New perspective on business awards

ENTRANTS in the CGU Commerce Ballarat Business Excellence Awards can rest assured their applications are considered in every detail by the judges.This year the experienced judging panel has 18 judges, four in the specialist categories of water and waste and six out-of-town judges.Executive Officer of Commerce Ballarat, Jodie Gillett, said this was the first year that external judges had been used."It has been fantastic to have an out-of-town perspective," Ms Gillett said.To be invited to judge the awards is considered a great honour, which is taken seriously by those asked.The two judges for each category are carefully chosen so to avoid conflicts of interest."There is quite a rigorous conflict process for the judges, who can't have any relationship with the entrants," judge Cathy Drake said.Panel chairman David Wright says all of the judges care deeply about getting it right."There are two parts in the process. First we select the category winners by critiquing applications and doing site visits," Mr Wright said."The second part is for the judges to get together and decide the winner, which is a time for rigorous debate and can be quite time-consuming," he said.Making it even more difficult is the often fine line between the competing companies.The judges aren't told which business is a member of Commerce Ballarat or who are previous winners in the awards."As a business owner it is interesting to discover other businesses and you go in with great admiration for them," Mr Wright said.The awards will be announced on Thursday night at the Mercure Ballarat Hotel and Convention Centre.