During a week in which awards ceremonies have taken a bashing, National Meetings Week kicked off with the MIMA Awards, which championed the supply sector for its best practise in marketing. A packed auditorium at the Science Museum in Kensington, London, saw EVENTS:review’s host for the evening, Marketing Birmingham, pick up the first award of the evening for Best Print Advertising Campaign.

However, the star turn of the evening, aside from a neatly compered evening by Martin and Steve Lewis of Cat Publications, was the University of Nottingham Conference Services division which scooped both Best Use of Budget and, the true Oscar of the night, the Best Integrated Marketing Campaign. The campaign, titled Flexibility – which featured the classic seventies toy now have something of a renaissance – the Slinky, claimed to deliver a seven-and-a-half to one return on investment.

Other famous and less famous MIMA gong collectors are listed below:

Best Brand Marketing: Zibrant
Best Brochure - Destinations: Jersey Convention Bureau
Best Brochure - Intermediary: Hotel Brokers International
Best CD-Rom/DVD: VisitLondon
Best Direct Marketing: Hilton Hotels, London
Best Live Marketing Event: River Event Management
Best Print Advertising: Marketing Birmingham
Best web site: The Mermaid Conference & Events Centre

The awards were organised by Meetings and Incentive Travel magazine. For more information on the winners and losers visit the meetpie.com paddock.