Opinion: Evolution of the industry awards.

Royal Mail and the DMA were at it again last month (DR, November/December 2005), handing out gongs to the deserving poor at the industry's premier awards bash. The ceremony doesn't yet have the historical pedigree of the Queen's distribution of Maundy money. Even so, this was the 25th time the awards have been staged - a milestone for a still-young industry.

For much of that quarter century I was the hack who produced the 'book of the night', writing most of the text, organising the photo shoot and ensuring that the sometimes confusing pictures tied up with the right case studies.

Looking back, loads of obscure trivia come to mind. There was the time the …