broads awards this year

[650xs]

what wharr and who..........

 

 

any news ..............???

[650xs]

me ole mum would say no harm to ask .................................??????

[MauriceMynah]

The NBO awards ceremony was held on Saturday 25th of this month at the Broadshaven public house Potter Heigham.

An enjoyable evening but I can't remember who won what apart from...

Best large boatyard... Richardsons.

Best small boatyard...Freedom.

Best moorings...New Inn Horning

Best Food...  New Inn Horning

Best Beer... White Horse Neatishead  (I think)

Best dog friendly pub... The Dog inn Ludham bridge

[LadyPatricia]

Some surprising 'winners' there

[Matt]

are there two New Inns in Horning?

[JawsOrca]

I noticed a plaque somewhere which had the broads awards as this forum? did this forum used to do this?

[NorfolkNog]

Long story but in effect, yes

[Wussername]

Who won the best Forum award?

[Oddfellow]

The Dog at Ludham won Best Music Venue.

 

Surlingham Ferry House won Most Dog Friendly Pub.

Boulters won Best Boat Services and managed to boo when we won Best Small Hire Yard for which one chap came over later (probably at the insistence of Sonny) but still failed to say sorry. 

 

It was an enjoyable night with a decent turn out.

[JennyMorgan]

Long story but in effect, yes

The whole awards saga is just that! No sour grapes intended but I really do think this one needs a wider base to be really creditable. Wouldn't it be nice if all three Broads forums could forget the past and unite on this one? The only real problem being multi-forum  membership but I suspect that there would be a way around that. Maybe this is really one for the relevant tourist organisation  rather than a relatively small forum? 

[Guest]

The whole awards saga is just that! No sour grapes intended but I really do think this one needs a wider base to be really creditable. Wouldn't it be nice if all three Broads forums could forget the past and unite on this one? The only real problem being multi-forum  membership but I suspect that there would be a way around that. Maybe this is really one for the relevant tourist organisation  rather than a relatively small forum? 

 

 

When publicly judging one competing business over another, it's essential to make sure they are all tested, rather than just the small handful possible with the apparently very small number of voters. There must have been dozens of businesses in each category that were not even visited by any of the voters.

 

It's debatable whether even all three NB forums could provide a credible sample base, so you're probably right in saying that it would require a relevant tourist organisation to organise it.

 

The basic idea is fine, but credibility is everything, or the awards are meaningless, even for the winners.

[JawsOrca]

Whatever the history it does sound to me like something a tourist agency should be doing..i.e the Broads authority? and they should be doing well.. I doubt us few on these forums really represent the full range of broads users.. but anything to help small businesses is all good in my book.

[Oddfellow]

I accept the credibility point fully, but will also point out that we canvas our customers for the votes that we receive and to me, the award is valued because our customers are the ones who have voted.

 

It could be argued that we have a better communication base than our fellow category runners, but that's what any public vote is about. If people didn't want to vote for us (or anyone) they could easily choose not to rather than joining a forum in order to gain the ability to vote.

[JennyMorgan]

The BA has no responsibility for tourism so perhaps this would be more suited to the Broads Tourism Forum, a formal consultative body.

 

I have long thought that whichever forum is running the awards they are punching way above their weight by calling it the Broads Awards rather than the whichever forum Broads Awards. 

 

Strow wrote: 'The basic idea is fine, but credibility is everything, or the awards are meaningless, even for the winners.'

Got to say that I agree entirely with Strow on this one. 

[Guest]

The BA has no responsibility for tourism so perhaps this would be more suited to the Broads Tourism Forum, a formal consultative body.

 

I have long thought that whichever forum is running the awards they are punching way above their weight by calling it the Broads Awards rather than the whichever forum Broads Awards. 

 

Good point Peter, it would also have an impact on the BA's overheads too, so they shouldn't really get involved on that basis either.

 

..and yes, "The NBO Broads Awards" would be a much more honest title.

[JennyMorgan]

Andy, you admit to canvassing for votes. I'm sorry, but for me that reduces the credibility of the awards still further, to pretty much nil.

 

Many years ago I held the licence for the Waveney Inn, we won the Pub of the Year Award several times, don't recollect ever having to canvas. Voting was entirely voluntary, not conditional on belonging to anything or any forum. Mind you, the scheme as a whole eventually collapsed because we did win so often, a pity but I do understand the whys and wherefores of that one. 

[Guest]

As I understand it, prospective candidates for those business awards are requested to attract nominations by displaying a poster promoting the NBO, and then voters have to join the NBO to place their vote.

[Hockham Admiral]

Long story but in effect, yes

Can you remind me, please, Howard?

[littlesprite]

The Broads awards might not be perfect but it is there and helps to promote the broads, whilst we can all think of ways to make improvements how many of us make the effort.

For me the important thing here is that anything showing the broads in a good light is worth doing, whether it should be run by the NBO is irrelevant if they are the only ones who can be bothered, I believe anyone having the best interests of the broads and broads businesses should welcome and support the awards.

