Virtual Assistant Awards
One of the highlights of my year is judging the outstanding Virtual Assistant Awards. It gives me a chance to see the wide range of highly skilled and professional virtual assistants on show. I also get to meet many of the other people in our industry.
Unfortunately, because of the really bad snow storms, my flight was grounded so I could not attend this years event in London. However, I’m excited to report that the winners of the 2018 Virtual Assistant Awards are as follows:
2018 Virtual Assistant Awards – Winners:
UK VA of the Year: Gwen Backhouse of Curlew Secretarial Solutions
Newcomer of the Year: Toks Adebanjo of TAVA Services
Congrats and well done.
What are the VA judges searching for?
Basically, we’re looking for a well trained, professional VA that we can work with. We look at a wide range of things:- their work setup, their insurance protection, their online networking, how their site looks, what skills training they have learned recently, and their plans for the year 2019.
The entries will all be judged regionally– Society Of Virtual Assistants supported this year’s Scottish regional final. The finals will be held at our annual conference in March, at the Olympia in London. For the winners and finalists, the exposure from the publicity surrounding the event usually results in new business.
The judges originate from an assortment of backgrounds, such as entrepreneurs, past VA champs, and other industry members. The votes are checked only after all members of the judging board present their votes – this way no judge will have the last say.
Also that the VAs can get input from the many judges on things that they can improve on in their businesses before the next competition.
Why should VA’s enter the competition?
It’s wonderful to state “I’m the best VA in the UK”.
VAs have a tendency to be modest with regards to self-promotion. However, in this business, you have to market your brand, cause no one else will do it for you.
In years past, the Awards have tried using nomination framework and a voting framework. This was later changed because the organisers wanted the competition to be less of a popularity contest, and more about finding the best VA’s.
Feel free to enter the competition here: vaconference.co.uk