank you for it, for sure. Yeah. And if this is totally new to you and you're listening to this thinking, this sounds a lot like just try and do.
We're giving you loads and loads of tips here. Just try and do one or two things that you wouldn't normally do and see what happens and see how you feel about it. Just decide, right, I'm going to just take a photo of the venue category or what the photographer category or the planner category, and I'm going to share that and I'm going to congratulate them and then you'll feel good about that. If you're good at doing that, then maybe do a bit more. But you don't have to do all of these things.
But I want you to see all of the opportunities that there are to do it now. I want to encourage people, and I'd love to hear your insight on this to, before they turn up on the night, have a little bit of a thought of a social media plan for if they win and if they don't win, so they don't know which way it's going to go. I want them to have thought what they're going to do in both scenarios so what's your advice? Or if they win? Or if they don't win? Okay. It's an excellent idea to have a plan.
You're in with a really good chance of winning. If you're in that room, you're in with a chance of winning. You should have already thought about how you're going to handle that as and when you do.
Now I'm going to start with the end bit of that process first because I think it informs the rest of after the, if you win or are highly commended, after the awards presentation, we'll do, I'll ask all those winners and highly commended to come back to our sort of logo wall where we'll do an interview to camera with them to just capture their first thoughts about how they feel to have won. How do you think it might help your business?
What would you like to say to your vote, the couples who voted for you to get this far? Things like that. You have to have thought about what you're going to say before it happens. And that means days before, not on the night, because you will be. You'll be perhaps full of a little bit of champagne and it'll be a heady environment because the adrenaline is pumping. Because you've just been up on stage and won something. You're not going to jinx anything.
Let's just be real about this, the superstitions around all that sort of thing. Or if I plan a victory speech, then I'm not going to win. It's just not the case. So plan something and then with that in mind, if you've got something in mind that you want to say, and I can talk about top tips on what to say, but you work backwards from that and go, what else do I need to do in order to convey those feelings and emotions during the evening? So this is really important.
Come up to the stage with some energy because we're going to photograph it and we're going to video it and we encourage this. And I'll give everyone a little insight. You can see it on the highlights videos and the photos, but anybody who's sitting in the aisle seat, I ask them all to high five the winners and highly commend us as they come down the aisle. It looks great. It feels good.
It gets everybody up and the energy high because I want the energy to be high for every announcement because it could be you next and you don't want a quiet room. It works really well. So as you're coming down that aisle, if you're a winner, high five. Everybody. Come up onto the stage, shake my hand, maybe a kiss or whatever you want to do in an above board, award winning sort of way. We'll post for photos, go offstage, photos in front of logo, all back to your seat. So that's the winning bit.
That's easy then, if you don't win bit, still use some of what you might have said in your victory speech, but just turn it into it wasn't my night sort of speech, but I'm going to come back stronger. Congratulations to all the winners. Things that we were saying earlier, you have to think about that before. It's a little bit of almost media training yourself and there's, I'm sure, all sorts of resources online for top tips on that.
You don't need to go too far into it, but I think that's key just to even think about it in advance. You could even prepare some posts, some text so you can just copy and paste it so you don't have to think about it on the night. You can paste that into your post. You know, you've already prepared that with some of the photos and video content that we were talking about earlier. But the interview speech, I get to have a. It's a real bugbear of mine.
We give people this opportunity and I'm perhaps guilty of not helping them enough in advance. And I'm going to write this down as well because you're giving me some tips here. Perhaps we need to say this. You need to plan a little bit what you're going to say should you get on stage or for the interview afterwards, rather. So, yeah, get in front of it both ways. You're not going to jinx anything and you're just going to get most out of this.
If you say nice things about us and you say great things about your experience in the awards and say lovely things to your couples to thank them for voting when we interview you, if you win, we are going to use that all over our website, all over our social media. You can see the comments that we use. We get a lot and it's very, very powerful for us. So you should think about trying to get in on that list. Absolutely.
Now, I sat in awards with a couple of my clients last year at an awards ceremony, and before they knew whether or not they were going to win or not, they said to me, oh, we've taken your advice and we've put together a social media thing already so that as soon as it's announced, we can put something out. Now, they did actually go on and win their category.
