Receiving an award is the moment in a person`s career at which their work is recognised and they can rest assured the industry has sat up and noticed they have done their jobs well.
At any ICT industry awards ceremony, words of praise are offered around such virtues as "efficiency", "seamlessness" and "organised". Strange then, that my experience of ICT awards ceremonies this year has been anything but.
Nothing makes an evening look tackier than to have the glossy, immaculately laid-out programme completely disregarded.
Georgina Guedes, Journalist, ITWeb
At the Computer Society of SA`s president`s annual banquet, a number of glitches marred the proceedings. Firstly, the previous year`s banquet had been criticised for that deadly sin of ceremonies - dragging. This year, the orange-garbed MC galloped through the proceedings like a greyhound after a fake rabbit. Secondly, where on earth did they find that MC? Surely, from a nation in which oral tradition forms a cornerstone of local culture, we could unearth an articulate black woman who doesn`t speak with a pronounced American accent?
Also, call me crazy here, but is it a bit too much to ask, when you have the technological elite of a nation gathered to honour their leaders, that the person spearheading the ceremony knows even a little bit about IT?
The entertainment, a strange, space-age, Mohawk-sporting, black, gospel-boogie cabaret singer, who threw temper tantrums on stage about the presence of the podium, was also a questionable choice. To be fair, what was the podium still doing there? Had there been no rehearsal at which the organisers realised that a dancer might have his performance impeded by the presence of a five-foot block of wood at centre stage?
Another tip that I have for conference organisers is: stick to the programme. Nothing makes an evening look tackier than to have the glossy, immaculately laid-out programme completely disregarded. If the sequence of events hasn`t been finalised, don`t commit it to paper. Once you have committed it to paper, don`t change it. You run the risk of having another embarrassing incident like the one at the Oscars where the woman nominated for a certain award was in the loo at the time she was supposed to receive it. It is only by pure fluke that this didn`t happen at either the CCSA banquet or the equally guilty African Achievers awards this past weekend.
While I understand that the primary thrust of these awards is not to satisfy the pedantic requirements of the press, programme jiggling does make it very difficult for a reporter to keep track of the proceedings. I spent the evening hastily trying to compare nominee lists with winners announced, because in some instances, mention of the winning category was neglected altogether. All hope was lost when I returned to the banquet hall after conducting an interview, only to discover that I had either missed a 10-minute dinner, or that the awards scheduled for after the main course were being announced with enthusiasm prior to the serving of the meal.
Fortunately, it did turn out to be the latter, and I didn`t have to add starvation to my list of complaints. But the dinner music! During previous breaks in the proceedings, we had been entertained by our own African Three Tenors, who were the highlight of the shambles. But for the aeon that we broke for dinner, we were accompanied by a band dribbling out what could generously be described as "elevator music".
Also, dinner was conducted in near darkness, because we`d had to blow out our candles. A reason for this bizarre request was never given, but someone speculated that they were wreaking havoc with the air-conditioning. The rest of the evening went by in a smoky haze with the smell of burnt wax permeating the room. Poor Dali Mpofu, Altron director and winner of the ICT Personality of the Year Award at the previous ceremony, had to announce an award with a smear of wax across his front because of his obedience in snuffing the candles. I implore the organisers, surely in a banquet hall, there must be some way of illuminating dinner tables that isn`t at odds with keeping the room temperate? Again, how was this only discovered to be a problem on the actual night of the banquet?
It is unfortunate that at times like these, when the achievements of these exceptional men and women should be recognised, they are instead being obscured by tacky organisation and so much candle smoke.
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