Winning Together: Team Experience at UKEXA

Last week’s UK Employee Experience Awards was a resounding success. EX professionals, often in a minority within their own companies, found themselves surrounded by like-minded evangelists for the employee. There truly was strength in numbers.

There’s no shortage of reasons why people attend our events: the prestige and satisfaction of winning an award, the detailed feedback every finalists receives from our judging panel and the best practice ideas shared during our open presentations are just a few.

But another crucial factor is that our awards allow organisations of every size to come together as a team and share in a memorable experience.

So what’s good about attending the awards in a large group?

Larger Groups Watch More Presentations

Your company will be giving at least one presentation at the awards – possibly more. However, throughout the morning many other presentations will be taking place, and most of these are open to finalists. At the UK Customer Experience Awards, the larger size of the event means that presentations take place throughout the entire day – so there are even more chances to watch other presentations there!

If you attend in a large group, you can split up and attend as many presentations as possible, covering a lot more content and being exposed to much more best practice. Then, when you reconvene, you can share ideas together from within and beyond your industry.

You Have the Option of Selecting the Premium Package

If you’re looking to enjoy the awards in style, having 10 or more attendees means you can book a premium table. This is situated near the stage, so that journey to collect a Gold Award won’t be a long one!

Although we offer excellent wine to all our guests, those sitting at the premium table can also upgrade to champagne or a selection of fine wines. And your company logo will be on full display on your table.

Having your own table – premium or otherwise – really adds to the sense of camaraderie on the day, and those finalists often look like the ones enjoying themselves the most!

Winning Means More When You Share It

Having spent the day learning from other professionals and sharing insights with each other, the awards themselves take place in the afternoon.

Guests enjoy a three-course gala lunch, and at the UK Employee Experience Awards, they were treated to a surprise musical performance from the Three Waiters.

Presented without comment #EXA19 pic.twitter.com/HAr92OJzf4

— PRPSFL (@PRPSFL_tweets) May 15, 2019

Mark Thompson from The Happiness Index, who have entered several other awards, drew attention to this side of the awards as something his team really enjoyed:

‘The event was really fun compared to other awards we’ve been to – the entertainment was fantastic! It was fun, it struck the right tone and that’s really important.’

The awards start after lunch, by which point people have enjoyed a delicious meal and heard some wonderful music. Finalists are therefore in high spirits by the time the winners start being announced.

This is the stage when having a big team makes a real difference.

Wave Utilities, winners of two Silver Awards, brought a large team with them to UKEXA. When I caught up with their HR Director Jane Austin, she told me that having everyone there made things extra special:

‘Bringing the team was a real experience – going out for the day and seeing how much we’ve achieved. To then get the recognition in front of your team and with your team is absolutely superb. It’s not just two awards – it’s meant the world to us.’

Elaborating on these ideas in a LinkedIn post, Jane called the experience one of the ‘days in your career that you will never forget’. As a new company with a small HR team, it must have felt wonderful to share the award with a really tight-knit unit, and remember you’re in it together. In fact, I stand corrected: Jane called Wave’s time at the awards ‘more than wonderful’!

What a fantastic day we’re having at the Employee Experience Awards! We are so proud to be Silver winners of the ‘Employee-Centric Company’ and ‘Employee Engagement – Health and Wellbeing’ categories #EXA19 #EmployeeExperienceAwards #awardsinternational @UKEXAwards pic.twitter.com/TIJVGO2aiE

— Wave Utilities (@WaveUtilitiesUK) May 15, 2019

Final Thoughts

At Awards International, we believe in the power of recognition. It lets us know that our hard work is valued and it inspires us to achieve even more. By bringing a large team, you’ll find our awards more educational, more sociable and more rewarding.

There’s nothing quite like the feeling of going through something as a team, overcoming challenges, then knowing that it was all worth it. That’s what winning together means.

We are now accepting bookings for the UK Digital Experience Awards. Bring your team!