Profit from having fun at work

Profit from having fun at work:

Enter the 2008 Humour in Business Awards and demonstrate how being good humoured adds to the wellbeing of your business and the country!

The New Zealand business that makes life the most fun for its staff, suppliers and/or customers is about to be honoured.

That’s because they will win the third annual Humour in Business Awards – now open for entries.

Businesses of all types and sizes are encouraged to enter, describing how they have fun at work; how they either planned or inadvertently affected business relationships, outcomes or productivity as a result of a humourous event or strategy. 

The Minister for Commerce Hon Lianne Dalziel will again open the ceremony on awards night at the Classic lComedy Club in Auckland on August 11th.  Even people who do not enter are invited to buy tickets to the occasion – where they will clap and laugh their heads off.

Awards founder and convenor, Pat Armitstead, operates her own speaking and training business, Joyology- The Department of Humour Resources.

She says the awards are designed to celebrate the notion of fun at work and contribute towards the general well being of individuals, teams and the nation. They raise awareness of the ways humour and fun contribute to workplace enjoyment and personal and team productivity. 

“It is not necessarily about the most sophisticated application of humour or the best use of jokes, though these are all part of what it means to be good humoured.”

Ms Armitstead toured Russia with another acclaimed celebrity in humor,   Dr Patch Adams, visiting orphans. She and Patch will once again join forces in November of this year.

Auckland comedian Mike Loder was a category winner last year and he endorses the awards with these words of wisdom: "Used informally or with strategy, comedy is a large part of successful business in New Zealand. Those who understand this powerful tool have the advantage. I'm glad that this is now recognized with a regular annual award". 

None other than John Cleese , the funniest man known to humankind, endorsed the awards when they were launched in 2006. They happened to coincide with  his comedy tour of New Zealand in 2006. He told Ms Armitstead: “I used humour for many years in the video arts management and sales training films.

And you and I are both pointing out that there’s a right and a wrong way to use humour. It must grow out of the point that you want to make, and not be tacked on to it.

Last year’s winner was Canyon Swing in Queenstown and the inaugural winners, in 2006, were New Zealand Window Shades in Mt Wellington, Auckland.

In 2008 the three entry categories are: Over 20 Staff, Under 20 Staff, Sole Proprietor with an Overall Winner selected.  Entries are due by 25th July 2008.

The judges of the 2008 Humour in Business Awards will be Mike Hutcheson, business columnist and director of Lighthouse Ideas and former managing director of Saatchi and Saatchi advertising agency; Tony Falkenstein, chief executive of Red Eagle; and Dr Barbara Plester, lecturer at the University of Auckland whose Masters thesis was on humour in the workplace. All are based in Auckland.

ends

“ We swing between grief and joy most of our lives as we respond to and deal with the life events that ultimately shape us.  The trigger for hope as we move through those times that test us, is laughter .  ”

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