02_PCA Interview Part One

The Latrobe City Business Chamber organizes the annual People's Choice Awards to celebrate local businesses in the Latrobe Valley community. Scott Lowater, the committee chair, discusses the awards' history, categories, and community engagement. Businesses benefit from increased visibility, customer trust, and confidence. Award sponsors play a crucial role in supporting and promoting local businesses. The awards aim to recognize hard work, innovation, and community spirit, highlighting the region's favorite businesses. So today on the program we're shifting our focus to the fantastic local businesses that are the heart of the Latrobe Valley community. The Latrobe City Business Chamber is midway through what's been a pretty big year in organising their annual People's Choice Awards which is an initiative that shines a spotlight on the region's favourite local legends and the response this year was massive. We're joined by Scott Lowater who is the People's Choice Awards Committee Chair and Treasurer of the Business Chamber. Scott's here to tell us about the awards, the community engagement this year, the benefits the award provides to local businesses and what we can all look forward to at the highly anticipated gala evening in November. Scott, thanks for joining us. No worries Mel. Thanks for having me. So for our listeners who might not be aware of the People's Choice Awards, can you tell us a little bit about the awards, their history and why they're important for our region? Absolutely. The People's Choice Awards were created by the Latrobe City Business Chamber, formerly known as the Latrobe City Business Tourism Association and it recognises and celebrates the incredible businesses that make up our community and make it such a great place to live and work. It's about recognising hard work, innovation and community spirit. It reminds us of how many amazing local operators we have right here in the Latrobe Valley. So this year, it's got quite a bit of history, they've been going for a few years now, but this year I believe saw an incredible response with thousands of votes cast across multiple categories. Can you tell us a little bit more about the voting numbers, the categories, the finalists, some of the finalists and what they say about the level of engagement and interest from the Latrobe Valley community? I can. I don't actually have the exact voting numbers Mel. Our project manager is Danielle Loisa from Nanu Nanu. They manage this side of the awards. That's for the transparency so that maybe the business chamber doesn't get a view over that. Yeah, absolutely. And they're very strong on that and they stick to that. So through the whole campaign up to the lead up and completion of the campaign, they keep it to themselves, the data. So we actually don't know in the business chamber who are the winners of the categories. So they retain that independence, as you said, the transparency as well. So yeah, I don't really have the voting numbers, but I do know that they have been extremely thrilled with the take up and the engagement from the community this year. We changed a few aspects of the awards for this year and it has resulted in a great outcome for everyone involved. One of the changes were the award categories. So post last year's awards, we reviewed the voting numbers, so not who voted for who, but I suppose tallying up who was nominated in which category and really just tried to identify where our best take up was. So we really want to make sure that those businesses that rely on the people side of the business, the public exposure, that they get recognised and acknowledged because as an example, we wouldn't want to have four different award categories. So for example, we got a takeaway category, restaurants, pubs and clubs and coffee shops and cafes. Yeah, okay. So really those are four sub-industries where really they are quite active on social media. Yeah. They rely a lot on that public exposure and great advertising and PR, so we want to make sure that they get as much exposure and recognition. And they're out there in front of customers every day, whereas some of the professional services categories and trades, they're not really talking to hundreds of people every day, are they? No, they aren't. Okay. And I suppose their way of getting business as well is a lot more, I suppose, a bit more of a long-term view. Yeah. Where it's a lot of those referrals from people who've had great experiences or yeah, they've just, for example, been with their accountants since they've been 18 and because they've got such a long-standing and great relationship with them, they end up going to go around and jump across to another accountant because of a specific award. But nonetheless, it does recognize that there are some fantastic businesses around the area and we do want to shine a spotlight and make sure that they're recognized and acknowledged for being so popular. Do you know which of the categories were the most popular, like voting? I know the hairdressing category is usually a big one and the butchers. Yeah. Yeah. I think every year hairdressing and beauty has the biggest take-up. We have a ton of nominees in that industry itself and also a lot of these hospitality sub-sectors as well. So, we get a lot of nominations because they are pushing on their social media, in their stores to vote for them. So, they get the biggest voting numbers as well. Yeah. The hair and beauty category was huge. Yeah. Yeah. Like me on YouTube. You almost want to give it to a few winners. But look, it's still a fantastic achievement to be a finalist on its own and we like to know as well that just because you don't win a category doesn't mean that you're not doing as good as another business. You're still doing a fantastic job and just to actually be a finalist or be recognized in the community, I think that that's a fantastic achievement on its own. Definitely. Even getting nominated. