by Alan Nelson
And so the day came that I had for once not been looking forward to. The E-Learning Awards 2011 Gala Dinner: posh frocks and bow ties; champagne and small talk; the announcement of all the winners; joy for some and disappointment for others; but for us the inevitable handing over of our crown as E-Learning Development Company of the Year.
As luck would have it I spent the day at a PARN conference so I casually dropped it into every conversation: “Have I mentioned that we are “currently” E-Learning Development Company of the Year?” It was my last chance after all! As it turned out, from the looks on people’s faces I think I probably had mentioned it a couple of times.
Then back to the office to don our glad rags and Jacqui and I were soon in a taxi on our way to Grosvenor Square. For the first year I can remember we knew we hadn’t won anything - for the simple reason that we hadn’t entered!
Instead, I had volunteered to be a judge. The process had started a couple of months before, when for each of two categories I was confronted by a large pile of submissions to read through. I don’t think I had ever realised how hard the judges work. It took me at least half a day to read through the entries in each category and then another to discuss it with fellow judges and come up with the two shortlists. And it was clear that everyone else had spent as long on it as me. The final stage was a day on each category listening to the presentations from the short-listed companies. The standard was extremely high and I thought it would be difficult to agree a winner, but in the end in both categories I was involved with we all came to the same conclusion.
Back to the day itself and I found that one of the winners of a category I had judged was sitting on our table, so I had to keep a particularly straight, poker face! I listened to the winners being announced one by one, until we eventually got to the last category. And the 2011 E-Learning Development Company of the Year is ........ Unicorn Training.
I was delighted. I cannot think of any other company I would be happier to hand over our crown to. I have known Neil McWilliams for 12 years, having met him when he and I were first starting out with our respective ventures. He is a serious professional and always has something interesting to share. Like us, Unicorn adopt a publishing model, building things once and selling them lots of times. And like us they succeed because they take their customers seriously and make sure they are delighted.
So congratulations to Unicorn. Be sure to mention your award wherever you go!
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