Incisive Media has enjoyed significant success in the 2023 Professional Publishers Association Next Gen Awards, with three fantastic members of staff from across the business joining the class of 2023 winners: Investment Week editor James Baxter-Derrington, marketing manager Ellie Harris, and event content manager Hayley Nicholson.

The PPA Next Gen Awards recognise an elite group of 30 rising stars in UK specialist media, voted for by a panel of media industry judges. The awards were previously known as the PPA 30 Under 30 Awards.

Incisive is the sole B2B publisher to achieve three wins at the 2023 awards, and joins an inner circle of consumer publishing giants including Bauer Media, Future and Immediate Media with a total of three 2023 wins to their name.

Incisive is part of the Arc network, a fast-growing B2B media and events business with global operations across the financial, agriculture, food, sustainability, HR and education sectors. Incisive’s stable of brands includes Investment Week and BusinessGreen.

The trio of wins are testament to Incisive’s ethos of supporting its people, encouraging and nurturing innovation, backed up by an open and transparent environment.

“I’m deeply proud of these wins for James, Ellie and Hayley,” said Arc Europe CEO Jonathon Whiteley. “They typify Incisive’s people: smart, motivated, with a deep sense of integrity, and reflect our approach of nurturing home-grown talent in a supportive and respectful environment.”

The winners of the 2023 PPA Next Gen Awards will be celebrated at a ceremony at the Mondrian Hotel in London’s Shoreditch on Thursday, October 12.

For more information about the PPA’s class of 2023 please go to https://www.ppanextgen.co.uk/awards2023/en/page/winners-2023

Incisive Media has continued its strong 2023 awards form with another five shortlisted entries at the 2023 Awards Awards and Conference and Events Awards.

Incisive made the cut in the Awards Event of the Year Over 600 Attendees category – for the Women in Insurance Awards – plus Best Development of an Existing Award for the CICM British Credit Awards, an Incisive Connect production.

The media owner has also been cited for the Investment Week Leaders Summit – which is in the running for Best New Conference up to 700 Attendees honours – and makes another entry in the Best UK Conference Award up to 1000 Attendees class for its flagship Net Zero Festival event.

Not wishing to be left out, Incisive’s events and events operations team are also shortlisted in the Best Events Team category. It adds up to Incisive’s best showing at these awards since 2021.

Incisive Media is owned by Arc network, the fast-growing B2B media and events business with global operations across the financial, agriculture, food, sustainability, HR and education sectors.

“I am thrilled that Incisive Media has been shortlisted for these awards,” said Arc Europe’s CEO Jonathon Whiteley. “And I am delighted that our team has received such richly-deserved recognition for all their hard work. It’s a powerful endorsement of our tenacious championing of diversity, plus of course the tremendous contribution made by our events team.

“These shortlisted entries are testament to the hard work and innovation that takes place across our business to deliver outstanding and meaningful events for our audiences.”

Incisive has strong form at these awards – the Women In Insurance Awards took best new awards honours in 2021, and the media owner also won the Awards Event of the Year category in 2022 with the Women in Tech Excellence Awards.

Arc Europe also features prominently in the shortlists of the 2023 PPA Awards and AOP Awards, with entries in a total of 10 categories across both awards programmes.

The 2023 Awards Awards and Conference and Events Awards take place on June 30 at Old Billingsgate in the City of London. For information go to conferenceawards.co.uk/about-us/

For more information about our shortlisted events see:

www.womenininsuranceawards.co.uk

www.cicmbritishcreditawards.com

event.investmentweek.co.uk/leaderssummit2023

www.netzerofestival.com

Incisive Media’s Professional Pensions brand has trailblazed the publisher’s return to large-scale events with its marquee events Professional Pensions Live and the UK Pensions Awards.

Both events took place at The Brewery in London on Tuesday, September 14 – the first time these two events have taken place in a live format since 2019.

