What's Floating Around Cloud 9 this Week? 29 April 2013

Welcome to another week and it’s another busy one!

We start with a rather lovely trip to Leeds as its the Northern Conference &Hospitality Show which takes place at Leeds United tomorrow.

We're lucky enough though to have been invited to attend as VIP's this year so our invitation extends to a rather nice preview of the event which starts this afternoon with a drinks reception at The Queens Hotel, followed by a tour of the new Leeds Arena, the UK’s first purpose built fan-shape arena before it opens to the General Public later this year. 

Then its on the recently opened Trinity Shopping Centre, with a little time to shop, before we make our way to Oulton Hall to dinner and an overnight stay.

Tuesday is the actual show itself and if it is anything like last year, its a great event with an impressive list of venues, new innovations in the event industry and some truly fascinating seminars, all of which we found really beneficial last year.

Whilst we feel a little guilty for taking the time away, events like this enable the team here at Cloud 9 to ensure that we know about all of the best venues and the advances in the industry which we can there share with clients - well, that's our excuse and we are sticking to it! 

We've also got to ensure we get all of the entries out to the first stage judges for the PRCA DARE Awards which officially closed last Friday - although we have been kind enough to allow some of the last minute entries early this week!

With any new awards programme you never know just how well supported the programme will be, but we have been pleasantly surprised by both the entry numbers and the diverse range of entrants so the entire DARE programme should be an exciting experience.

 

Judging is also on the cards this week for the Midlands Media Awards 2013. We've had all of the results in from our first stage judges and the short listed entries are all ready for Thursday when our prestigious panel assemble in Birmingham to make the final decisions.

Chaired by Peter Lowe from Sky News, it’s an impressive jury and one we feel will no doubt be extremely vigorous in their assessment of the entries that have made it to the second stage of judging.

Whilst the nominations for the programme will not be announced until 13th May, a month before the awards ceremony itself, we are already getting ticket bookings so if you don’t want to be sat at the back of the room, you'd better book yours quickly!

Finally this week, we are delighted to announce the launch of the new Brand You Awards which we are running in association with Bristol Media.  The awards are now open for entries and we look forward to seeing some great work from individuals, hence the title, Brand You.

We’re in an industry surrounded by opportunities to win awards and be recognised for campaigns and projects across a variety of genres, but there are few programmes around that focus on the individual - the actual people who make a real difference and whose contribution is sometimes overlooked as part of the bigger picture.

The Awards ceremony will take place on Tuesday 1st October in the Auditorium at The Arnolfini Gallery from 7pm and the full details will be announced nearer the time.

So that's it for this week people, have a good one and we'll see you after the Bank Holiday!