New Award for In-House Magazine presented at summer dinner
In-House Magazine presented at summer dinner The new IBP award for ‘In-House Magazine of the Year’ was presented at the re-vamped IBP Summer Dinner which was held at the truly spectacular venue of the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London, on Thursday July 8.
Around 70 members and guests dined in the Macmillan Studio,where star ballerinas like Darcey Bussell and Sylvie Guillem normally rehearse their work for The Royal Ballet, and on a fine summer evening with panoramic views over London the company visibly enjoyed the evening.
Chief guest speaker was Jon Rouse, Chief Executive of the Housing Corporation, whose wide-ranging address entitled ‘Castles in the Air? Making sense of today’s housing market’ included a formidable analysis of the structure of the housing market and the conditions which have created the present state of it – possibly poised on the brink of a slowdown and soft landing or with the prospect of a sharp fall.
Mr. Rouse would not be drawn too far into that situation although he did confess to a degree of worry over land disposals by some house builders. His emphasis over the vagaries of the planning system also met a sympathetic response around the room. But it was the breadth and vision of his analysis that stood out and would have benefitted many more people in and around the housing industry had they had the opportunity to hear it.
Regrettably, although he appeared to be reading from a prepared script, Mr. Rouse declined to release it for publication. That speech was one of two highlights of the evening – the other was the presentation of the new award. This was introduced by Gerald Bowey, who said that while it was good to be able to display an award, certificate or trophy in a lobby,and while they can be regarded as a serious promotional tool, can they have a real impact on an organisation internally?
He said: “Wins can have a positive effect on bosses and employees alike in terms of morale, motivation and promotion. For instance, a recent survey of winners of The Queen’s Award for Enterprise -arguably one of the most prestigious of business awards – showed that 90 per cent of winning companies said that the award had given‘ a significant boost to staff morale and pride in their organisation’. Therefore IBP had made a good start to developing added value for its membership with the establishment of the new ‘In-House Magazine of the Year’ award for organisations’ internal and promotional magazines and newsletters.
“We aim to promote this initiative on a broader basis next year by encouraging additional categories, for example for membership publications produced as part of a subscription benefit.” Gerald Bowey thanked Building Design Partnership for hosting the pre-dinner reception, and to sponsors Art For Offices for hosting the launch of the award scheme last March. Finally he thanked Wordsearch and in particular Peter Murray who organised and chaired the panel of judges who included critics Stephen Bayley and Rowan Moore and IBP award-winning journalist, Marcus Fairs, who analysed the style, content and degree of innovation across all 25 entries and made the award for the best in writing, design and presentation of the winning ‘In-House’ journal.
Peter Murray then announced that the winning publication was Costain’s ‘Blueprint’ (see photograph). Three other publications – Wates’ ‘Teamtalk’, the Derwent Valley Newsletter and the BDP Review were highly commended by the panel as being of a very high standard. None of them, however,quite matched ‘Blueprint’. In closing the evening, new IBP President, Aaron Morby of ‘Construction News’, said he thought IBP had produced a brilliant new award, which had attracted a wide range of entries of an encouragingly high standard, and which would add to the reputation of the organisation as ‘more than just a network’ but an invaluable source of information and support for journalist and PR practitioners alike’.