The IR Academy is delighted to announce the launch of the first ever IR Academy Awards, to be held at The Londoner Macao on the evening of Tuesday 12 October 2021.
The Event Sponsor will be leading Macau integrated resort company Sands China Ltd and the Event Organizer will be leading Asian B2B industry media and events company Inside Asian Gaming (IAG).
The inaugural Awards will be a relatively low-key affair, running from 18:30 to 20:00 in standing cocktail style with a business attire dress code. Only members of the Academy will be invited, and the guest list will be capped at the first 150 members to RSVP. Attendance will be free of charge. Membership of the Academy is also free of charge and may be arranged online at iagta.com, for those who have worked in the Asian land-based IR or gaming industry for a minimum of two years. More detailed membership eligibility requirements are explained at iagta.com/about. Members should RSVP as soon as possible to avoid disappointment by contacting Caroline Iau on +853 2875 2959 or at [email protected].
There will only be two categories of Award in this inaugural year โ Industry Rising Stars (year of birth 1981 or later) and Industry Icons โ with five awards in each category, a total of 10 awards. Any Academy member may nominate any other member (or even themselves) for Awards on the Academyโs website at iagta.com/nominate from now until Friday 24 September 2021 at 17:00 Macau time. The official nominees will be announced on Monday 27 September and voting will take place on the Academy’s website from that date until Monday 11 October 2021 at 10:00 Macau time.
The Academy of Integrated Resorts and Gaming Executives in Asia, more simply known as the โIR Academyโ, was officially launched on 15 June. The objective of the IR Academy is to advance professionalism and recognition within the industry through a range of initiatives, the first of which is the inaugural IR Academy Awards, which will recognize industry executives and their contributions.
IAG CEO Andrew W Scott said, โThe idea for the IR Academy Awards grew out of a desire to recognize the valuable and meaningful contribution to our industry of many industry executives, from young up-and-coming Senior Managers and Assistant Directors right up to Senior Vice Presidents and even some C-level executives. Typically, such executives fall through the gaps, given that to make the Asian Gaming Power 50 list each year you now pretty much must be an owner or CEO of a gaming operator, and that the G2E Asia Awards focus on companies rather than individuals.
โThere are a lot of great executives in our industry who are in the supplier world or who are Directors or VPs at operators who do fantastic jobs and deserve the recognition of their peers, especially given the tough times we are going through with the pandemic.
โWeโve been thinking about launching this initiative for years, and we didnโt want to wait until the industry returned to normal after the pandemic, but the last thing we wanted to do right now was to ask our clients to put their hands in their pockets for a new initiative, so the event will be completely free of charge. Despite being quite a low-key affair this year, we hope to steadily grow the stature of the IR Academy Awards in the future, just as we have done with the Power 50 over the past 14 years.โ
โFinally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to Sands China who will be Venue Sponsor for the IR Academy Awards. We could never have done this without their support.โ
There is no judging panel as the awards will be determined by popular vote of the members.
For more information on the IR Academy Awards, visit iagta.com/awards.