They didn't know they were going to win their category, but what was amazing was within like five minutes of them winning, they had this pre prepared thing to go out. It went up on social media. The reaction was huge because what happens is most people tell the world they've won a lot later that night or the next day. And because they prepared, they were ahead of the curve. Like, they were there within a couple of minutes and they had something prepared for if they didn't as well.
So it really will help you set apart if you do that. Now, let's talk about this interview then, because people probably feel a bit nervous about that. I know what it's like when you put a camera in someone's face and tell them to talk and they basically forget all things that they should be saying. So give us a couple of tips for those people that may end up in that position of how to make that a little bit easier and more usable for you guys as well. Okay, so this is great.
So first thing is, and this is a very basic bit of media training, is try to use a little bit of the question in your response. So if I was to ask you or if Anna asks you, because she often starts the interviews, because I'm often admin, actually. Just quickly, on that note you mentioned about quickly posting, as soon as I come off stage, I go backstage and send everybody an email with their winner's logo because they need to have that immediately.
Also, the post goes out on our social media and the website goes live with all of the finalists, the winners, rather. So we do that immediately, not the next day, because things are cooling down already by then. So I just wanted to mention that. So if we ask you a question like, how do you think this win is going to help your business going forwards?
Say, instead of saying, yeah, I think it's going to be great, I'm really hoping to get some more inquiries and just the bars or something like that. Say something along the lines of, we're really hoping that this win is going to boost our business because, and in these sort of ways, and the reason that's a good thing to do is very often when we cut these interviews up, we don't use the question, we just use the answer.
So if you can give the answer some context by using that question, that is a really good thing to do. It's not an easy skill. However, there's no problem with you. If you fluff what you want to say, we'll go again. So another factor, it's nice to have a couple of drinks, but maybe rein it in just because if you do get into that interview stage, there's plenty of time afterwards and for the next few months to celebrate. But on the night have a few because it's nice. But if you drink at all.
But you want to be compass mentors when it comes to that interview, if you get the opportunity. Other thing I would say, and I should have mentioned this earlier, even if you don't win, come and ask us for an interview. Come and tell us how positive the experience has been. One guy did it. I remember this one guy in particular. We get a few of them and we use them because it's powerful. He said, I didn't win this evening, but I've been really inspired by the evening and everybody in here.
I've had such a great time. I brought my dad. We've loved it and I'm going to come back and I'm going to try again next year. I'm going to work hard to achieve this because I want to be up on that stage. It was just so gratifying. And he wasn't doing it for our benefit. He was just had to tell us. I think it was really lovely of him anyway. Yeah, that's the first thing I would say on the interview. So try and use a bit of the question.
The second thing is, if there's a group of you, pick one person to be the spokesperson and agree on that beforehand. All be involved, but one person does the speaking. And if it's just you, the top tip I can give you is just stay calm. No one's good at this. No one's expecting you to be like a tv presenter. No one's had any of this media training. But I will give you a little heads up to the sort of questions we're going to ask you before you do it and just have a little think.
Maybe even take some notes. Not that you'll refer to them during the interview, but just have a think about how you're going to answer those questions. In addition to perhaps the stuff you've already prepared that you want to say. People who get that right get the most out of it. We are going to provide all the winners and highly commended with their own real of them getting their award and a snippet of their interview. So we'll use your interview in that.
But of course you'll be able to, if someone else you're with is filming you, they'll get that content as well. Those are the key things that answer the question with a bit of the answer, it sounds so silly, but it's really key. The voting one is the key one. When we say, what would you like to say to your couples who have voted for you? People go, oh, thank you so much. And I think, well, when you hear that, it's hard to use that afterwards.
So what we want to say is, oh, my couples mean the world to me. I can't believe they all voted. Thank you so much to all of them. We can use that and they'll want to hear that as well. Really helpful. And I particularly love your idea about coming and doing that, even if you're not a winner, if there's an opportunity, if it's quiet over there, go and make the most opportunity in that backdrop.
That's great content for someone to film you doing it, but also for you to use and to get used on your stuff as well. So don't feel like you can't do it because you're not a winner. And again, a bit like the press that I talked about earlier, such a small percentage of people will actually do that, that if you're the person that does that, you will stand out 100%. Okay. We've talked about the awards night. We talked about winning. We talked about not winning.
