Celebrating the heroes of Kent business
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by David Philpott, chairman of the Kent branch of the
Institute of Directors
When Hollywood studio boss Louis B. Mayer first dreamt up the
idea of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he could
never have imagined that more than eight decades on, it would have
evolved into the world's most famous industry-specific award-giving
organisation and indeed become the template for everything else
that has followed.
The Oscars may have been the first, but now - in auditoriums and
theatres across the world - envelopes are opened with frightening
regularity, as some celebrity host inevitably proclaims those
immortal words, "and the winner is..."
Here in Blighty, we have not been immune to this need to honour
those who have entertained us (and often become extremely rich for
the privilege of doing so). There are the BAFTAs, the BRITs, the
British Comedy Awards - the list it seems is endless. And not only
is it in the entertainment industry that this is now the norm.
Think BBC Sporting Personality of the Year. Think FIFA World Player
of the Year.
Whereas many of the awards I have alluded to are made to people
already in the limelight of our celebrity-obsessed culture, some do
go to the unsung heroes behind the scenes.
Take my good friend Ben Burtt for instance. He has picked up
four Academy Awards for sound effects editing in E.T. The Extra
Terrestrial, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Star Wars Episode
IV and Raiders of the Lost Ark as well as being nominated for six
others.
If you passed him in the street, you would not know who he was.
It amuses me to think that his wife Peggy uses his four little
Oscar statuettes as door stops. Anyway, enough of this name
dropping
Movies, music and these days comedy, are all very glamorous, but
whereas Lord Sugar and Sir Richard Branson may have done an awful
lot to make enterprise a bit sexier, we still have a long way to go
in honouring our entrepreneurs. And that is why I am such a KEiBA
fan. Now - in the third year - the Kent Excellence in Business
Awards are rightly recognising our very own business movers and
shakers.
Over the next few weeks, along with my fellow judges, I will be
poring over nominations, scoring them and then visiting companies
and individuals, so that on June 30 in the Leas Cliff Hall in
Folkestone, we can properly honour the unsung heroes who make up
Kent & Medway Plc.
Talking of excellence in business reminds me of another Kentish
triumph. I was privileged recently to attend a Kent Ambassadors
briefing at the new Turner Contemporary art gallery in Margate.
Built at a cost of £17.4 million, it is expected to bring a new
kind of visitor to Thanet. And because of that, I expect that one
day, the gallery will be up for some arts and tourism awards - an
outcome I think would be eminently excellent.
Monday, April 11 2011
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