Birmingham Airport named headline sponsor of Midlands Media Awards

BIRMINGHAM Press Club has confirmed Birmingham Airport as the headline sponsor of this year’s Midlands Media Awards.

Paul Kehoe, the airport’s chief executive, said: “We’re delighted to be the main sponsor for this year’s Midlands Media Awards, celebrating the achievements of the region’s journalists, broadcasters, photographers and bloggers over the past 12 months.

“This is the ninth successive year we have supported the event and over that time, we have seen the standard get higher and higher. This year’s awards hold extra significance as the Birmingham Press Club celebrates its150th anniversary, which is a cause for celebration in itself.”

Entries are now being scrutinised by a panel of 50 professionals who will then submit a shortlist to the final judging panel under the chairmanship of Peter Lowe, managing editor of Sky News.

Press Club chairman Ed James said: “The awards, eagerly-awaited by those working in the region’s media industry, are a reflection of the tremendous achievements that are being made by those working in a profession which now seems to face fresh challenges almost daily.”

Lowe, who will be acting as chairman of the judging panel for the third year, said: “I feel very honoured to be asked back again.

“If the last two years are anything to go by, then the standard is likely to be even higher this time.  The bar just keeps being raised.”

The awards, with 22 categories ranging from Newspaper of the Year to Blogger of the Year, take place at The Holte Suite, Villa Park, on Thursday, September 10.

Former Birmingham Bull lands at clevercherry

BIRMINGHAM-based full-service agency, clevercherry has secured a first round draft pick with the appointment of former Birmingham Bulls and Berlin Thunder star James Brazier as client services director.
 
The 35-year-old (pictured) brings a wealth of sales and marketing experience to the agency, having worked across Europe and the US.
 
Brazier combined his passion for the sport with a marketing degree to manage media, web and marketing for Sports Travel Tours for four years, before relocating to Germany, where he managed commercial content for Germany, Poland and Russia at Booking.com.
 
He moved back to the UK following the birth of his first child, now four, spending two years working within a Midlands agency before joining the NEC Group to develop The Ticket Factory business.
 
Over the course of one year, he successfully brought in major new contracts from the Lawn Tennis Association, the London and National Pet Shows and Shropshire County Showground.
 
He said: “I’d already visited clevercherry and knew some of the team before I was approached and asked to join their ranks, and it was a very appealing opportunity. I love the pace of the agency, and the opportunity to work with a group of passionate, talented people in a buzzing environment was one I was keen to pursue.”
 

Tinson set for growth with new website

A NEW website has provided a boon to Shropshire training firm, Tinson Training.

The new portal has been designed by Shifnal-based Ascendancy Internet Marketing and replaces the one designed by Tinson managing director, Brian Tinson.

The new website is helping with the firm’s growth plan and it is on track to achieve 20% turnover growth compared with 2014.

“I have exceeded my expectations when I started out eight years ago. We are working with some great businesses, many of them household names and I am looking forward to growing and expanding the business in the years to come,” said Tinson.

Realising the existing website no longer gave a good representation of the current business, he opted to get the portal redesigned so it was more in line with the firm’s growth plan.

Tinson said: “It is that immediacy, the sense of engaging bespoke training delivered on site in a real world context that I wanted to capture and is what Ascendancy has delivered.”