Professional Pensions Live and the UK Pensions Awards are in the vanguard of Incisive Media’s programme of autumn events as the publisher taps into pent-up demand for hybrid face-to-face and digital events from its financial services, sustainability and technology sectors.

Professional Pensions Live returned to form with a multi-stream hybrid format hosted by broadcasters Nina Hossain and Declan Curry. A phalanx of high-quality speakers were led by pensions minister Guy Opperman and Charles Counsell, chief executive of the Pensions Regulator.

Keenly debated topics included the rollout of the pensions dashboard, the impact of climate change and the ever-changing world of pensions regulation. The conference attracted more than 450 delegates in person and digitally.

PP Live was followed in the evening by the UK Pensions Awards, also returning to The Brewery from a two-year hiatus. More than 500 guests attended the black-tie event, hosted by comedian Justin Moorhouse.

Feedback from delegates to PP Live was overwhelmingly positive, reflecting the pent-up demand to return to in-person networking events.

“It was a great event that really stimulated and informed,” said Lendlease UK Pension Trustee’s Alan Gander. His praise was echoed by HGCA Pension Plan Trustees director Gordon Bennett: “I thought it was a really good pensions event with an excellent selection of relevant breakout sessions to choose from.”

The managing director of Incisive Media’s financial bands Kevin Sinclair added: “We thought long and hard about running Professional Pensions Live as a hybrid in-person/digital event. The demand from our clients and audience was overwhelmingly positive and I’m delighted this was reflected in the number of delegates who attended.

“And it was thrilling to be able to celebrate the many successes in the pensions sector at the UK Pensions Awards in-person this year. The ceremony had a real buzz to it and the guests I spoke to were genuinely excited to be able to enjoy a live awards event again.”

Click here for more information about Professional Pensions Live.

Click her to see the winners of this year’s UK Pensions Awards.

Incisive Media has capped its run of form in this year’s media awards season with a further three shortlisted entries in the 2021 AOP Digital Publishing Awards.

Incisive has made the grade in the editor of the year category for BusinessGreen editor-in-chief James Murray, a best B2B online brand nomination for Computing, and a nod for digital event platform Deskflix in the best digital publishing innovation category.

These shortlistings cap a successful run of form for Incisive Media. The publisher has already enjoyed three shortlist mentions in the 2021 PPA Awards, where Computing and Deskflix are also shortlisted in the brand of the year and innovation of the year categories respectively. They are joined by BusinessGreen’s Net Zero Festival, which is in the running for event of the year honours.

Incisive Media has also made the cut in the 2021 Digiday Media Awards Europe, where it is shortlisted in the best virtual event and media brand of the year categories for the BusinessGreen Net Zero Festival and Computing respectively. And the business joins them in the publisher of the year category.

It has been a stellar year for Computing, which has already bagged the best B2B band honours at the 2021 Campaign Publishing Awards – as well as the three further shortlist mentions listed above.

“We are delighted to be shortlisted at these awards again this year, and for this recognition from our peers,” said CEO Jonathon Whiteley. “It was undoubtedly a challenging year and the range of categories we are shortlisted in demonstrates the resilience of the business in the face of Covid and the way we were able to accelerate innovation to continue to meet the needs of our audiences and partners.”

Incisive Media has strong form at the AOP Awards. Last year it won the B2B publisher of the year category for a record fifth time, and also took the honours in the employer excellence and digital editor of the year categories – the latter scooped by BusinessGreen’s James Murray, who is aiming to repeat the feat in 2021.

To find out more about the 2021 AOP Digital Publishing Awards please go to www.ukaop.org/awards2021/awards2021.

For more information about our shortlisted brands go to:

www.computing.co.uk

www.businessgreen.com

www.deskflix.computing.co.uk

netzerofestival.com/netzerofestival2021/en/page/home

Incisive Media’s flagship brand Computing has taken the B2B brand of the year honours at the 2021 Campaign Publishing Awards, fending off stiff opposition from the Financial Times and Travel Trade Gazette.

