I have been in the award business for at least a quarter
century. My experience in this netherworld started in a downtown
hotel in Toronto where I had just arrived from Sudbury to become a
principal shareholder in a company called Canadian Controlled Media
Corporation, which was the proud owner of ScoreGolf magazine.
The company, well before my investment decision
had planned its first awards ceremony, not only for the best
golfers in Canada, but also the best greens keepers, best teaching
pros, etc.
It is still a going concern today, and happily I
am still a principal shareholder.
I arrived early for the pre-dinner reception and
it was fantastic. People were excited, the program had attracted
the interest of more than a few TV stations and daily newspapers
and there was a buzz in the air. There was also, even by Northern
Ontario standards, a lot of liquor in the air.
Being thirtysomething and not fiftysomething, I
wasn’t shy myself about sharing the odd dram. Well, a lotta
dram.
The pre-dinner, VIP cocktail party rolled
on...and on and on. The departing owner of the company was having a
lot of fun, as were the new owners and their guests. For at least
an hour it seemed no one remembered an entire banquet hall had
filled up with hundreds of people looking forward to the first
annual Score Golf Awards.
I need not tell you the rest. The head table
arrived, for the most part drunk and happy. The speeches went on
and on, the jokes got worse and worse, and people in the audience
who had not had the benefit of a free and well stocked bar started
leaving well before the last award was presented.
It was a disaster and an inauspicious beginning
to my new career in the consumer magazine business in Canada. As I
recall it took us a while to pay back the sponsors and even longer
to entice them back to the awards program.
Some years later we screwed up our courage and
launched the Northern Ontario Business Awards (NOBA) program in
Thunder Bay in 1987 and
this year we celebrate our 20th year, back in
Thunder Bay again. NOB also launched the Influential Women of
Northern Ontario awards program in 1997. Our Community Builders
Awards (CBA) program just completed its third year.
About eight months ago I got a call from Sylvia
Barnard, the president of Cambrian College in Sudbury. She asked if
I would consider becoming a judge for this year’s Premier’s Awards
for Ontario College Graduates. I hesitated. For all my experience
in the awards business, I had never been a judge. My experience was
in finding judges, not being one. I didn’t hesitate long. Sylvia is
a no-nonsense, hard-driving executive, and you had better have a
very good reason to turn her down.
Sylvia had convinced the College Compensation and
Appointments council to bring this very prestigious awards dinner
to Sudbury and I am glad they did. They put on a tremendous dinner
(the hosting was shared with Collège Boréal, the first time two
colleges have hosted this dinner together) and the quality of those
honoured was extraordinary.
The success of Ontario college graduates is
breathtaking. From internationally recognized singers to
proprietors of groundbreaking technology companies, from social
activists, to the owner of the first Montessori School for Autistic
Children, the variety of achievement born in the college system is
wonderful.
The power of the college system, and its focus on
preparing Ontarians for work life achievement was evident with the
winner’s careers and their unabashed willingness to credit college
education in Ontario as a key source of their inspiration.
Our company is no stranger to this process. Some
years ago the publisher at Northern Ontario Business, Patricia
Mills, was nominated for an award, as was the publisher of Northern
Life Abbas Homayed. This year the editor of Northern Ontario
Business, Craig Gilbert, was nominated.
I enjoyed my first busman’s holiday immensely and
satisfied myself with a modest glass of Ontario white wine. Some
things do change.
Michael Atkins is president of Laurentian
Media Group. He can be reached at[email protected].
