Leicester Conferences (the University of Leicester’s Conference Services) was celebrating in style after winning a coveted award at the MIMA (Meetings Industry Marketing Awards) 2008 awards ceremony which took place at the Landmark Hotel in London on 16th October 2008. The event was attended by the University’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Robert Burgess along with Frances Stone, Director of Residences, Catering and Conferences; Trevor Miller, Sales and Marketing Manager and 7 other members of the residential, catering and conference team.
In total, the awards attracted over 140 entries from more than 90 companies in the UK and overseas, all competing to win an award in several highly competitive categories including Best Brochure, Best PR Campaign, Best Use of Budget and Best Integrated Marketing Campaign.
Leicester Conferences won a bronze award in the ‘Best PR Campaign’ category for their PR campaign covering the TOGs (Terry’s Old Geezers/Gals) annual convention and calendar launch in 2007. The event was visited by Sir Terry Wogan and through widespread PR coverage Leicester Conferences managed to significantly raise the profile of the University and its conference services at a national level. The other finalists within the Best PR Campaign category were the Arena and Convention Centre Liverpool, the Barbican and De Vere Venues.
This year’s award builds on the success of the 2007 MIMA event where Leicester Conferences picked up a bronze award for ‘Best Use of Budget’
Commenting on the award event, Trevor Miller, Conference and Hospitality Sales and Marketing Manager said “We are absolutely delighted to win an award at this year’s MIMA event. We are particularly pleased to win in the Best PR Campaign section which is highly competitive and attracts some of the biggest names in the industry. My team work with a very small budget on a totally ‘in-house’ basis and do not rely on any external agencies to manage our marketing and PR strategy. As an academic venue competing in a highly competitive and commercial market we continually strive to raise our profile and awareness for the benefit of the University. It’s great to see the University of Leicester being put on the meetings industry map!”
