Channel Awards: Our winning formula
Picking up a Channel Award is the best way to differentiate your business to an end-user
Dry-cleaned tuxedo £15, new white shirt (to replace the red wine-stained one from last year) £35, shoes shined £5, taxi to the event £10, attending the Channel Awards 2004, priceless.
With just two days to go and the preparations complete, it is now time to just look forward to the evening and relish the excitement of finding out who has won at the IT industry's very own Channel Oscars.
The awards have evolved to keep ahead of the changing market, and this year we have added even more specialist categories to reflect the growing tendency towards specialist alignment.
Not only have we included maturing areas, such as voice networking, data networking and services, but we will present awards for up-and-coming sectors such as audiovisual.
And for those firms that felt their business was not suitable for one of our more specific technology categories, we have included an overall specialist category.
The number of entries this year was huge, and having received feedback from all the judges, I know that none of them found making their decisions easy.
Of course, what makes the CRN awards unquestionably unique, and the only yardstick in the channel by which to measure your company, is the existence of our fully audited and reader-voted awards.
The Audit Bureau of Circulation checks all the votes in the Outstanding Achievement categories to ensure fair play.
Readers of our sister publication Computing voted for the reseller awards, and of course there is the Editor's Choice, which I can assure you has been a really tough decision to make this year.
With the world economy trundling along, and businesses tightening their belts to the point of strangulation, winning a Channel Award is the best way to differentiate your business to an end-user.
It is also an excellent reason to let off steam and get down to the serious business of having a great time.
Good luck to everyone nominated for an award.