Computing serves the enterprise IT sector and is aimed at senior IT leaders. The brand capitalised on the surge in demand for tech services as a result of the Covid pandemic to deliver an impressive performance in 2020.

The Campaign Publishing Awards ran digitally for the second year, split into two segments across May 11 and 12.

The win follows Incisive Media’s twin successes at the 2020 Campaign Publishing Awards, where the publisher’s CRN brand took both the B2B commercial team and brand of the year gongs following an excellent performance in 2019.

“This is a real morale boost for the Computing team,” said Incisive Media’s technology division managing director Alan Loader. “The brand enjoyed strong growth for its demand generation, editorial intelligence and content creation services in 2020, and was able to pivot quickly to digital events. This was reflected in the brand’s excellent financial performance.”

The publisher’s run of form in this year’s media industry awards continues, with three more shortlisted entries in the Digiday Media Awards Europe.

BusinessGreen’s Net Zero Festival and Computing make the cut in the best virtual event and media brand of the year categories respectively. And Incisive Media joins them in the publisher of the year category.

Computing is also shortlisted in the 2021 Professional Publishers Association (PPA) awards’ brand of the year category. It is joined by shortlist nominations for the Net Zero Festival in the event of the year class and for Incisive’s digital event platform Deskflix in the innovation of the year category.

For more information about Incisive Media’s shortlisted brands go to:

www.computing.co.uk

www.businessgreen.com

www.netzerofestival.com

www.deskflix.computing.co.uk

To watch this year’s Campaign publishing awards go to www.campaignpublishingawards.com

Incisive Media’s run of form in this year’s media industry awards continues, with three more shortlisted entries in the Digiday Media Awards Europe.

This is the first time for several years that Incisive has entered Digiday’s pan-European awards, which honours the companies, technologies and campaigns that have modernised European media in the past year.

BusinessGreen’s Net Zero Festival and Computing make the cut in the best virtual event and media brand of the year categories respectively. And Incisive Media joins them in the publisher of the year category.

The publisher has already enjoyed three shortlist mentions at the 2021 Campaign Publishing Awards: B2B publisher of the year, B2B brand of the year – for Computing – and B2B event of the year for the BusinessGreen Net Zero Festival.

For the 2021 PPA Awards, Computing and BusinessGreen’s Net Zero Festival are again shortlisted in the brand of the year and event of the year categories respectively. They are joined by Incisive’s digital event platform Deskflix, which gets the nod in the innovation of the year category.

“We are delighted to be shortlisted at these awards again this year, and for this recognition from our peers,” said CEO Jonathon Whiteley. “It was undoubtedly a challenging year and the range of categories we are shortlisted in demonstrates the resilience of the business in the face of Covid and the way we were able to accelerate innovation to continue to meet the needs of our clients and audiences.”

Incisive enjoyed some success in last year’s media awards season. At the 2020 Campaign awards the publisher’s CRN brand took both the B2B commercial team and brand of the year gongs following an excellent performance in 2019. And Computing Delta secured the innovation of the year award at the 2020 PPA Awards.

The 2021 Digiday Media Awards Europe will take place digitally on June 10. For the full shortlist go to https://digiday.com/awards/

The 2021 Campaign publishing awards will take place digitally on May 11 and 12. For more information go to www.campaignpublishingawards.com.

The 2021 PPA Awards will also take place online on June 23. For more information go to www.ppaawards.co.uk

For more information about our shortlisted brands go to:

www.computing.co.uk

www.businessgreen.com

www.netzerofestival.com

www.deskflix.computing.co.uk

Incisive Media has performed strongly in the shortlists for the 2021 PPA Awards and Campaign Publishing Awards, with three shortlisted entries apiece.

Incisive has been shortlisted in the following categories at the Campaign awards: B2B publisher of the year, B2B brand of the year – for Computing – and B2B event of the year for BusinessGreen’s Net Zero Festival.

Computing and the Net Zero Festival also make the cut in the PPA Awards, shortlisted in the brand of the year and event of the year categories respectively. They are joined by Incisive’s digital event platform Deskflix, which gets the nod in the innovation of the year category.

