Wellington
One of the downsides of the implosion in traditional news media is that celebratory stories getlittle or no coverage.
The general public, who in my experience love to hear of clever and innovative New Zealandcompanies therefore have only a minor awareness of both the scale and importance of the
Now, given the IT savvyness of the audience, there was probably quite a bit of social media chatto do with the awards. How much this disseminates into the wider public; who knows.
All of which is a pity when you look at the facts.
Firstly, any function that pulls a crowd of over 700 people must be doing something right.
Given that over 150 organisations entered the awards, obviously there's plenty of these companiesrelying on brainpower rather than muscle to generate wealth.
Equally, any company that receives one of the top nine awards, will be proud to hang it on theirwall, and to mention the fact in any dispatches they make to their own customers.
What is most apparent though is, being in the same room as the owners and workers inthese smart businesses, is the almost bottleable sense of creativity, possibility and 'let's makethis happen' that collectively exists.
The diversity of this thinking is also reflected in the width and breadth of businessentries.
Look at the range of businesses who were finalists for the top award
They have no shortage of competition, but thrive because of the competition.
They are exciting, future-focused entities that are obviously great places to work.
They're cool, or hot - both at the same time.
It is just a pity wider New Zealand isn't as aware as they want or need to be of these cleverpeople.