[Matt]

Andy, you admit to canvassing for votes. I'm sorry, but for me that reduces the credibility of the awards still further, to pretty much.

But that is no different to pubs, restaurants and hotels etc publicising and asking people to leave their reviews on Tripadvisor? Tripadvisor then gives regional/national awards. Can't see how that reduces the credibility of what Tripadvisor provides?

[Oddfellow]

Here here, LittleSprite.

 

Strow is right.

 

Any scheme that requires people to vote needs publicity. The canvasing for votes is a tried and tested method of gaining votes; it happens in elections the world over (and in some countries, it actually works). The awards are a useful vehicle to attract new members to the forum too.

 

Without any publicity, there would be little or no voting. We ONLY canvassed our existing customers and facebook followers. We only wanted votes from people who had used our service and we made that clear. Without our canvasing, the vast majority of our customers would have been unaware of the awards and so wouldn't vote.

 

In Peter's case with the pub, there absolutely must have been some kind of publicity else how would anybody have known about the award? People who had never visited the pub would have been highly unlikely to vote for it so it must have gained success by somehow alerting people to it running in the awards. Matt's point regarding Trip Advisor is equally valid above.

 

I see nothing wrong with canvasing our customers for votes and, clearly, neither did a sizeable number of them.

 

 

I used to be of the same opinon as some of you here. I could never see the validity of these awards. Then, three years ago, without any prompting, we were nominated for the Most Improved Business award. This brought it home to me that more than one person had been watching what we had achieved and had the consideration to highlight this to the forum. We didn't ask for the nomination. That brought it home that there are people out there willing to support our business in ways other than spending money with us. It was a big pat on the back and made us feel good, valued. I know the awards respresent a very small percentage of people, but take any set of canvased statistics and look at the numbers involved; they are generally very low. I used to work in a company that created readers surveys for magaziines and was astonsihed at the low sample rathes that were used to determine reader opinion.

 

The fact that people went out of their way and voted for us when they had absolutely no need to do so is enough for me.

[JennyMorgan]

When publicly judging one competing business over another, it's essential to make sure they are all tested, rather than just the small handful possible with the apparently very small number of voters. There must have been dozens of businesses in each category that were not even visited by any of the voters.

 

It's debatable whether even all three NB forums could provide a credible sample base, so you're probably right in saying that it would require a relevant tourist organisation to organise it.

 

The basic idea is fine, but credibility is everything, or the awards are meaningless, even for the winners.

Andy, please re-read the above.

 

The Pub of the Year Awards were originally conceived to encourage folk to visit more, if not all the pubs in Broadland. The problem came when customers simply visited the winners, and then just voted for them without visiting other pubs. In hindsight we had an advantage over other pubs in that we had over fifty moorings associated with the pub and thirty plus caravans so we always had a large, captive customer base. Effectively the losers ended up promoting the winners thus the competition died, understandably.

 

The Broads Awards is not played on a level playing field. Voters have to be forum members, businesses have to support and promote a forum. I don't doubt that Andy offers his customers an award level experience but then so do other small yards, I could name a few, but quite possibly they don't promote themselves on forums and probably don't canvas votes or even promote the Awards. 

[NorfolkNog]

Can you remind me, please, Howard?

Hi John

No problem, PM you later if OK

[Oddfellow]

Yes, I have said I get Stow's point about credibility. But this point is as valid for the EDP awards as it is for any other that is not judged by an overseeing group such as Bafta. I have been involved with National Estate Agent awards too and this involves the agent themselves registering (and paying to do so) and is all about canvassing votes from customers. They make no secret of the fact that it is about promoting agent's businesses. This really is no different with the exception that nobody enters themselves and we certainly aren't asked to pay for inclusion; our customers nominate us. In my book, that carries some weight. 

 

The level playing field that you talk about, Peter, is only imbalanced by people's lack of support as is any voting system. All the nominees have the same opportunities to gather votes from their customers. The fact that you have to register is a good thing as it validates your existence (ok, it's far from tamperproof) and allows just one vote per "person" per category. 

 

I don't have to promote the forum, I do so because of a symbiotic relationship which any business would benefit from. 

 

It is a shame that there is so much pooh-poohing of the awards. Whether you believe in the validity of them or not, this is a small bunch of people giving up their time to give back something to the Broadland community that we all enjoy.

 

There is nothing to stop anybody reading this from taking an active role in nominating and voting in next year's awards and simply resolve the "problems" that you currently cite with them. So, please, in 2015, take part and make the awards even more meaningful.  

[MBA Marine]

I was nominated for best boat service last year, missing out on the award to Ludham bridge.

 

I was honored to get get a nomination, with a small market share my chance of winning was always very small, if I was able to get 100% of my customers to vote I would still loose out to a bigger yard who gets 10% to vote.

 

That said I do not take issue with this, the nomination alone was a nice bit of advertising and the fact that I was nominated means that some of my customers took the time and cared enough to put my name forward, long may the Broads awards continue to help local businesses.