The Management Consultancies Association (MCA) Awards for 2021 have been launched with the deadline for submissions on 12th March 2021 and the MCA Awards Dinner and Ceremony set to take place on the 1st November 2021 at the Park Plaza in London. The MCA Awards are a celebration of the outstanding work that management consultants are involved in across the private and public sector and recognise the effort of both individuals and project teams and their clients in the UK and abroad. The announcement follows a record year for the MCA Awards in 2020 in terms of participation with a 13% increase in entries, and individual entries up 44%. The MCA Awards ceremony was held virtually for the first time in its history and received record attendance with over 1,300 people viewing it on the night. The new timeline for the MCA Awards and the confirmation of the Ceremony in the autumn will be a permanent change to the MCA Awards calendar. Many MCA member firms are fully occupied supporting private and public sector clients with responses to the pandemic and other critical business concerns and moving the deadline will allow firms and individuals more time to submit entries in the new year.
The awards will continue to have 22 categories with 12 project awards, 7 individual awards and 3 overall awards. Categories for projects range from Best Use of Thought Leadership, Change and Transformation in the Public Sector, International, Strategy and Performance Improvement in the Private Sector. Individual categories include the highly popular Rising Star, Young Consultant of The Year, Best Apprentice and Outstanding Achievement. The overall categories are Best New Consultancy, The Times Consultant of the Year and Project of the Year. The MCA awards will also feature in a special supplement in the Times newspaper with interviews with individual finalists, project teams and clients.
Now in their 24th year, the MCA Awards are an important fixture in the consulting industry calendar and are delivered together in partnership with MCA member firms and our Sponsors Mindbench, Kimble, Retain International and The Times. The MCA awards are judged by an independent panel consisting of over 30 judges drawn from a variety of backgrounds including academia, the media industry, government and the private sector. Each judge has to sign a strict code of conduct and follow a marking and interview process with clear guidelines and criteria.
The MCA Awards are open for entries to be purchased from the beginning of October and the deadline for written entries to be submitted is Friday 12th March 2021. The finalists will be announced on 24th May 2021 with interviews taking place in June when consultants and their clients will be questioned by the judges on their projects and career achievements. The winners, as well as those who have been highly commended, will then be announced at the MCA Awards Ceremony and dinner which will take place at the Park Plaza, London in November.
Tamzen Isacsson, MCA Chief Executive, said:
“Following a record year for the MCA Awards we are delighted to announce our new timeline for 2021 and have received considerable industry interest already from consulting companies. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, consultants have been supporting clients with critical work, harnessing all our industry and digital expertise to help the UK economy and society recover. The expanded timetable for this year will enable firms and individuals to have more time to put together their winning entries and we are hopeful we will all meet face to face to celebrate their achievements in the autumn. In 2020 our firms have proudly stepped up to support businesses and the public sector during a period of national crisis and we look forward to recognising some of these incredible contributions by individuals and firms”
For more information, including how to apply, please go to www.mca.org.uk
We have a number of sponsorship packages available the awards, if you are interested in sponsorship, please contact Natalie Mendez.