4 minute read
Progressive Preschool Awards 2021
Thursday 11 November 2021, The Grosvenor House Hotel, London
THE GRAND REUNION!
The PPS Awards have become the accolades to strive for, with the Awards event itself one of the most exciting and vibrant in the country, bringing together the entire preschool product and retail sector for an afternoon of celebration. The PPS Awards recognise and celebrate excellence across both product and retail, with special awards also covering marketing and individual excellence. The winners are announced during a sumptuous afternoon event each November, in London, at what is an essential date in the calendar for suppliers and retailers across toy, nursery, gift, apparel, publishing, licensing and more.
The preschool sector is dynamic, innovative and vibrant and the PPS Awards reflect all of this and much more. Be a part of it! The PPS Awards are owned and organised by Max Publishing, publishers of Progressive Preschool Magazine and PreschoolNews.net.
The Progressive Preschool Awards is back!
Not that we ever went away… but the fun and frolics wasn’t quite as fun on a computer screen. We can’t wait to celebrate with the industry at a grand reunion on Thursday 11 November. Here’s what you need to action now:
ENTER!
Entry remains online this year, via our super-efficient entry portal. Simply head to the site, create your account in less than a minute and get entering. SUPPLIERS – you can nominate yourselves into all categories, including The Marketing Award. RETAILERS – you can nominate yourselves too – and we are sure you feel rightly proud of being on the high street right now. The deadline for entering the product categories is Friday 30 July 2021. For the special awards – including Best
Distributor, Marketing and Outstanding
Achievement – entries are open until Friday 6 August 2021. The Retail categories, meanwhile (both nomination and self-nomination), are open until Friday 13 August 2021.
JUDGE! Judging will take place in late July / early August. Retail buyers keen to be on the product judging panel should contact Rob Willis to register their interest.
BE THERE! Tickets and tables are being booked each week as the industry plans its first big party since you-know-what. All bookings are 100% refundable/deferrable should the event be altered due to outside forces, meaning you can book with complete confidence before tickets sell out. Head to www.Max-Tickets.net or contact a member of the team to get this organised.
Let’s celebrate this fantastic industry and all its achievements!
“We can’t wait for this year’s Progressive Preschool Awards to return to its physical format. Toy Fair is proud to continue to sponsor such a great event and with preschool products a key driver of the UK toy market, it’s important that we can come together as an industry to celebrate the preschool sector’s successes.”
Rebecca Deeming, public relations and events manager at the BTHA
“The Harrogate International Nursery Fair team is proud to sponsor the Progressive Preschool Awards and looks forward to attending what is always a very professional and well-polished event. This year will be particularly special, having not been able to meet up for so long – and will be just weeks after our show in October. It will be another great opportunity to meet up with industry colleagues and celebrate the best of what the nursery sector has to offer.”
Robert Anslow from Harrogate International Nursery Fair
“We believe it’s important that great products get recognition and are celebrated both within the trade as well as outside in consumer-focused awards and recognise that without the support of retailer displays it would be almost impossible to reach the end consumer in any meaningful way.”
Richard Bamforth, director of sales, DCUK
“We are so thrilled to have won the Best Department Store awards – it is so exciting to be able to share such good news in a year when things have been particularly tough for our shops. We are working so hard to make these categories stand out at John Lewis and we are seeing the reward in our current trade and customer feedback. To our suppliers – thank you for voting for us!”
Lisa Rutherford, nursery buyer, John Lewis and Partners
“We’ve always loved attending the Progressive Preschool Awards so it felt great just to be nominated among so many great online brands. When Character.com was announced as the winner we were absolutely thrilled.”
Stephen Hewitt, managing director, Character.com
“It’s fantastic to win recognition for all the hard work the whole preschool team at Argos have put in for the last 12 months. It’s especially exciting to win Best Mixed Category Retailer of Preschool Products for the second year running! It’s always so rewarding to be recognised by others within the industry and is testament to everyone’s hard work.”
Mark Whitehead, senior buyer, Sainsbury’s Argos
* Please note that The PPS Awards is a totally free to enter event *
Contact the team:
Jo Pilcher
jop@max-publishing.co.uk: Entry, judging, sponsorship.
Samantha Loveday
saml@max-publishing.co.uk: Entry, judging, general enquiries.
Katie Roberts-Mason
katierm@max-publishing.co.uk: Entry, judging.
Rob Willis
robw@max-publishing.co.uk: Anything and everything.
Lisa Bryant
lisa@bumppr.co.uk: PR and marketing.
