Selecting the best

This year the Eurobuild Awards are to be held for the third time. Representatives of the various segments of the commercial property sector will meet on December 6th at the annual gala at the Warsaw Hilton hotel. The event is an opportunity to meet and talk with industry players, but the announcement of the?Eurobuild Awards results will be the culmination of the evening. The real estate market is now waiting impatiently for this day, and those whose firms or projects have been entered in the competition are feeling the most excitement. And there are a lot of projects worthy of recognition. Awards are to be presented in 33 categories. Depending on the category, the winners are to be chosen by the jury, the audience at the gala, and property users via a ?Eurobuild CEE' questionnaire.

Clear rules
The registration of firms and projects has already started. Those who want to enjoy the sweet taste of victory at the December event should not waste any time, because only those who register via the eurobuildawards.com internet site and successfully pass the verification process will be shortlisted for an award. The next stage of the process involves jurors nominating the finalists and deciding on their order on the podium. Some companies will also be entered by the organiser. "We and the jurors would like to choose the best companies in the construction and property industry in Central and Eastern Europe in 2012 and the best projects that have been finished or started this year," says Katarzyna Matejuk, who is responsible for the organisation of the Eurobuild Awards Gala 2012. The voting system and how the winner is selected depends on the category a company is entered in. In the tenants' category, the winning projects will be chosen based on a survey of office, shopping centre and warehouse tenants across Poland. The tenants will receive a questionnaire on which they can assess the various aspects of the building leased by them. The awards will be presented to the office building, shopping centre, warehouse and facility manager obtaining the highest number of points. The survey is to be carried out by market research company Millward Brown SMG/KRC, which will publish and distribute its report to the market. Meanwhile, in the market awards category, the winning projects and companies will be chosen by a jury consisting of professionals with in-depth knowledge on a given sector. Each category will be assessed by its own jury. And what do the participants of the event think about the procedures? "The competition is very well prepared. The procedures for voting, entering the competition, registering and selecting candidates is excellently explained and perfectly clear. We will be participating in the competition this year and hopefully also in the future - HB Reavis as a candidate and I personally as a jury member," declares Stanislav Frňka, CEO of HB Reavis Polska.

Important function
Market experts and top managers working in the construction and real estate sector can also take on another important and responsible role - as a Eurobuild Awards' jury member. It is this group of experts that will be responsible for the assessment, nomination and selection of the best of the best. The Eurobuild Awards jury includes the most important representatives of the market, people who know the industry inside-out. These are the people who make the competition so prestigious and, at the same time, guarantee the choice of the best firms and projects. "I decided to be on the jury because as an active participant and player on the commercial property market in Poland and the Central and Eastern Europe region, I wanted to actively contribute to the choice of people who are to be awarded such prestigious prizes. HB Reavis cooperates with many partners in the sector, and in this way I have the opportunity to give recognition to those who I have enjoyed working with best," adds Stanislav Frňka. The members register themselves, and their entries should be sent to katarzyna.matejuk@eurobuildcee.com for verification, because one person can be a jury member in several categories - in those in which they are experts - but cannot be in the category of his or her profession. For example: a lawyer cannot participate in the ?Law Firm of the Year' in Poland category. The jury is open and the list of their names will be available on the conference website. The voting will take place electronically and there will be no meeting of the jury members. The jury votes not only on the basis of the nominations and the reasons given in them, but also on their experience and knowledge of the market. The voting will be supervised by independent consulting company KPMG, who will be the only people to know the results of the voting before the gala.

Aneta Cichla