It was always about this time of year that I started excitedly thinking of conference season. With the Negotiator, RAN and especially EA Masters all to come there was plenty of silverware on offer for a self confessed 'award whore' like me. Unfortunately I've had to give up on my 'Precious' and accept that to place Kerfuffle as being wholly independent I can't submit the business up for awards and assume Swiss neutrality.

I'm extremely pleased though to be able to say we've tied up with EA Masters as the head sponsor for the supplier categories, as I type there are thousands of agents reviewing their key suppliers and with the deadline approaching tomorrow at 5pm I urge anyone who hasn't yet voted to do so. The more feedback you and your fellow agents give the better placed you will be to make those critical buying decisions as to who should be supporting your businesses. I've been lucky enough to work with some of the best agencies around the world and there's not one of them that couldn't be improved by finding a key supplier to make them more efficient. Equally the drag factor of a duff selection can even hamper the very best businesses.

There are three size bands to allow businesses of all sizes to take part. Last year’s winners were Doctor Photo (Small), Van Mildert (Medium) and SDL (Large and Overall Winner). Van Mildert recently sold for an impressive multiple recently and cited success in the awards as a positive in the due diligence discussions, so its clear these awards do matter.

The survey can be entered from this link www.eamasters.co.uk/best-ea-supplier-guide/

We're going to be working much closer with EA Masters over the next year and we're going to be sharing our scoring systems to help support each other in judging the awards. So watch this space!