Read about the Personality of the Year finalists

Read about the Personality of the Year finalists, the winner to be announced Friday 28th February 2020

With just a few weeks until the most unforgettable night in the events industry calendar, the M&IT Awards 2020.

We have spent the week shortlisting the Personality of the Year finalists and this year we have included our valued M&IT sponsors to decide on the winner based on the criteria below. So who do you think will be picking up this year’s prestigious award? Be there on the night to find out! Buy your tickets here.

Neil Harvey, Creative Director & Co-Founder – Blue Hat Teambuilding

Neil has led the way in the team building industry for over 20 years and has helped raise over £1m for various charities along with donations of time, clothing, useful items and auction prizes. A few examples;

• The Apprentice challenges teams to interact with local businesses and their personal contacts (just like on the TV show) to acquire items from a charities wish list.

• The Goodwill Quest poses checkpoint challenges in an area, the success at each is rewarded with IMPACTS that are good deeds done for people in need around the world.

• The Garden Challenge has helped renovate many elderly people’s gardens, plus create school sensory gardens and community allotments amongst other helpful projects.

• Building a Dream has teams building bikes for kids from scratch that are donated to local charities, schools and disadvantaged children.

• One World One Team is the team choosing toys and gifts for children of a specific demographic that are sent around the world to children in need.

• Blue Hat’s IMPACTS for points charity giving portal allows any of their team building activities to be turned into a give-back event by swapping points for meaningful IMPACTS

Martin Lewis, Former Managing Director of CAT Media

Martin Lewis has helped change the lives of many people worldwide. In the early days of CAT Publications, together with colleagues he set up the Meetings & Incentive Travel (M&IT) Awards. For many years this supported the charity Save The Children and helped raise more than £900,000 for children in desperate need of help.

In 2004 he co-founded the charity Meeting Needs – a charity dedicated to the events industry. It was run with minimum help to ensure that the majority of the funds raised reached those who needed it most. This initiative has raised more than £1 million and has helped 287 charities in the UK and 68 countries across the globe.

He is a reminder of the importance of giving back in our industry. He has run marathons, climbed mountains and supported many initiatives in order to get money raised. He’s visited some of the charities around the globe that he’s raised money for and seen the impact of real change and what it means to those who receive it.

He is a driving force for those who need it most.

Helen Moon, Managing Director & Founder – EventWell Ltd

In 2017 Helen founded the first Event Wellbeing Week for the Events Industry, the annual campaign that has led the event industry in having open forums and discussions on mental health and well-being, something that affects one in three event professionals every year. #EventWell20 will see Event Wellbeing Day added with Social Enterprise EventWell Ltd growing as the go to resource for mental health advice and support.

Helen has worked in the event industry for 23 years this year and has herself battled with depression and eventually diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. It is her own experiences that led her to start a Wellbeing Week for this industry. Initial research identified that 1 in 3 event professionals would experience mental ill health each year.

#EventWell20 aims to address mental health by asking the industry to sign the EventWell manifesto on Event Wellbeing Day and then work with EventWell and Time to Change for six months in the lead up to Event Wellbeing Week.

EventWell is a charitable social enterprise and not for profit. It will make a difference to people’s professional lives, and personal lives, and to be the voice of mental health and wellbeing in the events industry.

Michelle Rees, Head of Events – GLG Group

Michelle is a fabulous mentor, she lives and breathes events! In addition to her corporate role she is also a co-founder of the group Eventprofslive. Through this she has created a network of corporate event managers who get to experience new properties and suppliers with the group. The group also constantly share ideas, new ways of working and even any job opportunities. Michelle is the driving force behind the group and brings everyone together.

Michelle mentors both directly and indirectly. She set up a formal mentoring programme via the network she owns (Eventprofslive) and mentors additional people outside of the network as well. There are many people that have learned so much from her over the years and she is always happy to help with any problem or provide advice.

As well as running the mentoring programme, Michelle runs panel discussions on a variety of event related topics and is connected to every aspect of our industry.