A winner from MERA Awards in 2012
The ‘Middle East Retail Academy (MERA): 2013 Awards’ will be held in conjunction with DISTREE Middle East in Abu Dhabi on May 22nd. Established in 2008, the annual MERA Awards recognise excellence in the volume ICT and consumer electronics (CE) channel, with specific award categories for vendors, distributors and retailers.
Farouk Hemraj, CEO and co-founder at DISTREE Events, explained: “We are delighted to play host to the MERA Awards at DISTREE Middle East. We look forward to welcoming the region’s leading vendors, distributors and retailers to the Gala Dinner and awards ceremony at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr Hotel in Abu Dhabi on May 22nd.”
“The MERA Awards stand out in the region for their open and transparent voting process and neutrality,” added Hemraj. “These are awards that actually mean something. A number of new award categories have been added in 2013 and the live electronic voting creates real excitement.”
The MERA 2013 Awards will recognise vendors in 13 separate product categories: PCs, tablets, PC accessories, smartphone and tablet accessories, imaging, storage, printing, smartphones, TVs, games, home networking, software and audio. Using information gathered continuously during the last 12 months, leading vendors in each category will receive official nominations. Hundreds of retail executives will then cast live electronic votes to determine the overall winners.
Retailer categories also form part of the MERA 2013 Awards with vendors and distributors voting live for Retailer of the Year in 11 separate country or regional categories. The nominations in each retailer category have been determined using data extracted from the MERA Monthly Monitor Report (MMR) – a regular survey that assesses market conditions across the region’s retail channel. There are also two awards focused on distributors: Volume Retail Distributor of the Year and Specialist Retail Distributor of the Year.
Details of all the MERA 2013 Awards categories can be found at www.retailacademy.distree-me.com
Hemraj continued: “The MERA Awards focus on rewarding overall channel excellence, not just rewarding companies for volume sales. In addition to the vendor and retailer awards, there are individual awards and additional categories based on application packs, where the winners are determined by a VIP Jury selection process.”
The nomination process for individual awards is also now underway. Executives working in the Middle East retail channel can submit the names of individuals that they believe deserve recognition through a simple online form.
To nominate vendor and distributor executives, visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/668J766
To nominate retailer executives, visit www.surveymonkey.com/s/FXXNN9T
Two retailer awards are based on application packs that can now be submitted online. The Marketing Initiative of the Year Award and In-Store Experience of the Year Award are hotly contested categories that have produced high-quality entries in recent years as the Middle East retail channel develops and matures.
A VIP Jury of independent retail channel experts will assess all entries. The VIP Jury will also select winners for a series of specialised awards focused on specific areas of channel excellence during the last 12 months. These include Outstanding Vendor Performance Award, New Vendor of the Year Award, Pure Play E-tailer of the Year Award and Multichannel Retailer of the Year Award.
DISTREE Middle East attracts more than 600 senior executives each year and is completely focused on business-to-business interaction between vendors, distributors and retailers. DISTREE Middle East is a business-focused event, offering ICT and CE vendors and distributors the opportunity to interact with buyers from leading retailers and e-tailers from across the region.
