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Eventia Celebrates Excellence - The Eventia Awards 2010

Over 800 top events industry professionals celebrated a spectacular night of awards at the Hilton Park Lane on Friday 26th November.

The Eventia Awards replace the Eventia International Awards and Eventia UK Awards which were combined to create the key awards and premier networking night for the whole industry.  The Eventia Awards  honour outstanding business-to-business and business-to-consumer events including corporate events, product launches, company exhibitions, presentations, hospitality, celebratory events, meetings and conferences of all sizes and formats both overseas and in the UK.

The spread of categories were reviewed and updated involving industry experts prior to the event to ensure that every corner of the events world continued to be celebrated.

The Awards were hosted by BBC Breakfast regulars Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams, who brought a genuine warmth and extremely professional air to the proceedings and the show was opened by Paije Richardson from the X-factor.

Nominated by Eventia members and voted for by the Board this year's Lifetime Achievement Award was won by Graham Frazer, International Events Development Director with Imagination. With a prestigious career spanning some 37 years in the events industry, mostly with Maritz and Grass Roots, Frazer was honoured with this award as an accolade to celebrate his innovation and commitment as an ambassador for the industry. (Frazer was also presented with the highly prestigious IVCA Fellowship Award by Mark Taylor, Immediate Past Chairman of Eventia at the recent IVCA Fellowship Lunch at the House of Lords.)

Also honoured with a special award of Honorary Lifetime Membership was Eventia Ambassador, Izania Downie.  The award was bestowed in recognition of Downie’s work as CEO of Eventia for over five years. Chairman, Mark Saxby acknowledged Downie’s outstanding contribution to the success of the Association and paid tribute to her continuing work as an Eventia Ambassador.

The prestigious Platinum Award was won by Ignite, who were the big winners of the evening.

Eventia Chairman, Mark Saxby, commented: “These awards recognise the best and most innovative International and UK based events in our industry.

It was refreshing to see such an impressive volume of high quality entries submitted to this year’s Awards.  Our expert panel of judges followed a stringent process and have commented that to be involved in judging the Eventia Awards was a truly inspirational experience.”

He added: “This year’s finalists and winners have set new standards of excellence and serve as testimony to the energy and enthusiasm that is currently driving face-to-face communication to the forefront of marketing strategy. We are delighted to see Ignite take the accolade of Platinum Award to recognize their success across the Awards and TRO take the Agency of the Year - well done to all of our winners!”

"I am so encouraged by the fact that we had an impressive 800+ guests at the Awards, quite a feat in the current economic climate - just what everyone needed to feel inspired and motivated and an excellent opportunity for the industry to come together and celebrate, make some new contacts and support each other in these ever challenging times."

The charity prize draw raised a huge £5,450 for Meetings Industry Meeting Needs, a registered charity raising funds for worthy causes relevant to the industry.  All proceeds will be donated to Tree Aid in memory of the recently departed Vanessa Cotton who was an outstanding industry colleague and a real inspiration to many in the industry. Tree Aid is a project selected by Vanessa’s husband and business partner, Mike Selway. Vanessa was one of the first recipients of the Eventia Outstanding Achievement Award for her contribution to the industry back in 2007. 

Prizes included 5 night’s stay for two at the Mazagan Beach Resort, Morocco, generously donated by the Kerzner Collection, with flights donated by Royal Air Maroc.

The following Gold Awards were given:
In house event team of the year:  Barclays
Venue event team of the year:  ACC Liverpool
Best hospitality event:  Sodexo Prestige
Technical Supplier of the year:  XL Events
Planning and logistics supplier:  ES Group Ltd
Most cost effective use of a budget:  RBS
Event hotel or venue of the year (251-750 capacity):  Sodexo Prestige
Creative use of technology:  Spinning Clock
Best team-building event:  RNLI Lifeboat College
Best corporate responsibility initiative of the year:  drpgroup
Most Effective ROI:  Communique
Event hotel or venue of the year (over 751 capacity):  Searcys at the Hurlingham Club
Event hotel of the year (under 250 capacity):  seasoned events
Best product launch (UK/International):  Chillisauce Ltd
Best integrated event communication campaign:  Ignite
Best event in a public space:  RPM
Best incentive/motivation (UK):  Opus
Best incentive/motivation (international):  P&MM Ltd
Best experiential event (as part of an experiential campaign):  Ignite
Best conference UK/International):  Circle Agency
Best celebratory event:  K-events
Agency of the Year:  TRO

Platinum Winner: Ignite

For a complete list of all winners, including Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze Awards and Finalists, click here

After the formalities, champagne and cocktails flowed in the Wellington Ballroom with dancing to Fantabula and disco (provided by Party Time Promotions) until the wee small hours!