There was much ego-boosting today (Friday) as the great and the good from the commercial conference industry gathered for The Conference Awards.

More than 500 event organisers, from 140 companies, turned up for the celebratory lunch at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster, London.

Amongst the winners were Terrapinn - Best Conference Team; GSMA - Best Large Scale Event; ExCeL - Best London Venue;  Incisive Media - Best Marketing Team;  Informa - Best Conference Launch and UBM which picked up two awards -  Best Operations Team and the Innovation Award. The award for Triumph in the Face of Adversity went to Concerto Live for the company's handling of the Festival of Media, in Valencia, which was interrupted by the volcanic ash cloud last year.

The awards were hosted by journalist, broadcaster and former Conservative cabinet minister Michael Portillo. Comedian Dominic Holland was on hand to entertain the audience at the half-way stage.

Claire Wormsley, co-founder of The Conference Awards, said:  “The quality and the quantity of entries was fantastic this year and we would like to extend our thanks to the judging panel who spent many hours reviewing the entries. There were some extremely close calls in many of the categories.”

There were 19 categories in total. A full list of winners will appear shortly at http://www.conferenceawards.co.uk/