Finding Winners
The Big Apple Awards has always been about rewarding ArtisticPreneurs who make an impact on others – giving of themselves. This is a hard quality to find and in our prior incarnation as the Platinum PIAs, we often sifted through literally hundreds of folks to find the true winners.
Not Just New York
But when we would find someone we would make certain to nominate them and hopefully, if they resided in New York, become a part of the awards ceremony. But the Big Apple Awards are not just about Manhattan, NYC. They are also for anyone making a difference from any part of the country who is making a difference with a community.
Finding Nominees is More Difficult than You Think
Much has changed since we began in 2010, and now for the most part the awards ceremony is online. Thankfully, being online has its own type of community and we don’t mean chat rooms but rather creative people who network with each and support each other. In fact this is how we have sometimes gotten nominees: someone in our network would know someone who should be nominated. These are often the ArtisticPreneurs who have taken steps to get where they are going.
Some of the Qualities We Look For
Creativity, leadership and success oriented rigor are very important qualities of those who get nominated. People who are driven to make a difference are very different than those who aren’t. We have had to develop our own sixth sense when it comes to finding true pioneers and community oriented creatives.
To Promote or Not to Promote
It’s a wonderful thing to let someone know they have been nominated. And then the suspense builds regarding whether or not that person is actually going to win and receive their formerly PIA and now – Apple. Sometimes it is those who deserve the most to win don’t necessarily promote themselves.
Appreciation
One of the key reasons we formed in the first place was to show appreciation for talented ArtisticPreneurs who built communities. All our winners have been very motivated with or without appreciation. But the appreciation shown by presenting winners with a trophy, will hopefully let them know that their work is making a difference. The desire is that they will take the appreciation “in” and be even more motivated to help. Do-gooders need recognition too!
Our Goal
Recognizing outstanding work in the community realm is what we aim for, even now that we are more “virtually” oriented. Every day we take a new step forward.