The Insurance Insider's third Honours event saw 800 leading industry executives packed into the spectacular riverside setting of London's Old Billingsgate Market at a splendid gala evening compered by UK comedian Rory Bremner.
When we were getting going on the preparations for this year's proceedings, a sudden feeling of dread came over the team.
Well, it wasn't dread as such, more the sort of dry-mouthed hard swallowing that a stage variety act experiences when he looks at the programme and realises that he is scheduled to follow the star turn.
In the flush of the success of 2012 and 2013 we recognised that after two roaring opening years, we had better be prepared to pull a few metaphorical rabbits out of hats if we were to be seen to progress in 2014.
Happily, as the process played out I saw our events organisation team looking progressively more excited.
The truth is that whilst we put on over 50 events a year, most, whilst packed with industry leaders, exclusive content and invaluable insight from a professional perspective, could rarely be classed as "entertainment".
For once in the annual calendar, we were very much in the pure entertainment business - and it was so much bigger and louder than last year - hence the excitement for all concerned.
We gathered to celebrate excellence, great service, high achievement and variety, inventiveness and entrepreneurialism in our global sector.
These were abundant in the first two years of Honours entries and this year has easily surpassed the high standards set by those early outings.
On behalf of our world-beating panel of external judges I would like to thank all of you who took time to submit an entry. Judging is an extremely difficult task and the quality and sheer variety of entries made this job even harder in 2014.
It is hugely encouraging to see so many companies and individuals striving for excellence and I am honoured to be able to celebrate that with you.
I hope that as you looked around our superb surroundings, effectively built from scratch for us, and as the gala evening that we had planned for you progressed, you felt rightly proud of our sector's achievements.
It is clear to me that the Insurance Insider Honours will build from this, and grow to become the credible and enviable badge of honour in the global market that we all hoped it would be.
I look forward to seeing many more of you next year. In the meantime, to view our post-event Honours supplement please click here
Mark Geoghegan
Editor
The Insurance Insider