Come and be with the ‘ideas people’

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The last time I wrote about the Marketing Week Engage Awards in this column I got into trouble with a reader named Jim.

Jim responded to the online version of that column back in November when we launched the 2011 Awards, telling me that I should be ashamed of myself. He felt it was an abuse of this column to shamelessly plug my own events.

Jim’s main problem was with my contention that the Engage Awards is “different from the

I truly believe that. Jim didn’t buy it, however, and I respect that. We went back and forth online before respectfully agreeing to disagree but, in order not to further offend any readers, I’d like to tread carefully in letting you know that if you haven’t booked your table for the Engage Awards you risk running out of time.

First though, for Jim and others like him who might think this column makes me a sell-out, here’s my last word on what the Engage Awards means to me.

Marketing Week exists to champion and support anyone plying their trade in marketing, advertising and communications. We believe these people are in the business of using creativity and customer insight as tools for growth.

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We all know the pace of change in digital technology and consumer behaviour is transforming the way life is lived and changing the way business can get done. The people that book themselves a table for the Engage Awards ceremony in the Great Room of the Grosvenor House Hotel on 24 May are at the heart of much of that change.

Some will be architects of that change, others will be highly skilled in explaining and interpreting that change and its value to ordinary people. The room will be full of ’value providers’ and ’ideas people’. For that entire evening, the Great Room at this London venue will be full of ideas and opportunities.

I know that because Marketing Week’s publisher Sarah Gilchriest and I read more than 600 of your Engage Awards entries. Each told a tale of how our industry can build growth and change lives for the better. Together they demonstrated the power of marketing to lift this country out of its current mire. The Engage Awards will be an incredible thing to be a part of and I wouldn’t want to miss it for the world.

We already have more marketers booked to attend the 2011 Engage Awards than enjoyed last year’s event. If you plan to join us for the only industry celebration you really need to be at this year, visit www.marketingweekawards.co.uk to book a table now. See you there. Sorry Jim.