Last night saw Xchangeteam crown Events category winner Sheena Hobbs Freelancer of the Year 2011. Freelancers working across the marketing, media and communications sector gathered at The Gallery – Soho to help us celebrate and reward freelance talent within the UK. Over a hundred people attended the Awards, now in their seventh year, to find out who would walk away with those coveted trophies. Guest speaker John Brazier, MD of PCG – the voice of freelancers in the UK made mention of the importance freelancers play in the marketplace and stressed how integral they are to a business.
There were six categories: Advertising & Design; Editorial; Events; Marketing; Digital Excellence and PR, Communications & Public Affairs. The quality of entry this year was once again incredibly high and it was no secret that the judges had a very hard time deciding on the winners.
Here are the results:
Advertising & Design
The highest entered category this year there were 53 nominations in total with 6 finalists.
Winner: Karen Cinnamon
Highly Commended: Andrew Heskins
Finalists: Serge Kelders
Bart Blazejewski
Joy Day
Rozalind Flanagan
Editorial
Another strong category there were 32 nominations from which 9 finalists were chosen.
Winner: Jo Murphy
Highly Commended: Clare Lynch
Lorna Slade
Finalists: Liz Warren
Briony Key
Graham Jarvis
Neil Cumins
Alison Harmer
Mel Dixon
Events
With 9 nominations overall there were 2 finalists.
Winner: Sheena Hobbs
Highly Commended: Krissy Regan
Marketing
With 13 nominations in all there were 4 finalists.
Winner: Jeremy Hay-Campbell
Highly Commended: Jayne Barr
Finalists: Tom Brumpton
Ruth Ashton
Digital Excellence
A growing category we had 13 nominations and 4 finalists chosen.
Winner: Ian Warn
Highly Commended: Karen Cinnamon
Jim Callender
Finalists: Andrew Heskins
PR, Communications & Public Affairs
This category had 43 nominations and standards were so high that an amazing 16 finalists were chosen.
Winner: Rachel Lankester
Highly Commended: Sharon Stewart
Stuart Brooks
Jeremy Hay-Campbell
Zoe Sobol
Finalists: Tom Brumpton
George Hayley
Sheena Hobbs
Anna Larkin
Georgina Elrington Firth
Jonathan Cross
Mark Collins
Hannah Tella
Suzi Christie
Ruth Ashton
Robert Minton-Taylor
Overall Freelancer of the Year 2011
All this year’s category winners were put forward into this category and the results were:
Winner: Sheena Hobbs
Highly Commended: Jo Murphy
Finalists: Karen Cinnamon
Jeremy Hay-Campbell
Ian Warn
Rachel Lankester
What a fantastic evening and one that wouldn’t have been nearly as good without the support of some fantastic people. A big thank you to our expert judges, our sponsors: Creativepool; EventExtra; Only Marketing Jobs and PRCA, and our media partners: Bristol Media; Crunch; Freelance Advisor and Freelance UK. Thank you too to Les Sinclair Global Synergies, Rene Andria The Gallery Soho, Graham Backhouse Soundcheck and Eric Woodhams Consortia Marketing.
We hope everyone who attended really enjoyed themselves and we look forward to seeing many more entries next year!
(Photographs will follow soon and be added to our Freelancer of the Year website)
