Europe's event offer & trouble in Turin

Last week I was invited to Turin to judge the European Best Event Awards. Organised by Italian publishing company ADC, this set of awards brings together agencies from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Germany, France, England and Eastern Europe to compete for a string of event accolades.

There are very noticeable cultural differences in the way each country organises its events. Outside the UK, creative content and the spectacle of performance out-weighs the need for return on investment. The results are often spectacular and over-the-top but the European events arena is a hot-bed of creative ideas. UK agencies should take these awards seriously, for inspiration if nothing more.

I of course, can’t divulge who the winners are as yet but, come November this blog will be the only place to find out which European agencies should be tracked and which one country in particular UK agencies should be aware of for its rapidly growing and innovative events scene.

In the meantime, a quick story that occurred during the two-day judging. An Italian experiential agency sent fake Rolex watches to every member of the jury panel judging the Italian-only categories. Many of the judges sent the watches back not realising that instead of a bribe, it was in fact a promotional campaign. Some however accepted the fake watches, realising the nature of the activity (I can only assume).

On the first evening of the two-day judging session, two agency representatives turned up to the Hotel Principi di Piemonte and staged a demonstration outside. They announced via megaphone that the awards were fixed and that judges had taken bribes. Members of the ADC organising team franticly tried to defend the integrity of the awards and make the protestors stop. Fortunately, they eventually saw the funny-side when they realised what was really happening.

It reminded me of the campaign to promote the second series of Dexter on FX by Portuguese agency Torke. A team of street actors caused international outrage (especially from the UK tabloids) when they played dead on the sidewalks of Lisbon covered in blood with knives protruding from their backs. Irresponsible or a creative idea to die for?