With the deadline date of July 21 fast approaching for publishers to enter their ranges for The Henries 2021 greeting card awards, retailers are now being invited to join the judging panel to ensure that the worthy finalists and winners are arrived at.
As ever, entry to The Henries is free of charge to publishers and they are not limited on the number of ranges they submit.
For the second year in succession, both the entry and judging processes are taking place digitally for The Henries 2021, via the awards’ online portal.
An extensive judging panel, including retailers from right across the spectrum, will undertake the important job of scrutinising the entries and then voting for the top five ranges they consider the best in each category.
Elaborating on this year’s judging process, Jakki Brown, joint managing director of Max Publishing, which owns and organises The Henries said: “While everyone loves the verve of a live judging day, when we were planning The Henries at the start of the year, it was uncertain as to when the social distancing regulations would come to end, so we needed to find a way that the wealth of new designs from publishers would definitely be judged by a great panel of retail buyers. This way, they can. And retailers will not need to do it all in one day!”
As she added, The Henries is a ‘win win’ for both publishers and retailers. “Even if a range doesn’t reach the finals, by entering publishers will know that their designs will have been seen by great number of leading greeting retail stockists who may well get in touch and order. From a retailer’s perspective, judging by product category means that easy comparisons can be made as to the merits of different ranges as well as being able to spot emerging trends.”
This year, The Henries includes a new category, Best Diversity and Inclusion Range, which is being sponsored by the GCA.
Any retailer who stocks greeting cards – from the largest supermarket to the smallest gift shop – are welcome to join the judging panel by emailing Jakki Brown on jakkib@max-publishing.co.uk
The judging window will run for a couple of weeks from early August and all judges will receive a log in code that will enable them to cast their votes throughout the judging period.
In addition, for the first time this year, selected overseas distributors of UK publishers are also being invited to join The Henries’ judging panel.
The finalists of The Henries 2021 will be announced in late August while the winners will be unveiled at a Boogie Wonderland-themed awards extravaganza on Thursday 7 October, which will take place at The Royal Lancaster Hotel, London.
“The greeting card community deserves a humongous party of celebration and togetherness and that is exactly what we are going to create with The Henries 2021 awards event this year,” exclaimed Warren Lomax, joint managing director of Max Publishing. “And with Boogie Wonderland as the theme for the awards event, everyone will be in a fab and groovy mood on October 7!”
Tickets and tables for The Henries 2021 can be reserved quickly and securely online by visiting Max-Tickets.net or by contacting Clare Hollick of Createvents via email: clare@createvents.co.uk or phone: +44 (0)1183 340085.
The Henries Awards 2021 have the strong backing of major names in the industry as official sponsors. These currently include Alpha Colour, EBB Elliott Baxter, Fedrigoni, Foilco, GCA, GF Smith, Gould, Herbert Walkers, The Imaging Centre, LB Warehousing, Loxleys, Postmark, PG Live, Skeet Print, Sherwood Group, UK Envelopes and Windles.
