Third time lucky?
It was the third Cirencester Business Awards on Friday night and Neon Play were up for not one, not two, but three awards. The great and the good of the town gathered at the Cirencester Agricultural University and four Neon Players went along for a big night out.
We had a couple of sharpeners at our local favourite drinking and eating hole called Somewhere Else and that set us up for the night ahead.
Sweet dreams
With a glass of fizz, we chatted away to some familiar faces and the sponsors Cotswold Life. Plus Wilts and Glos Standard editor Skip Walker told us we needed to improve the sweet selection at our upcoming third birthday party. Her wish is our command!
Then we were ushered inside and bizarrely we were on the same table as last year - out of the way and out of sight! We were also joined by Laith Clark of TapMob and Alison Hart from the Corinium Museum who were up for a gong in the Innovation category. It was a jolly table, along with Kate Brown who runs a local photography company.
After a speech from the very svelt Vernon Harwood from the BBC, the awards began in earnest.
And the loser is...
The first award we were up for was Marketing & PR. And we were up against Kate Brown with her photography company who had got a nice piece in Cotswold Life and the Guardian Online. And the winner was...her! We weren’t bitter at all with our extensive media coverage across national press, radio, live BBC TV interviews and thousands of blogs around the world! But Kate is fab, so she deserved her prize.
Things can only get better...
So that wasn’t a great start, but the vino was flowing and we were having a good time anyway! Then things improved when we were quietly whispering to each other and we suddenly heard...”and the winner is...Neon Play”. Oo, that’s us! So up the four of us went to pick up our Team of the Year glass trophy.
Business of the Year?
And then there were a few more awards given out and then the big one...”Business of the Year” (under 25 people). We had come runner-up last year to a company who lay tarmac paths, so we really wanted to win this year. So when the presenter started talking about a company who had won local and national awards, plus was a winner of the Queen’s Award, we thought we might be in with a chance. And luckily, we were and we had won! Woo hoo - dead chuffed we were.
Have a look at us picking up the trophy - four very happy and merry Neon Players.
Time to go Somewhere Else
Then awards finished rather earlier than felt right, so we headed back into Ciren town to the fantastic Somewhere Else. And before you could say, “we should have a bottle of champagne”, the manager Andy rocked up with a bottle of champagne and six glasses - what a top man.
Six of the best
So all in all, it was a great night with two and a half awards. So we’ve been very lucky and we’ve very proud to have won six Ciren Biz Awards in the last three years - Best Innovation, Best Young Company, Business Person of the Year, Best Team, Best Small Business and Gold Award for Best Company. Not bad for a bunch of muppets!
Rent a quote
Oli Christie, CEO of Neon Play commented, “We are incredibly proud to be based in Cirencester and winning two awards here means a lot to the whole team. To win Team of the Year is just rewards for all the talented and hard work every member of Neon Play makes. And winning Business of the Year is a very proud moment in our history."
