Entry process just the start for Rotorua business awards

Entries may have closed for the Westpac Rotorua Business Excellence Awards 2011, but entrants cannot relax yet.
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chief executive Roger Gordon, who promises some exciting awards news next week, said there had been good \entries in most categories, but making their entry submission was just the first step for businesses.
"Some will have had their judges' visit already, others will still be waiting on tenterhooks."
Chamber past president Christa George appreciates exactly how those entrants are feeling right now - and what the judges are going through too. She has been involved in the awards from all but one perspective.
George joined the chamber's awards subcommittee in 2002.
"It was an exciting time. We were looking at doing something different."
New categories were created and sponsors brought on board to create a more professional process and event.
"I remember, one year, sitting in my children's rumpus room writing the [awards] evening's script on power point. Things have changed a lot since then."
As the new format took shape, George took on the role of convenor of judges.
"For the first time, we wrote manuals for the judges to bring greater consistency."
The group also tried to remove some of the bureacracy for entrants.
After stepping down from the convenor's role, she continued as a judge - a job she describes as "busy, but great fun".
"It is a labour of love - you have to read all the submissions before you go out into businesses, do the visits, then come back and talk it all through with the other judges to decide the finalists."
Judges, who are all volunteers, spend an entire weekend hearing the finalists' presentations and then sit down to decide the eventual winners.
"You really do get to know the entrants and their businesses. Come awards night, you can't help but feel happy for the winners and sad for the other finalists, because you know how much they put into it."
George also knows how it feels to be a finalist and winner. She works at Waiariki Institute of Technology, which is also an awards sponsor, and was thrilled when the institute won the Community Organisation category in 2009.
"I could not stop grinning! In all the photos, there I was beaming from ear to ear. I was just so proud."
Having been on the organising side of the awards, George said the win was especially rewarding because she knew how thorough the process was.
"It is a real achievement. I believe strongly in the credibility of the awards because I know how much the judges value quality."
The one awards perspective she has not experienced is that of the supreme Westpac Business of the Year winner. Waiariki is an entrant again this year and George has her fingers crossed.