Big Success for first PPA ASPIRE Awards Dinner
Over 100 industry personnel attended the first ever Play Providers Association ASPIRE Awards on Tuesday night at the Ettington Chase hotel linked with PPA members visit to the Leisure Industry Week (LIW) show at the NEC.
The dinner and ASPIRE awards, which showcased the very best of the Indoor play operation in the UK, was the supported by TL Dallas, the Pelican Buying Group and the API Indoor Section as well as 6 award category sponsors.
Adventurelands in Newcastle were the big winners on the night, picking up two ASPIRE awards for Best Food and Beverage Offering and PPA Members Brand of the Year. Managing Director John Trewhitt commented
"Everyone at Adverturelands is thrilled to have won these awards. We hope to make a visit to Adventurelands an enjoyable experience for adults as well as for children and our food and drink offering is the most important aspect of our business strategy. Together with our designers Rufus we have tried to create a powerful and consistent brand that communicates these messages in the north east of England. Therefore we are particularly delighted to receive national recognition through winning both of these award categories.”
Other winners included Rugrats and Half Pints from Banbury, who won Best New Site, Eddie Catz- Putney who won Best Site (under 12,000 sq ft) and Kidspace- Romford who won Best Site (over 12,000 sq ft).
Julie Brookes from Creepy Crawlies scooped Employee of the Year and Neil Scott the outgoing chair of the PPA, was presented with the ASPIRE Legend award for his contribution to the development of the PPA.
Mark and Jo McNulty from Hippodome, one of non members present was impressed by the event “I just wanted to congratulate you and the exec on last night's awards dinner. Not only was it a great networking event, but an excellent, well organised dinner. We've now seen and been impressed by the offering from the PPA and I've just completed the forms for membership.”
The indoor play sector is in its infancy and a number of higher quality sites have begun to dominate the market in recent years, underpinned by the PPA’s efforts to raise industry standards by implementing a Code of Practice. The PPA now represents over 100 operators and this figure is increasing all the time as the value of the benefits provided by the PPA becomes more apparent to operators.
The Awards for the Play Industry Recognising Excellence (ASPIRE) dinner also raised over £300 for the PPA's chosen charity Children in Need with an impromptu auction of the unique ASPIRE table decorations.
www.playproviders.org.uk