Jessica Lilley, AIR-serv

Why did you decide to enter the APEA Awards, and how did the team pick the category to enter?

APEA is one of, if not the biggest awards night in our industry, so we always feel it’s important to enter when we have something we feel we can celebrate. Entering is a joint effort, across departments; we all get together to review our milestones and identify the positive stories from every year. These discussions define the achievements and then the right categories to focus on.

What is your approach to entry creation (solo, or in collaboration with colleagues)?

For us, this is always a cross-department collaboration. We all work together to identify the achievements, then assemble the information and stats required to do our entries justice.

How long did you spend on your entry?

Most of the time is actually spent brainstorming and collaborating with the team. Once we have completed this exercise and collated all he information and stats, it does not take too long to write, finalise and submit the entry.

How did you feel when you were shortlisted as a finalist?

We were so happy to be recognised! At that point, we were just delighted to be a finalist and have that recognition. We weren’t really thinking about winning or not!

Tell us about the big night!  What was it like when your name was called out?

We were overjoyed! The team really deserved it, so we were extremely proud when they got on stage to collect the award!

Post-win, what happened? Do you feel it boosted the company’s reputation, and did you use the win as a marketing/sales content for your brand?

Our win was recognised within our internal Board and Senior Management meetings. It’s something we now include within sales presentations to customers. If honest, I don’t think we shouted about it as loud as we should have, via social platforms like LinkedIn. This is a lesson learned; if we’re a finalist (or even a winner) again, we’ll make sure our marketing team spread the word far and wide!

Why, in your view, it is it important for the best of the industry enter the APEA Awards, each year?

It’s so important. Celebrating what companies are doing helps to keep us all improving and progressing, within our own companies. These awards are one of the only chances we get each year to see what others are doing, then learn from it. It also ensures we are all accountable and working to be better each year.