It’s Awards Season!

As humans we love recognition – it makes us feel good.

February is when those in the entertainment industry enjoy award ceremony after award ceremony to celebrate excellence in their industry, culminating in the Oscars.

Whilst some consider it to be an unnecessary, mutual back-slapping exercise by over-inflated egos, it is widely recognised by the public as the pinnacle of achievement in the film industry.

Winning an Oscar puts you in a place that lots of people don’t even aspire to, let alone get close to.

My favourite film of all time is probably 12 Angry Men (1957) starring Henry Fonda.

A deserved Best Picture Oscar winner, it was subsequently remade in 1997 as a made for TV drama.

The remake was never eligible for an Oscar but, in my opinion, even if it had been, it would never have won.

Why?

Because it is not as good as the original; it is not even close.

The Intelligent Instructor Awards

The Intelligent Instructor Awards do for the driving instruction industry what the Oscars do for the film industry. They recognise excellence!

  • Excellence in Instruction
  • Excellence in Business
  • Excellence in Innovation
  • Excellence in Support

We should celebrate all that is good in our industry and, in the same way as the Academy make a song and dance about the Oscars, then so should we.

How does it work?

There are 17 categories in which awards are given and in each category there are gold, silver and bronze awards.

An independent judging panel, consisting of industry experts, evaluate each category and rank the nominees.  This makes up 50% of the final scores.

The other 50% is taken from the public vote and the combined scores determine the winners.

The judging panel will consider the nominees on the basis of a written entry, which is prepared by the nominee themselves.  They are therefore judging it based on what is presented to them.

The public vote, on the other hand, relies on those who have actually used the nominee or their product to judge it based on their experience.

Being voted top by both the expert judging panel and the public is extremely gratifying.

The judging panel have a breadth of knowledge and visibility across the industry which allows them to bring an overall impression of the entry.  Being voted top by them is a real accolade.

The public vote, which is from those who actually use the nominee or their product, represents recognition of its quality and is, for any nominee, the key metric.  Being lauded by your users is the best indication of success and is highly prized.

It is the difference between being told that a film is really good and watching it and thinking “Wow, this is really good”.

Why do we want an award?

Being nominated for an Oscar is great, as any of the nominees will tell you, and they’ll probably also say that winning isn’t everything when they don’t win.

But that’s not true.  Winning is everything.  Winning means you are top of the tree and no-one can ever take that away from you.

Winning won’t make us better at what we do because winning isn’t what motivates us – but it would certainly make us feel good and it will serve as a permanent reminder of our success.

If I won an Oscar, it would be put in a prominent place in my home, not because I want to brag to others about how great I am – although I probably would – but because I want to remind myself when things aren’t going quite so well that actually I am successful and it has been recognised.

I’ve never won a gold award with MyDriveTime – we last won before I joined – so I’m extra motivated this time around.

That said, I don’t believe we should win because I want to, but because we deserve to.

Why do I need to vote for you then?

Our origins lie in driving instruction, our ethos in who we are, our philosophy in what we believe and our excellence in our attention to detail.

MyDriveTime is the manifestation of all that and more.  Our support for driving instructors is without parallel.

Last year we won the judges vote but we only ranked 4th in the public vote.  We don’t believe that accurately reflects how you feel about MyDriveTime – we just need you to say so.

In our opinion, we are the Professional Support Provider of the Year – and now we need you to help us tell everyone else that we are.

We always appreciate it whenever you sing our praises to other instructors; now we want you to join the choir and sing our praises with everybody else.

The Intelligent Instructor Awards is a great opportunity to do that.

The most prestigious awards, in any industry, are those decided by the voting public – and in the Intelligent Instructor awards, that’s you!

When does voting close and where can I vote?

The closing date for votes is the 23rd February so time is running out.

Your vote can be cast here – please do it now.

…and finally

Every good film has a comprehensive set of credits and MyDriveTime is no exception so…

MyDriveTime – The Search for an Award

A FILM BY
DANIEL HILL

DIRECTED BY
DANIEL HILL

HEAD OF PRODUCTION
MICHELLE TIMMONS

PRODUCTION DESIGNERS
CHRIS NICHOLSON
PHIL MOORE

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS
DANIEL HILL
JO HILL
MICHELLE TIMMONS

WRITTEN BY
EMMA ASHLEY

BASED ON AN ORIGINAL IDEA BY

DANIEL AND JO HILL

CATERING PROVIDED BY
MICHELLE’S CUPCAKES

SPECIAL THANKS 
EVELYN EASTGATE for being an inspiration every day

No animals were harmed during the making of this product

If you find any issues with this blog or anything else, please contact us at support@mydrivetime.co.uk.