Voting In This Year's National Fenestration Awards Ends

I don’t think it’s quite sunk in, but voting for this year’s winners in the 2016 National Fenestration Awards is now over. I think it will probably sink in at the start of Winners Week next Monday.

Yes, I’m sure to the relief of many of you, this year’s voting phase has now ended. There is now the Wall of Winners competition to come, where the industry will decide on the sector’s coolest project from a list compiled of all the monthly Cool Wall winners. The standard of work uploaded this year has been outstanding, so I’m sure the voting for that will be just as close.

This has been the most epic, enthralling, engaging and exciting NFA campaign to date. We tweaked a few things with the dates and schedules and it seems to have paid off. This has easily been the biggest NFAs yet.

Before I explain what happens now, I’m going to try and give you a few nuggets of information that won’t let the cat out of the bag before time…

Biggest NFAs ever!

I can’t say anything too specific yet, can’t be giving the game away now! However, there are a few things I can share which will give you some idea as to how big the NFAs really were this year:

record number of nominations – the NFAs had the most nomination submissions in a campaign this year. Figures will be released on the NFA site soon.
record number of votes – it looks like it’s been another year-on-year record in terms of the number of votes cast. Accurate figures will be released on the NFA site soon.
unique registered users pass the 3000 mark – this was a key target for the NFAs this year
NFA website traffic records smashed – consecutive site traffic records were broken during the voting phase
NFA Twitter account sails past 3300 mark – the most followers of any glazing industry awards Twitter account
17 #NFA16 categories – this still makes the NFAs the industry’s most representative and all-inclusive awards

As part of our open and honest policy, we’re going to be publishing a whole host of stats on the NFA site when it’s back up and running. Something I don’t mind at all as the information we have is something for us all to be proud of.

Its these stats which tell the story of the NFA’s progress through the past few years. I remember when we were first setting this up, all the negative comments and sarcastic jibes sent our way. Yet here we are, coming to a close on the fourth yearly campaign and already looking forward to the fifth one at the start of 2017. Point proved I think!

What happens next

We’ve already announced what happens next on the NFA Twitter feed and holding page, but seen as though you’re already here, I’ll tell you again anyway.

The NFA site is currently in “maintenance mode” as we get rid of anything that related to this year’s voting. We’re going to be preparing it for Winners Week which begins on Monday 5th December. This is where we announce a batch of winners on each day of that week, ending with the last group on Friday. We trialed this last year and it went down a storm, creating a massive buzz on social media and the industry for the whole week. Once the website has been duly tweaked and is made live again, you’ll be able to see which category winners we’ll be announcing on each day of that week.

Once each batch of winners has been announced, we’ll be contacting each of them to congratulate them and explain the fantastic Winners Event we have planned for them. So if you are a #NFA16 winner, keep an eye on your inbox! We have an amazing Winners Event planned for this year’s campaign, set to be even bigger and better than the last one. I’m not going to reveal everything on here as that wouldn’t be right, but it’s going to be a great day and evening for the winners and the rest of the industry as a whole!

We’re also getting the Wall of Winners competition ready. This is where the industry will get to vote to decide the coolest installation of the year from each of the 11 monthly Cool Wall champions. That will run for a short time, with an end date set to be announced soon. The Wall of Winners champion will also get to attend the #NFA16 Winners Event, so the Cool Wall really is something work taking part in!

That’s probably enough to go on right now, so I’ll park that there.

A personal thanks

I don’t want to go overboard on here as we’re going to show our appreciation over on the NFA website shortly. But I do want to thank everyone who has backed the NFAs this year in an capacity. To those who nominated right at the start of the year and those who voted at the end of the year. A thanks to all those who promoted the NFAs on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and any other social media platform. That engagement is vital for spreading the message of the NFAs around.

Also a big thanks to the sponsors: GQA Qualifications, Deceuninck UK, Kolorseal, Clayton Glass, Prefix Systems, Edgetech UK, Windowbase and Solidor. Your backing continues to help us grow the awards, the Winners Events and the scheme as a whole. The NFA’s future looks brighter than ever, and I hope that we continue to work together with you, and welcome even more on board!

Remember, myself or the rest of the team have absolutely nothing to do with who wins in the National Fenestration Awards, we just make sure it all runs as smoothly as possible. It’s all put together and decided by you guys. Which is amazing when you think about it.

A proud and anxious time for me

Winners Week is a week of mixed emotions for me, which might sound odd. On the one hand, I have the privilege , and it is one, to announce the winners of this epic awards campaign. To get this far, through a mammoth nominations phase and then the voting on some very strong shortlists is highly impressive. To win is a superb achievement. I will thoroughly enjoy announcing those lucky companies.

It’s also been very humbling to see so many companies this year be so proactive in encouraging others in the industry to vote and get involved. I have seen brilliant social media campaigns, email campaigns, finalist logos all over the place. Even used as Twitter profile pictures! And this is where my heart sinks a little. There has to be a second and third place. I see all the hard work and effort companies put into their voting campaigns that it seems almost unfair that there can only be one winner in each category. This is where I become genuinely anxious, I don’t like letting people down!

Still, this is the nature of the awards, and there will always be another chance to win during the next campaign.

So, keep tuned to the NFA Twitter account and website for all the latest news. It’s going to be a very busy few days as #NFA16 comes to it’s natural climax!