The shortlist nominations reflect a stellar performance by Computing during 2020, and BusinessGreen’s brave decision to launch the Net Zero Festival in October 2020 in response to the postponement of the COP26 climate conference.

Deskflix’s inclusion is testimony to the success of the publisher’s rapid pivot to digital events, and the B2B publisher of the year nomination reflects the publisher’s dynamic response to the Covid epidemic.

“We are delighted to be shortlisted at these awards again this year, and for this recognition from our peers,” said CEO Jonathon Whiteley. “It was undoubtedly a challenging year and the range of categories we are shortlisted in demonstrates the resilience of the business in the face of Covid and the way we were able to accelerate innovation to continue to meet the needs of our clients and audiences.”

At the 2020 Campaign awards the publisher’s CRN brand took both the B2B commercial team and brand of the year gongs following an excellent performance in 2019. And Computing Delta secured the innovation of the year award at the 2020 PPA Awards.

The 2021 Campaign publishing awards will take place digitally on May 11 and 12. For more information go to www.campaignpublishingawards.com.

The 2021 PPA Awards will also take place online on June 23. For more information go to www.ppaawards.co.uk

For more information about our shortlisted brands go to:

www.computing.co.uk

www.businessgreen.com

www.netzerofestival.com

www.deskflix.computing.co.uk

On March 8, Incisive Media celebrates International Women’s Day and the progress we have made to promote diversity and inclusion in the industries we serve, and most importantly to highlight the progress still to make in the global #choosetochange mission.

When Incisive Media launched its first ‘Women in…’ awards for the asset and wealth management sector under the Investment Week brand in 2017, its success and the awards’ impact on the industry was unknown – but everyone who worked on the launch had great confidence in their ability to succeed and wanted to be part of the catalyst for change.

The awards proved to be a triumph and today are a staple of the campaign to recognise the achievements of women in industries where they are currently under-represented, and to honour the companies and individuals who help to support women in the workplace.

Four years on and Incisive Media’s ‘Women in’ series has grown to 12 awards and conferences across a multitude of business sectors including Finance, Technology, Accountancy, Law
and Insurance.

Two of our flagship awards – The Women in Investment Awards and Women in Tech Excellence Awards – open for nominations on March 8 as we continue to support the #choosetochange mission. Both awards saw a record number of entries in 2020 surpassing the 1000+ mark and we are confident of further success in 2021.

These awards are vital in helping to accelerate the pace of change towards more diverse and inclusive business sectors. They not only honour the inspiring achievements of women, they also help to shape the discussion around how we can improve diversity and inclusion within a sector and make a real impact.

Simone Broadhurst, Incisive Media’s managing director of events, says: “The #choosetochange mission has never been more important as we start to rebuild following the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is vital to make diversity and inclusion central to these plans. We are proud to support it.

“Incisive Media’s leverage of its ‘women in’ series of events ensures the business continues to be a fair and equitable place of work for all genders. Our early adoption of a flexible working culture gives our people the ability to effectively balance their professional and personal lives, and our Gender Pay Gap review is significantly below the national average. It is testament to the great efforts Incisive Media makes to ensure it is a fair place to work for everyone.”

International Women’s Day (March 8) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

For more information on our events please click on

Women in Investment Awards

Women in Tech Excellence awards

CRN, the leading news source for the UK IT Channel, has secured a nomination in the business information product of the year category. Business Green’s acclaimed editor-in-chief James Murray joins a sterling line-up for the editor of the year category, and Computing Delta – the new market intelligence service for CIOs and IT leaders – has scooped a much-deserved place on the innovation of the year shortlist.

Finally, after making waves throughout the event and media industry with their mission to become a truly sustainable business, Incisive Media has made the shortlist for sustainability initiative.

The four shortlist nominations highlight the enviable product portfolio, talent and strategic direction of the business and all entries firmly deserve their place as finalists.

