A night to remember

You really need to do something twice before you can truly call it an annual event. So it’s with great pleasure that I use this week’s column to thank everybody that helped make the second annual ARN IT Industry Awards such a resounding success last week.

Thanks firstly to everybody that made a nomination in any of our award categories, or cast a vote for the Channel Choice awards, because without those we wouldn’t have had any winners to announce.

A big thank you to Channel Dynamics director, Moheb Moses, who spent half a day in our offices helping us decide which companies and individuals should make the shortlists in each category. And to the 30 judges from all tiers of the industry who cast the votes that decided our winners.

I’d also like to thank our sponsors, because it’s their support that makes a night like this possible, and everybody within the ARN team for their commitment to making the process work – it would be stretching the truth to say it went without a hitch but we got there in the end and delivered another memorable night of industry celebration.

A final thank you to everybody that put forward prizes for the auction – particularly to our nominated charity partner, Clean Up Australia, for the weekend break, boat trip and artwork – which, along with ticket sales, helped us donate $45,800 to the Clean Up cause.

Congratulations to the winners in our Vendor and Distributor categories, who we believe are setting standards of channel engagement for others to follow, and to all of our other winners for leading by example.

A special mention to John Grant, John Walters and Phil Cameron, who were inducted into the ARN Hall of Fame this year – they have all made significant contributions to the success of the IT channel and it is our great pleasure that the judges voted to award them our highest accolade.

Looking back to when we hosted the inaugural ARN IT Industry Awards 12 months ago, there was a real feeling that it was something the industry had been crying out for – a night for the whole industry to celebrate the year’s achievements without dividing by allegiance to a particular vendor or market specialisation. I’ve been to many great industry events in the past six years but this really felt like a broader ‘who’s who’ of the channel than I’d ever seen before.

This initial success meant the pressure was really on this year to deliver an even bigger and better awards evening. I’m delighted to say that we managed to deliver it with more than 520 people in attendance at the Sydney Hilton. I’m sure you all have your own stories to tell, especially those who kicked on at the after-party and beyond, and we’d love to hear your feedback.

For those who weren’t able to join us this year, look out for photos and a video here and here.