Awards

It’s September, autumn is closing in and although we didn’t exactly get the record breaking summer that we were promised, it has been a pretty good one all told. Unfortunately the end of summer heralds short days and lots and lots of rain. However, it’s not all winter blues here at Portfolio Directors, as the end of summer means awards evenings and black tie dos!

Portfolio Directors have been shortlisted for work with Hiho, one of their clients, as a finalist for the Unlocking Business Intelligence Award run by CIMA (http://www2.cimaglobal.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0A82C289-F8AE9B56/live/root.xsl/32279.htm), and spirits are high in the office, with Helen sending an invite to everyone’s Outlook for “Dress Shopping in Street”. So here are our top 5 tips for getting on that shortlist:

Always read the criteria and the questions you are being asked. Keep them in the back of your mind whilst writing each sentence, so you get the correct ‘spin’ on it.
Understand your audience, they may have never heard of a “hand-held refractometer”, even if you use it every day.
Keep it concise, and under no circumstances go over the word limit. Keep rereading what you have written so that you don’t repeat yourself.
Use a lot of visual images. No one really wants to see several solid pages of black text on white paper with nothing to break it up. An image isn’t included in your word count, so you can use as many as you want (within reason). However, don’t use lime green curly fonts on bright pink scented paper because it would be discarded without so much as passing throught the judge’s hand!
Stick to what you know and stick to the facts. ”One lie spoils a thousand truths”.

Good luck with those award applications!