In this episode of Chewing It Over, Jack is joined by Laura Bevan, Head of Communications at Physio Matters, for a complete guide to the inaugural MSK Awards — and, remarkably, Laura's first ever podcast appearance.
Taking place on 27 November in Birmingham, the MSK Awards have been created as a dedicated celebration of excellence across the MSK community. Rather than another conference or educational event, the evening is designed to recognise the clinicians, leaders and teams making a genuine difference to patients and colleagues — including those whose work often happens quietly behind the scenes.
Jack and Laura discuss the thinking behind the awards, the categories, nominations and judging process, as well as what attendees can expect from the evening itself. The ambition is to create something that combines a prestigious awards ceremony with a genuinely enjoyable end-of-year celebration: dinner, entertainment, networking and a proper party with the wider MSK community.
They also reveal that two-time Olympic triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee will join the event as its celebrity guest speaker. Rather than simply making an appearance, Brownlee will be interviewed about his experiences of injury, rehabilitation and working with MSK professionals throughout an extraordinary elite sporting career.
With leading MSK clinicians and educators attending alongside teams from across the profession, the awards are intended to become an annual opportunity to recognise the breadth of work happening across MSK healthcare.
The message is simple: our profession spends plenty of time discussing how it can improve. Sometimes it should also celebrate what it's already doing brilliantly.