“I am delighted to see us shortlisted in these categories at the PPA Awards 2020, because now really is the time to celebrate our dedicated employees and our market-leading products,” said Incisive Media CEO Jonathon Whiteley. “The nominations are testament to the hard work and innovation that takes place across our business to deliver outstanding services and journalism. To be nominated for sustainability initiative means so much as we are truly on a mission to become a fully sustainable business.”

The PPA Awards 2020 will take place as a virtual ceremony at 4:30 BST on June 30 instead of the usual gala dinner at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel. To see the full shortlist go to https://ppaawards.co.uk/2020/en/page/shortlist

Click on the following links for more information about Incisive Media’s shortlisted brands:

CRN

Business Green

Computing Delta

Incisive Media sustainability initiative

I remember it vividly. A sea of black and white and low humming voices, almost all were Caucasian… and male. This was the first awards industry event I attended 25 years ago and as it spread out in front of me, I felt how imposing, authoritative and unavailable it was to me. I did not belong, I was an imposter.

In many respects, business and society more generally have come a long way in the 25 years since then. The media industry, for example, has long had a reasonable gender balance in its workforce, albeit not always at the top. Incisive Media, where I’ve worked for the past twenty years, is as good as anyone in this regard. Our world is far from perfect, but it’s a veritable Heinz 57 compared to the industries we serve as a leading business to business media company.

In so many sectors, gender imbalance was just normal. Everyone accepted that men would hog all the senior roles and throughout their operation, there would be more men than women, not to mention more white faces than ethnic minorities.

It was no surprise, then, that business to business ‘Award Programmes’ brought out the worst in those organisations. They were meant to be a celebration of an industry’s crème de la crème, anointing stars and creating new heroes. Companies saw them as a key way of measuring standards in an industry or profession and well sought after recognition for companies, teams or individuals. They generally culminated in a glamorous gala dinner at a top venue, usually a big city, premium hotel. And, of course, they were – and still are – celebratory, boozy and great fun. However, they fundamentally ignored a large portion of unseen talent due to normalised business structures.

Shocking as this may sound, our predominantly female team would hold internal briefings about how to say ‘no’ to men who thought we were part of the entertainment. We would politely tell them to keep their hands to themselves, offer each other support and advice on how to be courteous but forceful, all the time being conscious that we also had to ensure we did not upset a client. One deliberate tactic was to be together in groups when dealing with drunk men, while helping them to get taxis home to their – no doubt – ignorant partners.

Even as I write this, I am staggered, and a little embarrassed, to say that we all accepted this as normal. Each and every female events professional from this time carries their own scars. It was unsaid, but all staff knew that clients had special dispensation and if they or their guests didn’t get too out of control or too lairy, we would let low level harassment slide. This was our standard.

Looking back over my career, I once had a boss that used to make me feel extremely uncomfortable, regularly breaking into personal space, constantly sharing obscene and derogatory jokes and comments, with his sport being to see how you reacted. Again, it was an accepted part of a young woman’s working life. Now being an awards judge across many programmes and having read thousands of awards entries, I can see that this experience was commonplace.

And then it changed. Like many, I did not know the name Harvey Weinstein, but when the story broke in 2017 and the #MeToo campaign gathered momentum, something clicked inside many working women, myself included.

I wasn’t alone and I noticed a sea change in attitude from female colleagues and industry contacts. Enough was enough, time to make a stand. I figured the only way this was going to genuinely change was to make sure the future was as representative for our daughters as it is for our sons. In many ways, I was lucky. Working in media provides a platform to influence and it became apparent very quickly that the standout method to deliver some semblance of equality was to showcase women’s talent, create female superstars, provide mentorship and build leaders that inspire.

Incisive Media has a large event portfolio and a ruthlessly efficient event production machine, the perfect engine to create the product to showcase the best that women have to offer. The ‘Women In’ award series was born.

