"You're a judge for the InspirED Brilliance Awards!"

I’ve been wanting to write about how I felt, being invited onto the judging panel for the Brilliance Awards 2019 - the international awards, hosted by InspirED, which recognise excellence in school marketing.

Some context.

We have some outstanding independent schools in South Africa (and Southern Africa), and I’m honoured to have worked with some of them.

But to my knowledge, we have not yet been involved in the various global awards for school marketing.

The first step is to get involved.

So - when I was invited to be a judge in the 2019 InspirED Brilliance Awards for School Marketers, I jumped at the chance. I was literally so excited. I had looked at the 2018 winning entries and realised that this was an event in which our schools needed to participate. If not today, then soon.

Part of the reason for my excitement is that before my change of career, I had been on the stage a few times at awards ceremonies. Not as a recipient so much - but as a host. During my corporate days in Johannesburg, I was in the Call Centre & BPO industry, where annual awards recognised excellence. I remember the anticipation, the effort, the teamwork, the recognition - and the fun.

How was the judging experience?

I was not disappointed.

After agreeing to judge two categories, I provided my bio and pic for the website and waited for the entries to be submitted and compiled. Soon after the deadline, I received a very informative brief, file and online links to all the resources I needed on a user-friendly platform. I took my time over the entries, then went ahead and submitted them by the deadline date.

Then I waited. More anticipation. Over Christmas, while on holiday, this was on my mind. Who had won in the categories I had judged? Who had made the top three in those and all the other exciting categories?

The results were announced in early January 2020. I went straight to the website and was so encouraged and inspired. What a fantastic showcase!

Closing the loop

As the results were announced, I was asked by the organisers to submit some feedback to them. So, here is what I wrote:

“This was my first experience judging these awards and I found the process both well-managed and extremely exciting. I loved being a part of such an impressive panel of judges and seeing the excellent work from the participating schools! Investing time in the judging process turned out to be of great value to me, from both a personal and professional perspective.” #BrillianceAwardsED

Next step: Get others involved

South African independent schools are doing some impressive work in the area of school marketing. I look forward to seeing our schools entering in future!

Have a look at the website for more information and to see the gold, silver and bronze winning entries from 2019 and previous years:

https://www.inspiredsm.com/2019-brilliance-award-winners

And get ready for the 2020 awards!