Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards

A lot can happen in 10 years. In Milton Keynes we had city status bestowed upon us, had a visit from His Royal Highness King Charles III, we hosted two major international sporting events, we saw the arrival of autonomous delivery robots and self-driving vehicles, and we’ve seen expansion and development on scale not seen since the new town was first built.

And across that same decade, the Milton Keynes Business Achievement Awards has firmly placed itself as the most prestigious business event within the city. The coveted awards were initially launched in 2013, with the first ceremony event held the following year, initiated as a collaboration between Interdirect and Milton Keynes Business Leaders Partnership.

The idea was to provide a platform to celebrate the thriving Milton Keynes business community by shining a light on the charities, sole traders, SMEs and blue-chip companies that make up the wide and varied business landscape across the region.

Each year, a team of dedicated staff from Interdirect and events company Evolution International work tirelessly to produce the event. At Interdirect, the planning starts just after the previous year’s event has finished. The team look after all organisational and communication aspects on the event from the website, PR and social media, through to managing entries, liaising with the venue, speaker arrangements, tables bookings and print media.

Account Manager, Kemi Sangowawa, has the seemingly impossible task of pulling all these event strands together and managing the team organising the event, which regularly attracts an audience of over 700 people. The aim is to always formulate a cross-channel strategy to encourage entries to the awards which cover 15 different sectors, as well as promoting the overall event to the Milton Keynes business community, making it a ‘must attend’ ceremony.

Over the last 10 years, a dynamic PR and social media plan has built strong relationships with key business media and the event sponsors, giving cohesive coverage across many platforms. The team also produce the on-the-night programme liaising with speakers, nominees, sponsors and the venue along with print media.