I suspect awards are one of the more profitable niches of the wider events industry.

They're cheaper to produce than a full-scale conference (needing just a 1 day hire of a hotel ballroom or similar) and are easy to sell - every business or team nominated for an award will pay for a table, as will various suppliers and vendors who see it as a great marketing opportunity.

It looks more like awards for events, e.g. "Most Creative and Engaging Event" and "Best Event Series (over 1800 attendees)," none of which seem to have anything to do with the quality of any awards given at those events. What am I missing here?

We need a few more of these so we can have the Awards Awards Awards.