HIRE Association Europe Event Hire Association (HAE EHA) has confirmed this year’s Hire Awards of Excellence ceremony will be held virtually for the second year in a row.
The organisation said the decision had been taken following the success of last year’s digital ceremony and due to the ongoing uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
This year’s event will return to its traditional timeline of late spring, with the virtual awards ceremony set to be live streamed on Thursday 20th May. Entries for the 2021 awards are now open.
Two new categories have been added this year: Best HAE Member Covid-19 Response and Best EHA Member Covid-19 Response. These awards will honour the companies who have successfully adapted their businesses to meet the immediate challenges faced at the outset of the pandemic, those who implemented longer-term changes to working practices and those with new products and services specifically launched to tackle the virus.
Ann Harrison, HAE EHA’s group marketing and communications manager, said, “The entry and judging processes will remain the same for the Hire Awards of Excellence 2021. Entries will be expected to be of a similar standard as previous years. Given the turbulent year that we’ve all faced we’re expecting to see some real innovation coming through.
“Whilst we would love to bring our members and wider hire industry together to celebrate, with so much uncertainty still surrounding live events and large gatherings, we feel that holding the awards 2021 virtually is the most sensible decision at this stage. We’re confident that given the positive feedback we received for our first virtual awards in September where all our finalists engaged with the digital format that we can deliver another fantastic event. We had more than 50 companies watching online, plenty of attendee interaction during the live stream and the video of the ceremony has been viewed over 500 times via the link on our website.”
