Awards to celebrate, a Night to remember

Four years ago, we conceptualised an Awards Scheme to recognise, reward and celebrate the success of Indian businesses in New Zealand and structured a system of entries and their evaluation by a panel of judges that would be fiercely independent of this newspaper.

We were determined to enhance the value of the service that we render to the community, confident of bringing the independence, credibility, honesty and most important of all, confidentiality to the Awards Scheme.

The Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards (IBA) became a reality last year, thanks to Waitakere City Council, its Mayor Bob Harvey, Chief Executive Vijaya Vaidyanath, Waitakere Enterprise Chief Executive John Wadsworth, other sponsors, judges and entrants. It was a modest enterprise but conducted with confidence and diligence to create an opportunity for our businesses to showcase their performance and celebrate their success with others.

We were not wrong. IBA 2008 was an instant success, encouraged by which, we planned a bigger and better event for this year.

New Categories

The starting point was of course the Awards Scheme itself. We added two new categories (‘Best Marketing Excellence Business’ and ‘Best Sustainable Business’), separated ‘Best Small and Medium Business’ into independent categories and revised some of the rules and regulations governing IBA 2009.

Chad Wilkie, Convenor of our Judging Panel, expanded it to include ten judges, seven of who were new to IBA. Our judges are reputed and responsible, with the requisite expertise, talent and unimpeachable integrity.

Mr Wilkie said there was a strong entry group across the board, and good finalists in each category that made it tough for the judges to pick winners. 

“We had a very experienced group of independent judges who went through a rigorous process of evaluation to select the very best company in each category.”

Mr Wilkie and the judging panel demonstrated high levels of professionalism and independence, taking IBA to a class of its own.

He explains in his article appearing in this section how IBA has become an impressive landmark for the business community within the second year of its establishment and outlines the expectations for IBA 2010.

The Awards Night, a Gala Black Tie Dinner, held at the Stamford Plaza Hotel on November 16, 2009 was a spectacular event, with about 425 businesspersons interacting with each other and networking for commercial opportunities.

They were also able to greet individually Prime Minister John Key and Opposition Leader Phil Goff, who were Guests of Honour with Mr Harvey and Manukau Mayor Len Brown who was present during the Awards Presentation segment.

John Campbell, the energetic and iconic host of nightly current affairs programme Campbell Live on TV3 was the Master of Ceremonies and proved instantly why he is the darling of New Zealanders.

Classical and contemporary dances by Ratna Nagalakshmi Venkat, fashion show by Reshabh D Parikh Productions Limited sponsored by Roop Darshan and quality musical interludes by Joseph Alexander (Electronic Drums), Joscel Alexander (Acoustic Drums), Hemant Thaker (Keyboard) and Shivam Padayachi (Base Guitar) added colour, rhythm and melody to the evening.

Sponsors’ Delight

Our sponsors formed the heart of the project, fostering a mutually rewarding relationship. We believe that association with IBA has accrued a two-way benefit, helping both of us to reach out to the community.

The cordiality and goodwill promoted by us these past two years will extend to a new era of partnership with growing mutual respect, which in itself is an ‘Award for Best Partnership for Business Progress.’

The management of Stamford Plaza Hotel, which hosted the event, were gratified by the outcome.

The Hotel’s General Manager Peter Gee, Food & Beverage Manager Christian Pulley, Executive Chef Mohammed Haroon and Associate Sales & Marketing Director Sunny Kaushal began planning for the event early and for more than six months worked out various alternatives to make IBA 2009 unique, functional, glittering and spectacular.

Like our guests and us, they were not disappointed.

It is often said that starting a venture is easier than running it; just like reaching the top position is easier than staying there.

IBA has now become an integral part of our daily routine and hence is not perceived as an annual event, but as a project that needs to be exercised at least for an hour every day. That is the seriousness with which we treat Indian Newslink Indian Business Awards.

Because, we know that nothing comes without effort and no success accrues without persistence and perseverance.

As we congratulate the finalists and winners in each category and the winner of the Supreme Business Award, we wish to reiterate our commitment for excellence in everything that we do; be it this newspaper, the Indian Newslink Fastfind Indian Business Directory, Indian Newslink Journalism Scholarship or IBA.

We look forward to another Gala Black Tie Dinner and Awards Presentation ceremony at Stamford Plaza on November 15, 2010, to celebrate the success of the participants in IBA 2010 and another Special Awards Issue to inform you with special reports and pictures.

Pictures by Narendra Bedekar