One question needed to be answered, though: why make special awards for women? The counter-argument to a dedicated awards programme is that surely women should be compared equally to men? Aren’t these shows actually derogatory to women? These arguments were made by a few men and even some women. To be fair, this is why these award programmes were not prevalent a few years prior, but in my view, #MeToo changed everything.

Beyond the recognition an award win offers, my vision was to create a network for women within these industries and by launching the awards, highlight the lack of visibility these women have previously experienced. It was also important to provide a focus for changing attitudes in the workplace so that if your boss made crude jokes or advances, you did not have to get on-board or jump ship. Concept to launch in less than six months, the ‘Women in IT Excellence Awards’ and ‘Women in Investment Awards’ were born.

I’ve shared the history, the need, the positioning and the catalyst, but what about the recipe?

Many of you will know the delivery methods of running an award programme, so I won’t bore you with the detail. You know the drill. Launch 6-10 months out, gathering data, creating captivating content, mesmerising marketing and swift systems. Gain momentum and backing from industry bodies, gathering senior, independent judges and advocates, securing sponsors and having the confidence to commit to expensive contracts with multi-billion-pound hotel groups for a series of events which may not even get off the drawing board. Fly by the seat of your pants.

So, what did we learn? Timing was key. Gender diversity was a burgeoning topic in boardrooms across the country, so we had the need. We launched quickly and went for a major sponsor. HSBC Global Asset Management were approached for Women in Investment and it was immediately apparent that our targeting was accurate. Their desire and focus to make a difference matched our own, quickly coming to agreement on a deal, but not for a single year; this was a three year sponsorship deal, on a launch product. Unheard of.

Andy Clark, CEO of HSBC Global Asset Management, said: “HSBC GAM are delighted to partner with Investment Week and Women in Investment Awards. It really shows our partnership in terms of raising the debate in gender and diversity.”

Needless to say, the inaugural ‘Women in Investment Awards’ were an absolute, sure-fire hit. A complete sell out, a crackling atmosphere (of men and women), a visual rainbow across the audience, support for everyone, those on shortlists who didn’t win congratulating those who did. The precise opposite of my first industry event 25 years before.

We launched Women in IT Excellence and Women in Investment in 2017, then over the next two years: Women in Pensions, Women in Channel, Women in Financial Advice, Women in Protection, Women in Investment Italy and Women in Insurance. This year, we are launching Women in Law, Women in Accountancy & Finance and Women in Investment Spain.

Oh, then we decided to launch, Women in Tech Festival, Women in Investment Festival and Women in Insurance Live. It won’t surprise you that there are more to come.

These are the cumulative metrics for the award programmes since launch: 8,250 attendees, 375 judges, 10,879 nominations, 5,344 award entries, 106 sponsors and 94 industry partners. For recent awards ceremonies, we have measured our social drive, resulting in 115,000 impressions and 2,500 engagements through Twitter and LinkedIn for individual events.

And, most importantly, 360 winners and 145 highly commended winners. That’s 505 super talented standout women in our industries, empowered, acting as ‘taliswomen’ for their colleagues, clients, friends and family. Incisive Media is a better place for it too and as a business, is thrilled to have made such a difference to the industries and markets we serve. This tidal wave of female talent has such momentum now and while still a way to go, it’s unstoppable and business, as well as society, is better for it. More colourful, multi-dimensional, accepting and tolerant and far more agile and creative while equally determined and balanced.

And personally, I no longer feel an imposter. It’s only taken 25 years.

This is ‘the Women In’ awards recipe

Pre-launch (32 weeks):

Launch (26 weeks):

1st round of judging (16 weeks):

Judging day (12 weeks): This is followed up with a face to face judging meeting to decide the winners / highly commended.

The Awards (0 weeks): Delivery!

For more information about Incisive Media’s Women In events see the links following:

Women in Investment Festival

Women in Tech Excellence

Women in Pensions

Women in Channel

Women in Financial Advice

Women in Protection

Women in Insurance

Women in Law

Women in Accountancy & Finance

Women in Tech Festival

Women in Investment Festival

Women in Insurance Live