Going ahead, anyway.
▶ Watch · British Travel Awards 2021 / 2022 highlights
In short —
With most of the travel industry's 2020 awards cancelled, the British Travel Awards — the only consumer-voted awards in the sector — pressed on. With Evessio's Awards Room, they delivered a slick, polished, public-facing virtual ceremony.
The only show in town
The British Travel Awards are the only consumer-voted awards in the travel industry. Every year, over 1,000 guests attend a gala ceremony in London to find out the results of half a million public votes.
The travel industry was hit hard by COVID, and two of the largest travel trade awards were cancelled in 2020 — leaving just the BTA to bravely go ahead, in a radically different format. For Lorraine Barnes Burton, managing director of the BTA, it was a steep learning curve. Fortunately, Evessio supported her every step of the way.
Public-vote first
A public gallery let consumers join the celebration directly.
Wider audience
A media partner's readers attended for the first time.
Tightly scripted
Alex Jones hosted live; pre-recorded acceptances slotted in seamlessly.
Granular data
Sponsors saw exactly who engaged, with whom, and for how long.
Solving problems before they surfaced
The Awards Room used the BTA database to send invites and pass registration data back to the BTA. Because only attendees with the same domain name could be seated together, the Awards Room ensured guests registered the right emails up front.
The team worked with the BTA production team in advance to ensure the venue had high-quality broadband for uploading the live film required at the ceremony. And critically, the platform suggested a public gallery for public-vote attendees from the BTA's media partner, the Mirror Group — opening the event to a wider audience for the first time.
Virtual delivery opens new audiences.
Bringing the event to a much larger audience, with transparency around the public vote, was a huge success — and something the BTA will look to roll out at future events.
Showtime
The event took place just after lunch in early December, during the second UK lockdown. Registration opened at 1pm, giving attendees an hour to familiarise themselves with the platform, engage with sponsors, and network. The ceremony began at 2pm, hosted live by Alex Jones from BBC's One Show at Boisdale in central London.
The ceremony moved seamlessly between live and pre-recorded sections, with gold, silver, and bronze winners delivering pre-recorded acceptance videos — a mixture of professional and homespun-Zoom quality, all engaging and amusing. A live Twitter feed kept guests interacting throughout. Trophies arrived at winners' homes the next day.
Straight from the room
What the BTA team and guests took away.
Despite having little idea what to expect, attendees consistently described the production as "slick".
The platform suggested innovations we'll now use at every future event.
Trophies arrived at winners' homes the next day — that physical touch mattered.
Granular data on engagement opened up new business development opportunities.
What happens next
The success of the event has the BTA seriously considering hybrid for future years. After the ceremony, the Awards Room provided detailed data: who chatted with whom, for how long, and which sponsor materials were watched. The advantages are clear — more guests can attend from further afield, and the data available to organisers and sponsors significantly magnifies business development opportunities.
You can find out more about the British Travel Awards at britishtravelawards.com.
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