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, another part of what we've achieved with these awards is that we now have an opt-in for businesses. So, for example, I nominate a business, a local business, Dan and Eloisa, our project managers, will contact that business and say, hey, you've been nominated for hair and beauty. Are you okay with being nominated? Here are the next steps. This is what we need from you. Yeah. Do you want to participate? Yeah. Another thing that they've noticed as well as opposed to previous years is even that phone call that they've been nominated, that's really, yeah, showing up. Like May their day, they actually said that one person said that that's May my year, just even being nominated. Yeah. So, that's the kind of stuff it does and might be looked at a little bit of, you know, the end point of who the winner is of categories. But for a lot of those smaller operators, just to be recognized that someone was willing to go and put their name to a nomination to recognize the great work that a local business is doing. Yeah. That's what it's all about. Yeah. Good one. But I guess from your perspective, like how do the awards, do you think, help local businesses in terms of boosting their visibility, building confidence, strengthening their connection with their customers? I know this year you've brought on, I think, 12 award sponsors, which is fantastic. You know, does that help them, I guess, boost their visibility award as well by sponsoring the People's Choice Awards? It does. It does. There's a lot of aspects to it and what we see is every year, and it's growing bigger and bigger, once again, that businesses and the community just get behind the award itself. It's something great where everyone can be involved in, whether it's the public voting or nominating, or the businesses themselves going and promoting their business and saying we've been nominated. So the awards do a lot more than just hand out the trophies. They really help businesses grow by exposing themselves to new customers. It builds trust. Yeah. And it shows that people genuinely value what they're doing. Yeah. It's also great for confidence. Running a small business can be tough, so getting the kind of recognition from the community means a lot. It's not called the People's Choice Awards for nothing. I have to agree with you there. And, of course, you know that before now, the awards themselves wouldn't be achievable without all our award sponsors. They don't happen without sponsors. Most things don't happen without sponsors, especially at this scale. Yeah, that's exactly right. So I wouldn't mind giving a quick shout out to those award sponsors as well. Go for it. Yep. So we've had a lot of new sponsors this year, which have come on board. Yep. We've had ANZ, AVL, Virtually Homes, Sport Support Solutions. They sponsored us last year and they've come back again. Uh-huh. Valley Ford, More Bowls Club, they sponsored last year and they've gone again. They got lifetime members last year, didn't they? Or an honorary award last year, the Bowls Club? Yeah, yeah. Big supporters of Gippsland FM as well. Yeah. The More Bowls Club, they've obviously had some, yeah, some unfortunate events happen recently with their business premises being burnt down. But before, after and during, they've always been very supportive of what we do. They come to events, they're engaged, they offer their premises, whether we're doing committee meetings or want to run events, and they're always engaging. They came along for last year's event as well. That's right. It was supposed to actually happen at the Bowls Club, but then they had the fire and it got moved to Kernow Hall, but then they brought in all of their staff and then moved a whole kitchen and, yeah, it was a pretty big effort. Yeah, yeah. They made it happen and, yeah, it was fantastic to see them come along, just enjoy the night and then, yeah, be provided with that lifetime sponsorship as well. So that was a very rewarding moment as well. As well, we've got Kids Wanted Promo Print that have come along as well. So they're doing all of our printing and stationery this year. Yep. So that's Kids Wanted Printing, that's all through them. Mariners Link, they've come along as well, first time. Also station sponsors. Yeah. A bit of a connection here. Detroit City Council, they joined last year as an award sponsor, so we're thrilled to have them on board again. And they've always been a big supporter of the business chamber as well and what we do. So, yeah, they've been a fantastic support. Yes. Melina Bath, she was a sponsor last year as well. And Martin Cameron has had come on board. And I better not forget as well, my employer as well, Macmillan. Macmillan. So they were sponsors last year as well and they continue as well to support the chamber and what we do for that, come on board again as an award sponsor this year. And they keep letting you help out with all of this stuff. Yeah, they do. It's just very... Are you doing much accounting over there or...? Yeah, sometimes. Sometimes. Organising awards and... Yeah. Yeah. No, no. It's... We value the business community greatly. So we've always had a big focus on making ourselves present and known in the region because really we wouldn't be in business without all the local businesses as well coming to us. So that's great. So yeah, we've had these sponsors. Yeah, we're extremely thankful for their support, engagement and just their enthusiasm to participate. A lot of them through this campaign as well have just asked what they can help out with. They've been very engaging and sharing what they can on social media. So they've been extremely supportive. So yeah, thank you to all of our sponsors. Oh, that's awesome. Thanks, Scott. I think we'll leave it there just for a minute and we will pop over to a song and we will be back with more from Scott from the People's Choice Awards after this.