A night among the Stars
The Intelligent Instructor Awards - a gala event recognising and celebrating the achievements of the very best instructors, schools and suppliers within our training world
The Intelligent Instructor Awards in association with Pass N Go, took place on Sunday, 6th October and was a celebration of our industry and what a fantastic night of celebrations it turned out to be! Twenty awards were handed out to deserving winners, showcasing and rewarding the fantastic work within the driving instructor industry. From suppliers to driving schools, from the ten regional ADI winners to Christian Borchardt who was crowned the Intelligent Instructor ADI of the Year.
More than 230 guests attended, dressed up to nines, toasting talent, feasting on fantastic success stories. The evening kicked off with a welcome drinks reception where drinks were flowing and the giant Scalextric in operation. It was then on to the awards presentation, either side of some fine food. The live band kept the audience dancing until the early hours!
It topped off a great day and a fantastic year for our profession, with many very worthy winners and highly commended runners up. Congratulations to all of them, but also to a whole industry that continues to raise standards and expectations! A full set of winners can be found on our website.
Richard Storrs, founder of Intelligent Instructor was the host for the evening, ‘’To stand up on stage in front of the crème de la crème of the driver training industry was a real honour. We launched the awards this year to help reward the hard work going on within the industry, which often goes unnoticed. The independent set of judges who helped select our winners, are the new benchmark of success. We want the awards to help raise standards within the industry.’’
Dean Lowes, Operations Manager from Pass N Go was blown away by the amount of great work going on in the industry. ‘’It was so humbling to hand out awards to those companies and ADIs who go above and beyond to help learner drivers develop a skill which will stay with them forever. An amazing industry to be part of!’’
Lynne Barrie, Chairman of the ADINJC was there to celebrate and commented “I thoroughly enjoyed the awards in the evening, Intelligent Instructor put on a most professional and enjoyable event which lasted into the early hours. Congratulations to all the winners on the night and well done to Intelligent Instructor for this event, it was exceptional.”
The Awards raised money for Roadpeace, a fantastic national charity for road crash victims in the UK. A lottery for prizes that included a day’s yachting during Cowes Week in the Solent raised over £300.
The feedback we’ve had so far has been overwhelming with Shahzad Ali, CEO, Get Licensed saying “Perfectly executed event by Intelligent Instructor. It’s a great step to bring the industry together and innovate. Proud to be a part of this community”
We also spoke with Julia Malkin, joint winner of the Special Education Needs Provider, “To win that award for me was amazing. To stand up there on the stage with the winners and to be thought of as a winner – such things are rare for someone like me on the autistic spectrum. The fantastic atmosphere was electric! ”
Tri-Coaching Partnership picked up with the award for Professional Support Provider of the Year and we spoke with Managing Director Susan McCormack “We were so honoured to win this award. At Tri-Coaching we are here to serve. Our ethos is all about supporting individuals to reach their full potential – whether PDIs, ADIs, our wonderful trainers, other training providers or small businesses. To receive such a prestigious award as this makes it all worthwhile. Plus it was a great evening with so many familiar faces and equally so many people we hadn’t met before.”
The video of the Intelligent Instructor Awards is also now available and can be viewed here!
If you didn’t make it to the Awards this year, we’ll be releasing the 2020 date soon and it’ll be another not to be missed event!