Celebrating a great industry – the TTJ Awards 2018

A full house and a buzzing atmosphere at the 2018 TTJ Awards

On Friday we were lucky enough to attend the annual #TTJAwards, this year held at the Intercontinental Park Lane. With a greater capacity than in previous years, this was an excellent venue for the always well-attended event, which is surely one of the highlights of the year in this great industry.

A stunning menu by the Intercontinental for the TTJ Awards – delicious!

As ever the atmosphere was welcoming and warm, as old acquaintances caught up and new connections were made. It was heartening to see an apparent increase in the number of women in attendance too, which was also commented on by the speakers and is hopefully representative of some increase in the number of women emerging in the industry as a whole. The food was excellent (see the photos!) and the service impeccable, and then it was onto the speeches and awards.

Timber Trade Journal’s Editor in Chief Stephen Powney opened proceedings with a reminder that every industry needs to look after its people, and that a greater focus on wellness and health can only bring greater benefits for business and people alike. In early 2019 a conference around wellness in the built environment will explore this theme further, involving the excellent Wood for Good among other bodies, investigating how design can influence employee wellbeing and health development. You can find out more about the newly announced event here.

The awards were presented by the superb Jo Caulfield, who held the attention of the room completely and who struck the perfect balance between fun, entertainment and incisive observation – we won’t repeat any of those observations here, but she was an excellent speaker who definitely struck a few chords with the audience!

As ever the quality of the work and the dedication of those who were nominated and judged or

voted winners was really impressive, and we doff our collective caps to everyone on the day. It was particularly exciting to see some of the environmental and technological advances being made, giving us a glimpse of what might be possible in the future to boost sustainability.

As ever the TTJAwards were a brilliantly organised and very well attended event – apologies to the many people were weren’t able to say hello to on the day, but it was wonderful to see so many people enjoying the day and celebrating this great industry. Thanks to @Media10 for inviting us, and we look forward to another year working in this vibrant, creative and ever-evolving sector.