The Covid-19 pandemic is continuing to impact on the foodservice and hospitality industry in the Asia Pacific region. Due to the number of Covid infections on the East Coast of Australia, the Fine Food Sydney show, which FCSI Asia Pacific Division was partnering with, has been rescheduled from September 2021 to March 2022, while a number of other smaller events have been pushed back or rescheduled.
One positive from all of this though, is that FCSI Asia Pacific Professional members have a bit more time now to submit entries for the APD Project Excellence initiative. The judging of submitted projects will now take place slightly later this summer, so the deadline to submit has been extended to 31 August 2021.
“We understand that due to the ongoing and unplanned lockdowns occurring throughout the Asia Pacific region and in light of the fact that due to circumstances beyond the control of consultants, some amazing projects have not yet come to fruition,” says Mario Sequeira FCSI, chair of FCSI APD.
“To accommodate all requests and showcase our Professional member’s Project Excellence, we have decided to extend the last day for entries to 31 August 2021 and invite all management and design Professional members to make the best use of this extension of time to submit their completed and to be completed projects.”
Top judges
The judging panel for the inaugural Project Excellence was announced in June 2021.
The four independent judges, selected by the FCSI APD board, who will pick three member projects deemed to be worthy winners, are:
- Pearl Ming-Chu Lin, CHE, PhD, associate professor, coordinator for Hotel ICON Integration, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
- Ralph Frehner, VP, design development at Marriott Asia Pacific, Hong Kong
- Nyapshin Koh, managing director, Port 25, a progressive design research, architectural & interior design studio, Malaysia
- Professor Jim Smith DrPH LFEHPA FIML AFCHSM, professor in the Health & Environment Group, College of Science & Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia
The print publication will mail with the Q4 2021 edition of FCSI’s Foodservice Consultant magazine.The judging process will take place in Q3 2021 and the winners revealed in print in October 2021. Members have until 31 August 2021 to enter.
Confirmed sponsors for the initiative include UNOX Australia (Platinum sponsorship), Moffat (Platinum sponsorship), Meiko (Gold sponsorship) and Welbilt (Silver sponsorship).
Calibre of judges
“Each of our judges has been handpicked – or should I say headhunted by FCSI APD board members due to their amazing professional experience and excellence in their respective fields,” says Mario Sequeira FCSI, chair of FCSI Asia Pacific. “As this is our inaugural Project Excellence initiative, we invited the highest calibre of judges to raise the profile and also give our sponsors due recognition.”
The judges, says Sequeira, are “well-respected professionals with diverse backgrounds” with each judge bringing “their own unique set of talents including, but not limited to academia, operations, sustainable design, master planning, business innovation and environmental health and safety. We have also ensured diversity of representation from across the Asia Pacific region,” he says.
“This is truly an exciting initiative for all our design and management consultant members across Asia Pacific to actively participate as we look to share, support and inspire each other and showcase our projects globally. A special thanks to our sponsors Moffat, UNOX, Meiko and Welbilt.”
Celebrating design excellence
Projects can be submitted here. Submitted projects from current FCSI APD Professional members, which must have been actively worked on by members since 1 January 2019, will be scored by judges based on the following criteria and weighting:
· Innovation/technical excellence (20%)
· Design excellence (20%)
· Originality and ‘thinking outside the box’ (20%)
· Overcoming specific challenges/restraints (budgets, timing, etc) (20%)
· Sustainability credentials (20%)
The three winning projects will also be showcased across all FCSI digital platforms (the fcsi.org website; weekly newsletter; all social media channels).
Think your project has got what it takes to be selected by our judges, or would you like to enter a fellow FCSI APD Professional member’s project? Then please submit the entry here. You have until 31 August 2021 to enter. Terms and conditions apply (please see below).
There is also a number of sponsorship opportunities available for FCSI Allied member brands who would like to support FCSI APD’s Project Excellence campaign. If you are interested, please contact sales@foodserviceconsultant.org.
Requirements for entrants
Entrants are required to provide contact details, as well as a brief overview of the project, including details of the client brief, name of client, sector (hotel/restaurant; B&I; healthcare; education sector, etc) and scope of the design work involved (max. 200 words).
Entrants will also need to provide key timings for the project, including completion dates (or clarify if the project is still ongoing) and detail how the project fulfilled any/all of the following criteria upon completion (please note successful projects will be able to fulfil the majority of these considerations):
. Innovation/technical excellence
· Design excellence/aesthetic appeal achieved
· Originality and ‘thinking outside the box’
· How specific challenges/restraints (budgets, timing, etc) were overcome
· Any sustainability credentials the project achieved
Entrants will also be required to upload up to four images and PDFs of four CAD drawings from the qualifying project you would like judges to consider, plus any additional supplementary information for judges. (Please note all materials will be treated in confidence).
Conditions of entry:
· Entry is free of charge.
· Submitted projects must have been worked on by current FCSI Asia Pacific Division (APD) Professional members.
· Client projects can be located anywhere in the world, provided the member is registered to FCSI APD.
· Projects must have been actively worked on by members since 1 January 2019. Older/historic projects will not be considered. The nominated project must either be completed or substantially started at the time of submitting your nomination.
· Entrants must be able to provide high-resolution photography from the project and be available for interview, should their project be selected by judges.
· Judges’ decision for the awards winner is final.
· Final date of entry is 31 August 2021. Entries submitted after this date will not be considered. Please contact editorial@foodserviceconsultant.org for more details of if you have any queries.
