FAB Superstars Awards open for nominations as food & beverage enters spotlight at Virtual Travel Retail Expo 2021

INTERNATIONAL. Entries are now being invited for the FAB Superstars Awards 2021, which will shine the spotlight on the thousands of front-of-house and behind the scenes heroes and heroines who have helped keep the travel food & beverage industry going throughout the pandemic. Click here for more details and to make a nomination.

FAB Superstars is the sister programme to The Travel Retail Superstars Awards, a new annual awards scheme for travel retail employees across airport, airline, downtown store and cruise sectors. Both sets of awards will be announced during the Virtual Travel Retail Expo 2021, which takes place from 11-15 October.

The Airport Food & Beverage (FAB) Conference & Awards, conceived, owned and organised by The Moodie Davitt Report since 2011, is the only event dedicated to the burgeoning airport food & beverage business and returns this year in an online format, with a series of sessions dedicated to the channel on Thursday 14 October during the Expo. The FAB Superstars Awards will provide an uplifting and fitting end to this day by celebrating the resilience and achievements of employees in the F&B sector.

Hosted by The Moodie Davitt Report, with support from digital, design and communications agency FILTR.Qingwa, the awards are free to enter and run in collaboration with an advisory committee of travel food & beverage specialists, who will also help judge the awards.

These include industry consultants Nick Inkster, who spent 25 years in senior roles with SSP and Kevin Zajax, CEO at Ground Control Global and former CEO & Managing Director at Emirates Leisure Retail. Others will be named shortly.

Please note: The deadline for submissions is 10 September 2021. Click here to make a nomination for the awards.

Click here to register for the Virtual Travel Retail Expo 2021.

The FAB Superstars Award Categories

Star Team – An award that celebrates those teams who have pulled together, working seamlessly, enthusiastically and effectively, whilst inspiring each other and those around them. It recognises teams who have gone beyond the call of duty, together, to make a difference and to get the job done to the highest standard.

Star Individual – This award recognises those people who everyone loves to work alongside and encounter in the workplace. For those individuals who always show up both for work and for others, who strive to walk the extra miles from a starting point of integrity and passion, and who communicate with sincerity, friendliness and conviction.

Star Story: Team or Individual – The last 18 months have provided many challenges across all businesses in every sector. So this award is for those who have created and been an integral part of workplace stories that put a smile on the face, feed the soul and warm the heart. 

Innovation: Team or Individual – Inspiration for new ideas and initiatives can strike anyone at any time, but particularly so in the face of challenges and change. This award is for those who have provided a difference to the business through offering innovative ideas that have been adopted, (especially company-wide), and have led to increased efficiency, improvements, profitability, enhanced customer service etc, at a time when businesses have needed such creativity more than ever.

Humanity, Leadership & Inspiration: Team or Individual – An award that celebrates those who have shown that leadership is an action, not just a position, and who encourage good citizenship through compassion and empathy and responsibility.

To reach as far and wide as possible, each of the five main award categories will be divided into four geographic and three department sub-categories in order to fully recognise and celebrate a diverse range of employees across the world for their passion, hard work and dedication. Each main category award will therefore recognise the following subcategories:

Regional

1. 1. • Europe
      • Asia Pacific
      • Middle East & Africa
      • Americas

Departmental

1. 1. • Front-of-House
      • Kitchen
      • Stores / Admin / Logistics

Entry Submissions

While it is an almost impossible task to ‘judge’ the good deeds and well-meaning actions of people in general, this is an opportunity for the travel F&B industry to recognise and award such efforts and actions of employees during what has been a very challenging time. What is it that makes your employees and colleagues so priceless? How far have their actions reached? Please tell us in your own heartfelt words and share details that are soul inspiring and motivational.

The written summary component of entries should not exceed 1,000 words in total and should cover events that have taken place between January 2020 up to August 2021 (during the Covid pandemic).

Each written entry should include information under the following suggested headings:

1. 1. • Overview

Please define and describe who, what, why, where and when as succinctly as possible in a brief synopsis / introduction.

1. 1. • Scope & Reach

Questions to answer could be: Who was positively affected? How far reaching were their actions? What differences were made / felt? Was this external or internal within your business?

1. 1. • Measured Success

This can cover events such as happy customer service outcomes and results, how a new way of doing business was actioned company-wide as a positive example or even by providing evidence of quantifiable improvements in business.

1. 1. • The Exceptional

Please let us know why the nominee(s) deserves the award. What is it that makes them and their actions exceptional, outstanding and exemplary?

Award entries are being invited from today until the closing deadline of 10 September 2021.

All entries should also be validated by senior management – this can be done on the nomination portal.

Additionally, in line with the celebration of people and the good that we can do, profits from the Travel Retail & FAB Superstars Awards will go to charity, including Gavi – a global alliance that protects half the world’s children through vaccination. Since Gavi was established in 2000, its mission to save lives, reduce poverty and protect the world against the threat of epidemics has helped vaccinate more than 822 million children in 77 countries.