What will happen next, though, is everyone is going to get their feedback, give us some ideas about what people could be doing with that feedback once they get it. You're right. So we give that feedback at the end of the awards, as I mentioned earlier in January. So there's a little bit of a wait. I'm. But it happens in January and we'll remind everybody at the time and they can go onto their admin dashboard and download their lovely, juicy voter feedback.
What they will see is their average voter scores in the category, specific criteria that the voters have scored them on, and all their comments. Two types of comment, a general comment that is seen by the judging panel and what we call constructive criticism.
Comment that is not seen by the judging panel, where we want the couples to say, we love you, but there's just this one little thing that we think you could do better or it's very hard to give because not many couples have any and they don't necessarily want to give it because it sounds like they're being really picky and negative. We've worked hard at that this year and I know just from watching and seeing the votes come in that we have got more of that this year. So that's good.
What to do with that? You've taken lots of photographs before, during and maybe after. And if you've won something, you've got a trophy and you've got a badge. We give every. We call them the badge of honour. We give every original winner this tiny little pin badge because it's a good conversation starter in the queue at Sainsbury's or at a wedding fair. It's not too flashy, it just sits on your little lapel there or wherever, on your clothes, and it just catches the eye. It's great.
Use those comments alongside those photographs. Meld those two things into people's minds, that is, my clients love me and love what I do. Oh. And that's why I won this award, or that's why I became a finalist. Meld those together. So we use in all our. And we follow our own example, I hope, on all our testimonial stuff, we have on our website, a photo of someone beaming with a trophy and something they said in their interview about themselves, their business or our awards.
You have to use those. They should go immediately onto your website, onto a kind words or feedback page. Again, if you have a photo of each couple or the product you made for that couple or the service you gave that couple, then put that with that comment and let people see them. This is. Getting reviews is hard. As a wedding photographer, I ask for a review every single time and I would say 90% of the time I don't get one.
It's not because they aren't happy and in fact, I think it's the opposite. I think they expect to be happy and therefore don't really need, feel the need to say thank you or give you a review. It's just we knew we'd be delighted with what you've done. We paid you an appropriate amount of money and end of story. In a way, with Twia, when they're voting, they're trying to help you win something. It's a completely different kettle of fish to writing a thank you card.
Plus, they're giving you very specific business related feedback in those scores on aspects of your business. So it should be really useful. Look at it, assess it, get together if you're a team, and discuss it. Is there anything in there that hints at something you could improve? Have several people said the same thing about something you could improve or something you do particularly well? Analyze it, use it. I had an email and I won't obviously, mention any names.
I had an email today asking for last year's feedback. So they haven't. Didn't download it, they didn't use it. We get that quite a lot, actually. Download it, use it, meld it together with the photos from the event, if you went, and winning a trophy if you won one, and use it to promote, I think in social media posts, spread it out over the year.
You can use a comment every week at a certain time of the week, just post a feedback, feedback, comment and tag us and we'll continue to share that with our audience as well. It's really, really, really useful stuff. Yeah, absolutely. Do not be the person that doesn't even open your feedback. And presumably you're giving people names so they can see who's voted for them. Is that right?
Yeah. The voter actually has the option to be anonymous, which I like, because it might give them a, the sort of space to be a little bit more honest and open. Certainly when it comes to that constructive criticism, the vast majority don't tick the anonymous button and they give their name and. Yeah. So you're able to then go back and say thank you to those people. Personally, I was really touched by your comment.
You helped me get where I got in the awards and I'm delighted you were so happy with product and service, etcetera. Saying thank you to your clients is something that not many people do whenever you get a booking. Thank you for the booking. Thank you very much for booking me. I can't wait. I can't wait for your big day sort of thing. And afterwards as well.
If they send you, they voted for you and you've done well in the awards, go back to them and say thank you as well as we sort of mentioned earlier. Yeah. Or send them a little card again if you want to do something to stand out. If you want, get a little postcard printed with a picture of you winning it and send them a handwritten card in the post to the 510 people that said something to you.
If you've got their address from when they booked you, send them a note unexpectedly saying thank you so much. It means the world to me that stands out a mile and people will be so thankful for it. So think about how you can go above and beyond one thing. Sorry, I interrupted one thing on that. The logos that we'll provide you will be a range of formats, orientations. So you'll get vector files, EPS files, so that you can print anything you like with them.
