The British Poultry Awards - A Clucking Good Event

23 Oct, 2018

Another brilliant awards bash organised by FML PR on behalf of the British Poultry Council.

The annual British Poultry Awards 2018 took place this September, providing a huge networking opportunity for over 250 working within the chicken, duck and turkey industries.

FML worked with all the key industry players from across the country, including retailer and foodservice buyers, growers, manufacturers and the agricultural supply chain, bringing them together to recognise and reward the very best products and producers in the British poultry business.

FML handled all the event planning arrangements from start to finish in precision detail. From developing the award categories and criteria, bringing in sponsors, preparing and distributing entry forms, shortlisting, organising invitations to writing programmes and speeches and much more.

A key part of the day was to organise the judging day. A venue with enough ovens was sourced in central London, and a team of professional chefs took on the task of cooking dozens of poultry products to a carefully managed timetable. FML recruited an independent panel of well-respected judges and co-ordinated deliveries from producers across the country. It was a large-scale operation with over fifty poultry products cooked, tasted and scrutinised by the judges who picked out the winners. All ran very smoothly, thanks to years of event management experience from the FML team.

The second burst of activity was to put together the awards ceremony itself, while cementing the prestige of the occasion with a little glitz and glamour. The stunning ballroom of the Sheraton Grand Park Lane was the perfect backdrop for this black-tie do, which began with a champagne and canape reception, followed by a bespoke 3 course dinner using turkey meat in both the starter and main courses (a result of a separately sponsored Student Chef awards competition). After dinner entertainment was provided by an hilarious top comedian, and the evening was there was a casino and live band to round off the evening. The awards compere was the well-respected and lovely BBC Countryfile presenter Helen Skelton. Charity fundraising took place in aid of Bloodwise.

All winners received a trophy and were given the opportunity to use a special ‘Winners’ logo on pack and on marketing collateral. For the first time this year individuals as well as companies were recognised giving a welcome dimension to the whole event.Congratulations to all our amazing winners.Retailer of the Year went to Asda and Foodservice Operator of the Year went to UK Foodhall.

Results:

This event is now hailed as one of the biggest in the poultry industry calendar. From feedback it’s clear that this is the only event busy poultry buyers will commit to attending. And it has its own place within their annual marketing campaigns. There are confirmed plans for the awards logo to be used on retailer Christmas advertising and POS campaigns.

Feedback on the event was very positive with some regular guests saying that this was the best event yet and far outstripped other awards ceremonies.

Sponsorship commitment already given for 2019 hurrah!