This year at the ARN Innovation Awards in Sydney, more than a few of the evening’s guests said that the event felt a little bit like a big family reunion.

What a wonderful sentiment. That industry pundits should liken such an event to a family reunion is testament to the collegial nature of the local channel industry.

Indeed, Australia’s channel industry represents a tight-knit community of professional acquaintances, technology leaders, commercial competitors and, above all, friends.

With this in mind, it cannot be overstated what an absolute honour it is for ARN to be a part of this community and to be in a position to provide the premier platform with which to showcase the best that the local channel industry has to offer.

For 13 years, ARN’s annual awards have borne witness to the rising stars of the local ICT industry, recognised the leading figures in the channel, honoured the most innovative partners and awarded the best performing vendors, distributors and individuals across the market.

Since launching in 2007, ARN’s annual awards events have celebrated and rewarded excellence across the Australian channel. Our continued efforts to showcase what the channel has to offer comes off the back of nearly three decades tracking, reporting on and championing the Australian ICT channel.

And the vitality of the local channel is reflected in the numbers. This year, we received more than 400 award submissions, with more than 60 partners and start-ups making the final awards shortlist. Additionally, more than 40 vendor organisations and 14 distributors were also in the running this year.

Clearly, 2019 was a competitive year, and the quality of nominations spoke to the depth and breadth of the local ecosystem, spanning value-added resellers, managed service providers and system integrators, alongside independent software vendors, start-ups and born-in-the-cloud players.

Across nine categories, nominees were judged on three key points: how partners are adding value to customers; how are vendors are adding value to partners; and how distributors are adding value to the channel.

This is an important point. The fact that we measure the success of entrants based on how well they are able to add value and help each other thrive points to the qualities that make the channel community such strong and cohesive entity.

With this in mind, perhaps it should come as no surprise that to some, the awards felt a bit like a family reunion, albeit a big one. At this year’s event, that family comprised of over 640 attendees cheering on more than 30 companies and individuals who were recognised for their achievements.

What an honour it was to play host to this family reunion. ARN thanks all the supporters of this year’s awards, and extends a special nod of gratitude to the judging panel for its efforts. Most of all, we congratulate all of the winners, finalists and nominees that made this year’s awards such a memorable event.