A vector file means you can basically enlarge it without losing any quality. And it's what the printing industry uses, so you can get it stuck on the side of your van if you want. And if you don't have a van, you can get it stuck on the curtains. You can have a duvet cover made now, whatever you want with a tweer logo. But you're absolutely right. A small set of thank you cards with the tweer logo on.
Or maybe if you're a photographer like me, I put a photo of them and a tweer logo saying, thank you so much for voting for me. This is what happened. They may not have seen your post on social media. They'll have that card. They may even then show that card to others, take a photo of that card, post it on their social media. You just never know. And I think it's a small secondary investment. How are we going to use this logo?
Most awards, so called awards in our industry, you have to pay for a logo and it's low resolution. For social media only. We're giving you the best high resolution images we can. Photographs as well. I should have mentioned the professional photographer who is at the event is going to capture everything in all its glory. We make those photographs freely available to download high resolution within 24 hours of the event.
The photographers hate me because the turnaround is so fast, but it's so important that happens quickly. So, yeah, use that logo. It should go on the auto signature of your emails. It should go on your website, somewhere in the footer, so it's available perhaps on every page with a link to a blog post, maybe that you've done that explains what it is and what you've achieved and how all of that if in doubt. I know it sounds like I'm trying to promote Twitter. That happens anyway.
The key thing is that if you've entered this and you spent your hard earned cash entering the awards and coming to our event, you have to get something out of it. And the end game really, for people is to increase their inquiries and b increase their bookings. If you get one booking, most suppliers, they get one booking as a result of being involved with our awards. It's worth it. Many will get many more than one.
And if you really work hard at it and use it properly, it can transform your business just like it did for mine when I first started back in, as I say, when I started in ₩2003, an award in 2007, and in 2008, I doubled my price and I doubled my bookings. So I went from 20 weddings a year to 40 and doubled my price as well. Business took off because I understood what to do with it. That's the key. Yeah. And it's great social proof.
There's a venue that I work with quite a lot in doing in person things with, and they have a little table in their hallway which has got all their wedding awards and certificates and things like that on it that every single couple walks past and they don't necessarily point it out. But it's a great talking point. It's great social proof to just see all of these things lined up. And they say, often people will stop and say, what's that? Tell me about that.
And it's a great way to show people, you know, it's a great talking point. It's a great way. Have it on your stand. If you've got an award, take it to your stand at a wedding fair and show people so that they can talk to you about it. I think people worry sometimes that they don't want to come across like they're showing off or they don't want to look like they're being egotistical.
But I often think the people who think that are so far from being that way that you probably can afford to go a little bit in that direction. I agree. Absolutely. You've come this far. You have to make it work for you. So I'm amazed always when I see periodically I might go and check it on a few finalists or winners websites and they haven't used our logo on there and they haven't even mentioned it. And it's mentioned once on the night on their social media and that's it.
And then when they don't enter the following year and I may follow up and go, just wondered why you haven't entered. Because, yeah, we didn't really get much out of it last year. And then I then slightly have to call them out and go, well, I. Well, what did you do? What did you do with it? You can't just expect people to come to you. I always use the example of the Olympics. Coca Cola will sponsor the Olympics.
Let's say they don't just sit there, do no advertising around the Olympics, hoping they might sell some coke. They spend huge amounts of money on promoting the fact that they're a sponsor and driving their product sales. Okay, smaller, but the same principles apply. You have to make it work for you and to achieve whatever goals you want to achieve, but you have to make it work for you. And don't come to us and say, it hasn't really worked for us if you haven't done that. Yeah, absolutely.
You always get out of something, what you put into it. And hopefully after this episode, people have got a whole long list of things that they could be doing now to make the most of it. And as I said earlier, even if you just take one thing and do something that we've suggested, it's definitely going to benefit you. Now, I've got one final thing I wanted to ask you about.
This may or may not be something that people can talk to you about, but do you ever give people the opportunity, or can people offer their services for your events? Where do you find the supplies for your events? Can people offer, if they're a photographer, to come down to the regional final and take some photos? Where do people stand on that? Becca, number 87 in the list of excellent questions. That's a really good one. We have a very strict policy on this, actually, for our events.
