Background

The inaugural Star and St John’s Sports Awards were held in October 2008 to celebrate sport in South Yorkshire. As the city of Sport Sheffield was the ideal location to host this high profile regional event.

The glittering awards ceremony was attended by over 500 guests which were a mixture of amateur and professional sports personalities, including Olympic medallists that both live and train the region, amongst key professionals in the South Yorkshire business community.

The event organisers, Bravura Events Ltd, were appointed to co-ordinate the event and select the ideal venue. A central and accessible venue was required but due to the size of the event they were looking for a venue that had excellent experience in hosting large events. Ponds Forge Sheffield was chosen as the ideal venue to host the event due to its great reputation for conducting large scale events.  Ideally located from the motorway, the venue has great access; parking and can cater for over 1000 people in the International Hall. Ponds Forge fitted all the requirements and had the added value of an experience events team to help make sure that everything ran as smooth as possible.

Execution

The Start and St John’s Sports Awards were organised by Bravura Event Ltd who liaised with the events team at Ponds Forge. The organisers and the venue team were in constant contact and so when challenges occurred, for example, needing disabled access up onto the stage area or additional tables needing to be set up due to people accepting their invitation to attend the ceremony on the day, the events team at Ponds Forge were able to quickly and efficiently recommend a solution to the challenge.

The three course dinner included, Honey Roasted Salmon with a Thai Spiced Salad to start, a main course of Oven Baked Chicken Breast served on a bed of Wild Mushroom Risotto or Vegetable Gateau with Spaghetti and a Spicy Tomato Sauce. For dessert, a sugar crusted Crème Brulee which was followed by coffee.

The awards ceremony then commenced with the first set of awards being presented before the live band took to the stage to entertain the guests. The evening’s entertainment concluded with the presentation of the South Yorkshire Sports Personality of the Year to the regions Olympic medalist, sailor Paul Goodison.

Due to its central location, Ponds Forge is in walking distance to a number of hotels and excellent transport links meeting the needs of all the guests that attended the ceremony.

Verdict

To continue strengthening their excellent reputation for hosting large and spectacular events Ponds Forge needed to deliver an event exceeding the client’s expectations.

The awards ceremony received excellent feedback from guests that had attended, all of whom praised the organisers and the venue for providing them with a brilliant and enjoyable evening.

Katrina Bradshaw, Managing Director of Bravura Events Ltd commented, “Ponds Forge was second to none. The service we received was exceptional. The venue events team made you feel like it was a personal tailor made service and they were always thinking ahead making them very responsive and able to deal with any problem that arose. Being event organisers ourselves it is definitely a huge benefit to have a venue which works with you and helps you to make the event a success.”

“I would also like to highlight the catering, in so many venues when catering for quite a number of people the food and service isn’t always good but I must say Ponds Forge definitely have this covered. Fabulous! I would definitely recommend Ponds Forge to anyone wanting to put on a spectacular event.”

Enquire now for more information about the event possibilites at Ponds Forge Sheffield

Tel: 0870 121 3690
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