Raccoon Events, organisers of the multi award-winning National Running Show, National Outdoor Expo, National Cycling Show and National Snow Show portfolio, alongside the Digital Outside & Active platform, has taken home two prestigious awards at the AEO Centenary Party Awards 2021 for Best Lockdown Initiative and the Best Consumer Show Activation.
The National Running Show’s Indoor Relay was a non-stop 24-7 indoor running relay and ran for 28 days – 682 hours featuring 452 runners, 16 running captains. The relay was streamed LIVE online 24 hours a day through a dedicated website to engage a wide range of runners to run for an hour from their homes/gardens for charity. After raising £43,337 for charities heavily impacted by COVID-19, smashing an original target of £10,000, the Indoor Relay signified the power of community and togetherness despite the lack of face-to-face events.
The Indoor Relay capped its phenomenal success by being awarded Best Lockdown Initiative at the AEO’s 100th Awards event.
Mike Seaman, CEO at Raccoon Events commented: “This was a fantastic initiative and something I was very proud to have been a part of. The National Running Show team worked so hard and did a phenomenal job, but the whole project was reliant on support from the community and companies that donated their time and money. The team captains were amazing and deserve a massive thank you, as do Darren from Vatu Website Design, Raoul from Flume Sales Training and the hundreds of people that gave up their time to run with us. Lockdown was a difficult time, and this project gave us something positive to focus on, that delivered meaningful change and made a helped a lot of people. I was blown away by the generosity of the running community and the outcome exceeded our wildest expectations.”
Raccoon’s already successful night was capped off by being awarded Best Consumer Show Activation for the Digital Outside & Active Festival, which welcomed 86,000 attendees globally across 8 days of how-to workshops, beginner 101s and community sessions focussing on the outdoor industry. The digital festival – which was the first Outside & Active initiative – brought the community together, encouraged them to ‘bring a friend’ and rode out the end of the third lockdown together. The Festival also provided informative and motivational content from famous faces including Ben Fogle, Roger Black, Anna McNuff, Susie Chan, Sean Conway and many more.
Matt Coyne, head of the Outside & Active platform commented: “Matt Coyne, head of the Outside & Active platform commented: “The overwhelming success of the Digital Festival exhibits the exciting potential that our Outside & Active platform possesses. During a period where outdoor lovers were unable to get their fix, we were able to produce an experience for this community, inspiring them to lead healthy, active and outdoor lifestyles. We have even more exciting developments to the platform over the next 18 months including the recent launch of its ecommerce solution and the launch of our brand new podcast in January.”
Raccoon looks forward to delivering 9 consumer shows next year spread across two continents, in a world which is excited for the return of face-to-face consumer events. These awards capture the essence of the Raccoon Events portfolio, bringing a community together to achieve the unachievable.