How many people have been to an awards where someone is performing? Oh, and guess what? They win an award. So what we say is, if you are up for an award at an event, you can't do your thing at that event, whether that's venue styling, floristry, musicians, anything, because, first of all, we want you to come and enjoy the event as a finalist. But also, it just muddies the waters should you end up getting on stage in a positive way.
So what we say to people is, if they want to come and perform, is to perform an event that they're not. That may be nearby, but not where they're a finalist. But actually, we leave it to the venues, we explain the situation to the venues and we allow the venues to say, we're going to put on a real show for tweer this year. We're going to get in a photo booth and this and that. We're going to have that. We're going to deck the halls. It's going to look and feel amazing.
And none of these suppliers have entered tweer this year. That's how that works. If you haven't entered the awards and people you want to come and do your thing, I mean, talk about promoting your business to the. Okay, they're not brides and grooms, of course, they're not your market, but you're doing your thing to the cream of the industry in that region. People will take photographs, they'll tag them, blah, blah, blah. All the things we've talked about, what they should do.
It's a really good space to advertise your services. So, yeah, if you want to, you can get in touch with us by the website, no problem. But we do have that strict policy about finalists performing or doing their thing at an event that they are finalists at. That's fantastic. I really like that you do that. But also it's a great opportunity for people who haven't entered the awards to maybe get in on the action and find out if there's a way they can support you or come and be part of that event.
I would say if you are going to do that again, we could do a whole episode on how to make the most of that opportunity. But if you are going supply something, make sure you supply something that has got a little label so that people can tag you. It's clear that it's from you. And make sure you're making the most of that opportunity on social media as well.
Because there's nothing worse than me going to an event and there's some amazing cookies and I want to say thank you to the person who made them and I've got absolutely no idea who they are. So if you are going to provide something and be part of it, find a way to make sure no one can not know who you are. So lots and lots of things for people to think about. David, any final thoughts? Anything else else? We've covered a lot of areas. Is there anything else you want people to know?
I would say the events have become so important to what we do, mainly from a community aspect I mentioned we talked before about quite often the wedding industry is full of sole traders working on their own. Isolating isolated can be. Our events are really good place space to get out and connect with other wedding professionals at the top of their game. They're fun, they're engaging, there's lots of content. So come. I really want people to come. Obviously we always sell out.
So if you're a finalist, you need to get in there early. The dates have been available since March, so there's really no excuse for not having that in your diary and not having a babysitter arranged. But I know that some people don't operate like that, but we can't accommodate everybody. And then the top tips bring the energy, support other categories. Don't get up and leave after your category like some people do sometimes. Stay. Stay till the end. Engage. Come and talk to us.
We make ourselves freely available. Make yourself known to the people that run the awards. It can't hurt. Say thank you. I'm not asking for thanks, but just come up and use that as an excuse to say hello. We make ourselves available because we think it's important that the people that run the awards are there. So if you've got a question, you can ask me.
If you've got something nice to say, you can also say that don't hit my last top tip, and this is something just personal for me, is come and sit on the front row, please. No one wants to sit on the front row, but I love the people that do without me having to sort of ask them or suggest come and sit on the front row and bring that energy. It helps everybody else have a good time. And if you get announced as a winner or a highly commended, you're going to benefit from that atmosphere as well.
So, yeah, we're really excited. I can't wait. We've got everything lined up. As soon as the finalists are announced, the tickets will go on sale. And then we've got ten events in four weeks. So the whole of November is. And actually the first week of November, we've only got one event. Then it goes three, three, three. So it's full on for us. But we can't wait to get out there and meet everybody and really look forward to it. Amazing. I'm so excited to see all of the social content.
I'm excited to see who's been shortlisted. I'm excited to see who makes the most of all of the tips we've given in this episode. And I expect to see lots and lots of posts on social media. Remember, it's not about the winning or the losing. It's about the process and making the most of it along the way. And if you do win, that's the icing on the cake. Davion, it's been such a pleasure to talk to you for a second time. Thank you so much for being here and good luck with all of your events.
Thanks very much. Becca. Maybe we'll do a third. Such a great conversation today with Damien, just like the last episode, so many great pieces of advice for you. So if you are shortlisted for this year's wedding industry awards, please take note of some of the things that we've suggested, even if you don't use all of them and even if you haven't been, there's loads of information in this episode which should help you. Good luck to everyone for the award season ahead. See you next time.