Awards honour industry’s best auctioneers

NAVA has presented Katie Semmens (right) of land and property firm Clive Emson with its prestigious Auctioneer of the Year award – the top honour at the body’s annual awards ceremony. Semmens impressed the judges with “her outstanding professional auctioneering skills, including handling difficult bidding situations whilst maintaining genuine customer empathy, and adding a good touch of humour to help lift the bid levels”, according to NAVA. The President’s Award was presented to Steven Denley-Hill, who has dedicated much of his professional life to NAVA and held several influential roles including president, chairman and CEO. The Community Award was presented to Symonds & Sampson as the company that best demonstrated their commitment to corporate and social responsibilities within the community. This year’s Property Auction House of the Year award was handed to Network Auctions “for demonstrating outstanding customer service, robust business strategy, effective marketing, profession involvement and best practice.” Phil Arnold, President, NAVA, said, “This event is an industry institute. Now in its fifth year, it’s a great way for us to show off and congratulate the great work conducted by valuers and auctioneers across the whole business. “We were extremely impressed with this year’s entrants – the standard was…