Grygo is chief content officer for FTF.
We will need a longer drum roll for the the nominations for the FTF News Technology Innovation Awards for 2020. We are extending the deadline for voting.
In the wake of the current public health concerns and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we realize our clients, readers and extended community have shifted their priorities over the past month. Understandably, it has taken weeks for everyone to settle into their new, remote, work-from-home lifestyles and tend to themselves and their families.
Due to this strange, new normal, we at FTF and FTF News realize that the 60 companies and nine individuals short listed for honors in 2020 have not been able to focus on campaigning for votes for this year’s awards. Therefore, we have extended the voting period an additional month from April 17 to May 15 to give people more time to cast their votes.
To recap, FTF has been leading the effort to honor achievement among securities operations professionals since 2011. The competition, now in its ninth year, offers categories ranging from the venerable “Best Corporate Actions Processing Solution” to emerging areas of great interest such as “Best Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) Implementation.”
Our awards process is a chance to celebrate securities industry professionals, financial technology vendors, service providers, industry bodies, regulators and qualified industry participants that had breakthroughs, made significant strides, or achieved excellence in post-trade and related operations during 2019.
Unlike other awards efforts, we decided at the start that operations professionals should select their peers for the winners’ circle in all but the Editor’s Choice award categories. We felt then and do now that those responsible for the day-to-day operations at global securities firms are the best judges of the winners, and are ultimately the ones leading the charge for excellence.
As for the rules, we remind you that individuals cannot vote for their own companies, which includes public relations, marketing and similar concerns that represent and/or promote the nominees, or represent a subsidiary or parent company of the nominee. To keep things fair, those votes will be automatically disqualified.
For obvious reasons, we do not allow spouses, siblings, children, parents, grandparents, random friends, Ancient aliens, or loving pets to participate in the voting process. Please note that those votes via business e-mail addresses will be considered as valid. Those votes from personal e-mail addresses will not be counted.
Our main concern is getting votes from actual industry peers, clients, and other relevant capital markets industry professionals. We encourage our nominees to ask their end-user clients to participate in the voting process — if their clients allow such endorsements of solution and service providers.
We also want to remind you that getting a nomination is not an easy process. Every year, the short-listing process gets tougher as the number of submissions steadily grows for each cycle. We also review every category on an ongoing basis to make sure that they are relevant.
By extending the voting time-frame, we want to make sure that this year’s ultimate nominees get the attention they deserve and the time needed to promote their nominations.
We want to congratulate again all of the nominees and wish them the best of luck as we move into the voting phase. The complete list of the 2020 categories and nominees can be found here: http://bit.ly/39IKAso
Lastly, we will be celebrating the winners this year. It might not be when we planned, but we need to recognize achievement that paves the way for the future.
We hope your families stay healthy and safe during this difficult time.
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