Winners and more winners

I'm not sure why I was so struck by surprise at the number of people who made it to the Construction Week awards dinner earlier this week.

I've attended the ceremony for the third year now, and each one has been bigger and better than the last.

From the presence of the Middle East construction industry's glitterati to the dramatic Dallas-style music that played in the build-up to the award winners being announced, the evening had a little touch of the Oscars to it.

And the event is only set to grow in popularity. Most of the feedback from the non-winners seemed to revolve around "we must enter next year", or "can you please introduce a category that would apply to us?" Even our loyal band of legal experts tried to get a look-in.

Of course, I'd like to think that most of the people in attendance not only do a magnificent job in helping to build the region, but also in their brief moments of downtime are avid readers of Construction Week.

In case you hadn't heard already, ALEC scooped the Supreme Award, while ASGC took the award for Contractor of the Year and Besix was successful in the Project of the Year category.

Once again, the Health and Safety category attracted a lot of interest, and was won by Nasa Multiplex.

The sight of one winning contractor making jubilant phone calls to family in the foyer of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel's convention centre really brought home just how seriously these awards are taken, and how they will hopefully go some way to helping the industry progress.

With the way things are evolving, there will be plenty of room for broadening the categories.

Consultants will play an even bigger part in the construction process with the new sustainable regulations, while the role of the project manager is beginning to grow more in emphasis.

To all those who won this year, congratulations.

And to those who made subtle attempts to exploit my position to get the bar to reopen after closing, I can only apologise.

Unfortunately, my capacity as editor really doesn't extend to that much power.

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