DIGITAL EVENTS
The awards Events and travel were two of the industries hit hardest by lockdown. Two of the largest travel trade awards were cancelled in 2020, leaving the British Travel Awards (BTA), the largest consumer-voted awards in the industry, to bravely go ahead with our event in a radically different format from ever before. We decided to use The Awards Room powered by Evessio, a software platform for virtual and hybrid award ceremonies. The Awards Room team were able to take responsibility for all technical aspects of the event, from sending invitations to advising guests how to
The event took place just after lunch in mid‐December, during the second UK Covid lockdown. The Awards Room opened at 1pm, giving attendees the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the platform, engage with the sponsors and network before the ceremony began properly at 2pm. The ceremony moved seamlessly between live and pre‐recorded sections, hosted live by Alex Jones from the BBC’s One Show at Boisdale in central London. For guests, the experience was akin to watching a TV show. A dedicated person from the Awards Room was available throughout to respond to any of the guests’ queries or issues that arose at any time. The top three winners (gold,
ensure they were seated with colleagues – freeing me and my small team to concentrate on the aspects of the ceremony she would normally oversee. Guests were sent a short video advising them how the ceremony would run and how they could maximise their networking through using the chat functionality on the platform. The Awards Room team worked with the BTA production team in advance to ensure a high‐quality broadband speed was available from the venue for uploading
The amount of data available to organisers meant business development opportunities weremagnified Lorraine Barnes Burton
silver and bronze) sent pre‐ recorded acceptance videos which were uploaded and patched into the live ceremony. These were a mixture of professional and homespun Zoom quality, but all were engaging and amusing for attendees at the ceremony to watch.
the live film that would be required at the ceremony.
46 MAY 2021 mitmagazine.co.uk
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