Date: Thursday 11 February 2021, 5-6pm
Location: Virtual
Directed and produced by Juliette McCrimmon, Cherry Red Events, and David Cotter, David Cotter Limited for the BSME.

On the evening of Thursday 11 February, Maria Pieri, of APL Media and then-chair of the British Society of Magazine Editors (BSME) invited guests to “kick off their slippers” and enjoy the BSME awards ceremony with colleagues and friends “without the hassle of having to get a cab home.” Hattie Brett, editor of Grazia and current chair of the organisation, described the awards as “the most significant BSME awards yet because they are a reminder that we made it through 2020!”

A not-for-profit organisation, the BSME represents editors of the UK’s top consumer, professional and customer magazines and websites. In January 2020, just before COVID struck, Juliette McCrimmon was appointed events director, with David Cotter creative director. One of their key objectives was to fully embrace social media to maximise the profile of the organisation, but they quite quickly found themselves catapulted into the complexities of delivering events in the era of COVID.

The BSME had previously delivered a single virtual event which was a straight edit directly streamed to the audience, but McCrimmon and Cotter were keen to try something different. They approached Evessio to discuss using the Awards Room platform and were delighted that Evessio was happy to sponsor the awards and use their software to power them.

Cotter was given half a day of training in advance of using the Awards Room platform, which he described as a “very rich, in-depth system.” He stresses the importance of taking time prior to an event to understand and learn how to use the software to its full capacity. Both Cotter and McCrimmon were highly aware of the sophistication of the software and the range of its functionalities, which they hope to use more fully and effectively at future events. Using the platform for the first time was daunting without a dress rehearsal and with the knowledge the professional audience could be unforgiving!

The BSME processed the applications for the awards and the Awards Room took responsibility for delivering the production of the ceremony.

The event was free to attend and 520 guests registered, with 344 logging into the Awards Room platform for the actual event, a comparable number to live events in previous years. The organisers emphasised the importance of the user experience being as simple and straight forward for guests to access as possible, conscious that digital attendees are asked to switch between a wide range of technical platforms every day, and that other screen-based distractions, are competing for their attention. On the evening of the event, Evessio was on hand with full technical support.

The awards took place at 5pm, with 45minutes of music and a montage of magazine covers prior to the host welcoming guests to the event. The event was pre-recorded with Maria Pieri hosting and guest presenter Clara Amfo from Radio 1, joining by video link. A film of the shortlist and winners of 32 categories of awards were introduced by big names from the media, including John Simpson, Alan Titchmarsh, and Kate Garraway. One of the benefits of a digital ceremony is being able to attract this talent who are willing to give up a short amount of time to film an introduction to a category while they are less likely to attend a lengthy live ceremony. Winners and Highly Commended entrants included the editors of Campaign, Vogue, Wired, and Which? magazine, as well as the Financial Times, Rugby Journal, and Waitrose & Partners Food.

The winners of the Editors’ Editor award, won by Edward Enninful of Vogue, and Mark Boxer Award, won by Lorraine Candy, previously of the Sunday Times Style magazine, provided pre-recorded acceptance speeches. The day after the awards, the sponsors, Marks & Spencer, sent hampers including trophies, to all the winners, highly commended entrants, judges, and presenters.

The guests watched the ceremony from their homes, but many shared pictures of themselves on social media dressed smartly and enjoying a cocktail, enhancing the sense of occasion. Many guests also remained on the Awards Room site for up to an hour after the end of the awards ceremony, taking advantage of the opportunity to network.

Guests were encouraged to be active on Twitter and Instagram, both in the run-up to the event, as well as by the hosts during the evening. Networking at the awards ceremony was recognised as one of the most important elements of the event and the interactive aspect of the digital awards was one of the most successful parts of the evening.Guests were able to chat with other people on their table and a public messaging board made the ceremony much more immersive.

The extent of the data generated by the awards was impressive, with graphs provided to the organisers detailing information down to a granular level, including, for example, the number of conversations held on each table and the length each contact lasted for.

After the ceremony, the event was posted on YouTube where it is available to watch on-demand - www.bsme.com/awards.

Juliette McCrimmon, events director, commented;

“We were delighted with the success of our awards ceremony using the Awards Room platform for the first time. The social media outreach was incredible and there was a huge amount of positive feedback from attendees around the great networking opportunities provided by the software. The ceremony was slick and professional. We are very grateful to Evessio for sponsoring this annual high-profile event for senior editorial professionals.

“As live events return, we are very keen to work with Evessio to incorporate the best of digital with live events through hybrid to deliver our awards in ever more creative and sustainable ways.”

David Cotter, creative director, commented;

“The range of functions within the Awards Room is fantastic. There are so many features that we’re keen to exploit to a greater extent as we become more familiar with the software. There is so much potential for us to deliver really exciting events that meet the networking needs and expectations of our audience. The experience was incredibly positive and the support from Evessio whenever we needed it was brilliant.”