The Association of Event Organisers (AEO) Excellence Awards celebrated its 25th anniversary last week with a ceremony that took place at Grosvenor House, London.

Andrew Evans was named as this year’s Outstanding Contribution to the Industry winner, which was delivered by Simon Parker, managing director of UBM EMEA. With a nod to the nineties, Take That Live! provided the entertainment with three favourites that reflected the occasion – Never Forget, Could It Be Magic and These Days.

Chris Skeith, chief executive of the AEO, commented: “There are always a few surprises at the AEO Excellence Awards which is what makes it a fun afternoon for the industry. For the 25th anniversary we wanted to make it extra special and with the entertainment, pyrotechnics and the amazing activations our sponsors provided we think we achieved it. We’d like to thank everyone for taking part and congratulate all of the winners.”

In addition to Andrew Evans, other winners on the day included debut winner Raccoon Events which won Best Consumer Show Launch for the inaugural National Running Show. Clarion Events, CloserStill Media, New Scientist Live and the NEC all won two awards but the big winner of the day was GES, which took away a hat trick with Best Use of Technology, Sustainability and Innovation awards.

Other winners included Ascential Events, Brand Events, f2f Events, FESPA, Forest Exhibitions, Informa Exhibitions and UBM. Clarion Events won the Most Influential Company of the Last 25 Years.

In addition to the NEC, other venues that took home a trophy included the QEII Centre and Manchester Central Convention Complex, which took home the award for Unsung Hero sponsored by Circdata. Winning suppliers included the aforementioned GES plus LiveBuzz, Nimlok and Thorns Group.

Chris Preston, managing director of Freeman EMEA, added: “We support the AEO Excellence Awards because the AEO is part of the core fabric of the industry and does great work in promoting best practice, networking and live face to face engagement. We believe in challenging boundaries and resetting the benchmark with every event and experience Freeman delivers and award ceremonies play an important role in this.

“The AEO Excellence Awards gives teams the ability to shout about what they’ve done, it’s a forum for recognition and because of the diligence incorporated into the judging process, they’re valuable awards which everyone aspires to win.”

Martin Clarke, marketing director at the NEC, concluded: “It’s been fantastic to celebrate 25 years of the AEO Awards this year not just through our sponsorship of this, the main event in the industry calendar, but by capturing the action live on the day.

“Well done not just to the winners but also to everyone who committed the time and energy to enter the awards, demonstrating the many different ways that companies strive to be number one in their categories. We can all draw inspiration from each other. That’s what makes the UK exhibition industry so very special.”

For full details of all of the winners please visit: www.aeoawards.org