Euro event award winners

As promised back in October, I can now reveal the results of the European Best Event Awards. I headed back to Turin last week for the ceremony and to chair two sessions of the adjoining conference. After speaking to a mainly Italian audience on the impact the economic recession will have on the UK events industry and then discussing the options for European event associations to work together, it was time for the awards.

So, in third place: Portuguese agency Desafio Global Ativism claimed the bronze for reinventing the Cinderalla story in Lisbon's coach museum on behalf of Dior for the launch of its perfume Poison.

The runner-up: The Most Majestic Espresso Experience by Italian agency Promoconvention.

And the winner: Congratulations to German agency insglück Gesellschaft für Markeninszenierung for the opening ceremony of the 2008 CeBit exhibition in Hanover.

The Italian publishing company, ADC will shortly be uploading to its website, articles I wrote for them on the winning entries and the awards. So for more details, keep an eye on the Mike in the Media links on my blog homepage.

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?