With the industry swapping their show blacks for their black-tie attire for yet another year, the TPi Awards saw its largest attendance yet, with the Mondiale Technology Media team scanning a whopping 1,962 attendees through the doors. What’s more, this year saw the event reach an important milestone – 25 years. To mark our silver anniversary, the creative drew heavily from the theme, with disco balls and glitter aplenty.
The evening’s theatrics began as attendees approached Evolution London. Tucked in the middle of Battersea Park, the venue was given an exterior makeover with a temporary installation from Robe, special effects from BPM SFX, and vehicles from the fleets of TRUCKINGBY, Vans For Bands, Phoenix Bussing and ETL Logistics all on display.
This, however, was just the start; in true TPi fashion, once attendees entered the venue, they were treated to all-silver walkways, a plethora of mirrorballs, a spectacular lighting rig, and the largest number of LED panels ever seen at the annual event, as well as a standout comedy set from returning TPi Awards host and crowd favourite, Emmanuel Sonubi.
“This year was a very important year for the TPi Awards – our silver anniversary – and because we change our theme every year, we wanted to have fun with it and go all out,” began Commercial Director, Fran Begaj, who also celebrated an anniversary of her own, revelling in five years of organising the event. “Going from the silver theme, Charlie (Moore, Marketing & Events Assistant) made the connection between the mirrors on disco balls representing reflection, and with that in mind, we thought, what better theme than a disco ball extravaganza for our 25th year?”
Fran went on to explain that a lot of the inspiration for the awards comes through both the coverage from the magazine across the year, and the shows she visits, both as a punter and as a representative of TPi.
“At the beginning of last year, I attended a Teddy Swims concert, and there was a point during that show where fan-submitted videos were on the video screens, which led to us gathering footage from previous winners and images from our archive,” she recalled.
“Beyond inspiration, we always try to go bigger and better every year,” she added. “Somehow, we managed to succeed on that once again. We hit 1,962 attendees and had a waiting list for more. It’s incredible that nearly 2,000 people attended the awards, and that it has become a staple event for people in the industry calendar.”
Curating an event for the events industry, has its pressures as Fran elaborated: “For our suppliers and teams that work on the event, they are presenting their work in front of their peers. Fans at a show might not notice a pixel out of place, or a missed cue, but at the TPi Awards, they do. Our suppliers have to work so hard to make sure everything is perfect,” she said. “Our suppliers are a group who work in the best interests of the event, creating a really cohesive and collective environment.”
The team at GoTo Live, made up of Jess Webb and Ryan Esson, reflected on their role in the anniversary edition: “This year has been a very busy one; the pressure of the 25th anniversary meant everything had to be perfect, but our highlight was the amount of time we laughed with the team in the planning of this,” Webb commented. “We are a really good team, and with the amount of weird and wonderful things you come across in live events, sometimes you just have to have a good laugh.”
Esson added: “The awards have gone from strength to strength. The show gets bigger every year and in our debrief every year we ask how we’re going to top it, and somehow the team does,” he explained.
“I think people would be interested or impressed by how quickly the kit flies up, with such a large production build, we’re surprised every year that we pull it off!”
Coming together to achieve the feat was a dedicated collection of suppliers that included AED Group, Blackout, BPM SFX, Encore, NEXO, Observatory, PRG, Robe, Sennheiser, Showforce, Sound of Music, TRUCKINGBY and Visual Architects.
