International Quality Awards 2018

On Nov 21st, 2018, the Chartered Quality Institute held its second international Quality Awards ceremony at the Connaught Rooms in Central London. The event was heaving with quality professionals from all over the world. 

Last year, I attended the inauguration of the event as a Finalist – Quality Professional in a New Project for the work I have done at Workplace Options, setting up a global Project Management Office. I have posted about it last year – The International Quality Awards for 2017. 

This year, the event was bigger as expected. The venue was absolutely stunning and the stories of the winners were even more inspiring.  There are two things that stood out for me during the award event this year:

1. The sense of pride in the community 
2. The categories of the awards this year

You cannot help but feel the buzz the minute you walk into the hall. Quality Professionals, individuals and teams, corporations sponsoring the event, leadership and C-suite attending to support their teams, consultants who helped their clients progress under the scope of Quality, all in one place celebrating ad being celebrated. Smiles everywhere! I had the pleasure of meeting new people and reconnecting with those I met at last year’s event. 

This year, entrants were from 5 continents, and the finalists and winners were from the US, the UK, Sweden, UAE, Qatar, Latvia, Hong Kong and Australia. It was also very noticeable at the contribution of “women in Quality” this year both in judges and in the finalists. Something that is truly refreshing. This also stood out when the award of the emerging talent was given to a female quality professional in Hong Kong, who changed her career from the financial world into Quality and was faced with lots of criticism at this change.

Quality is built on Trust, and Reputations are based on Trust!

The other amazing enhancement at this year’s event was the new categories introduced. Innovation through Quality Method is a new category introduced and sponsored by the Process Management Institute (PMI). The award was given to The Register of Enterprises of the Republic of Latvia won for implementing artificial intelligence in its customer service management strategy. 

When the category of the Quality Professional in a New Project came up; the category I was a finalist for last year; my heart started racing as if I was a finalist again. It was a feeling that was both weird and rewarding still! As the MD of SAI Global Assurance said in his speech: Quality is built on Trust and Reputations are based on Trust. And what a beautiful way to showcase the different approaches of Trust quality professionals demonstrated across the world. You can read the full list of the winners on the CQI website directly. They have published an e-book called Profiles in Quality 2017 which I am proudly featured in. You can download the book from the CQI’s website directly, or read it at the bottom of this post.