Last year, before welcoming Emma Chow to The Jimmy & Nath Show with Emma Nathan Roye and Jimmy Smith walked away with the coveted Best Audio Talent Award at Mediaweek’s Next of the Best Awards.
With this year’s event just around the corner, we sat down with the past winners, to find out how winning this award boosted their entire career.
You can listen to the whole chat on our Next of the Best podcast here.
Jimmy Smith, Emma Chow & Nathan Roye.
Oh, what a night!
When it comes to the 2024 event, Roye and Smith didn’t just accept an award, they took over the night.
What began as a win for Best Audio Talent quickly snowballed into the pair becoming the unofficial MCs, filling in for absent winners, joining random groups and even delivering rogue speeches.
“We had no idea how the night was supposed to run,” Smith laughed. “We won the first award and just went up, did a bit, gave a speech. The other awards were also won by SCA employees who couldn’t be there, so Nath and I got up and started accepting other awards and giving speeches on people’s behalf”.
Enter now: You can enter Next of the Best Awards here
“We are fantastic awards acceptors,” Roye joked. “Having been to so many awards nights where we haven’t won anything, we are so good at accepting other people’s awards”.
Their antics might have been cheeky, but the underlying message was serious: these two know how to work a room, and an industry.
Awards as a networking tool … and a career accelerator
While the comedy duo are quick to make light of their win, they’re just as quick to highlight the value of industry recognition.
“To win something like that, it gives us a bit more credibility,” Smith said. “I know it’s a cliche to be like: ‘it’s great to be nominated’, but in this industry it really is because when you’re in the room, it’s all about relationships in this business”.
The broadcasters went on to reveal that some of the best connections they made happened before the ceremony even started and after proceedings wrapped up.
Smith added: “It was not just great to win, it was also great to be there”.
Jimmy and Nate at the Next of the Best Awards, 2024.
Navigating awkward conversations
Award shows can feel intimidating, especially when you’re surrounded by suits, stilettos and media executives you only know from LinkedIn. But for both Roye and Smith the night doesn’t need to be a white knuckle ride in conversation starters. The pair revealing to Mediaweek their trick to surviving (and thriving) on awards night: remember everyone else feels the same way.
“When we were in the Street Team, Nath and I would have to set up for events like this,” Smith began. “We realised, even in the early days, that it didn’t matter if you’re chatting to CEO of a company or someone who’s been there for their first week, they’re still nervous, they’re still apprehensive, but also they want to talk”.
Their advice? Keep it simple.
“People want to talk about what they do,” Smith added. “They want to talk about their work, their job or their project because they’re proud of it. Go up and ask them about it, because Nathan and I have never found anyone that did not want to have a conversation”.
For those still daunted by the prospect of carrying out a cold call in real life, the duo had this advice:
“I’m big on name tags,” Roye began. “The other thing is, if you know there’s someone you want to talk to, there’s a cheat sheet to help you. There’s a brochure at the awards that tells you who’s nominated and what they do. So, all you have to do is watch them when their picture comes up on the screen then you know where to find them,” he said.