Scotland’s Life Sciences Annual Awards & Dinner is the UK’s largest life sciences award show, celebrating the successes and achievements of Scotland’s internationally-renowned life sciences sector.
Now in their 18th year and wholly owned and managed by Speakeasy Productions, this year’s Awards took place at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel, the first time the event had been held in Glasgow for over a decade.
Sponsored by a raft of leading organisations including the University of Glasgow, GSK, Concept Life Sciences and Symbiosis Pharma, and attended by over 750 of the leading players in Scotland’s vibrant life sciences community, this year’s sold-out event included a drinks reception, a three-course meal and post-event networking activities to help guests break the ice and make new connections.
Paul Wheelhouse MSP, Minister for Energy, Business and Innovation presided over the awards ceremony with seven prestigious awards presented in areas including innovation, investment, business leadership and collaboration. Other highlights included a keynote address from Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak, Vice Principal and Head of College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow.
Working closely with key figures in Scotland’s life sciences community, we updated the 2018 award categories to better reflect the sector’s rising stars and global successes. We also assembled the judging panel; oversaw the nominations and judging process and filmed all 18 finalists in various locations across Scotland.
Speakeasy devised a national marketing and communications strategy featuring social media; a dedicated event app; e-communications and a programme of weekly guest blogs. Press activity played an important role and early on in the campaign we secured a high-level media partnership with The Scotsman resulting in editorial and advertising in both print and online editions.
Speakeasy produced the event from start to finish including content development; speaker and sponsor recruitment and management; venue management including menu selection; stage set design and technical management and full onsite logistics. Our team also created an impressive opening film; designed and produced the printed Awards programme and sourced a variety of fun and unusual networking activities to entice guests to stay on after the awards ceremony had ended.
83.5% of all guests who responded to our survey rated the event as either ‘excellent’ or ‘good’. Our host for the evening, Des Clarke, also scored highly with 80% of respondents rating him as ‘excellent’. One guest’s comment summed up the whole evening: “Great host, excellent speeches. Nice dinner. Great opportunities for interactions. Made me proud to be Scottish”.
