Brief
For the fifth year Story Events had the pleasure of working with leading fundraising platform, JustGiving to bring their 2023 Awards to life. Following a successful event at the Roundhouse the previous year, it felt right to host this incredible event back at this iconic venue. This meant the brief for 2023 was to make the event feel just as special but enhance the ‘best year yet’ feeling for everyone in attendance and for those watching the live stream. This meant a tailored approach to production and design, branding, content creation, menu development, and entertainment. We also needed to make sure those watching the live stream would still get to experience the full impact of this inspirational night.
Most importantly of all, we needed to create a spectacular evening in order to celebrate the 24 amazing finalists and their incredible fundraising achievements. New award categories this year included ‘Teen Fundraiser of the Year’ and ‘Community Hero of the Year’.
Delivery
Having the Roundhouse as the home for this year’s awards again meant we could develop the production and design even further with our trusted suppliers.
The look and feel of the event was celestial, featuring a huge glitterball sparkling from the centre of the iconic venue. We also organised light batons to frame the impressive stage set, glowing orb table centres and a light tunnel photobooth with branding.
Story Events worked with White Light on the stage set, production and live stream. We installed a huge LED wall showcasing the integral finalist films, as well as displaying live social media content throughout the evening. The evening was live-streamed on the JustGiving website allowing so many more to watch at home and celebrate the incredible efforts of the fundraisers. We oversaw all stage management with our dedicated show team, which ran flawlessly.
2023 saw the return of the brilliant LDN Showband to play live stings throughout the awards, as well as to close the evening with their set of first-class party tunes allowing guests to celebrate in style in this legendary gig venue. We hosted a VIP drinks reception for the headline sponsor, GoCardless on the Roundhouse balcony, boasting sweeping views of the whole room plus a delicious three-course menu provided by the wonderful Moving Venue for guests to enjoy between the awards.
We sourced the celebrity hosts and award presenters for the evening, working directly with agents and management teams. Matt Edmondson and Jamie Laing co-hosted this year brilliantly, whilst the award presenters included Ellie Simmonds, Angela Griffin, Dean McCullough and Rickie Haywood-Williams to name a few.
We installed two red-carpet step and repeat boards in the venue, meaning we had a dedicated area for all press photos on one board whilst guests were able to capture their own VIP photos on the second board. Once the final award was presented, Matt and Jamie closed the night with a huge round of applause for all the finalists and winners. Guests were then invited onto the dancefloor to close the night.
Result
The client was delighted with how brilliantly the evening ran, stating “How lucky are we to have found such an AMAZING events team who make everything so easy?! The night ran flawlessly, and I am so appreciative to have had you as an extension of us, to plan and execute an event that is so important to our mission and why we exist.” We are so privileged and honoured to have executed such a successful, inspirational event, one that we continue to be very proud to be a part of.
Photography by twobytwo
