The kbbreview Retail & Design Awards has received a record number of entries for its 2019 event, continuing the trend for year-on-year increases for over a decade.
Entries closed on November 22 and the judging process – unique to the event – has already begun.
In the design categories, the expert judging panel now reviews all the entries and scores them independently. This will reveal a shortlist of four in each category.
In January, all the finalists will come to London where they will each have the chance to present their projects to the judging panel in person.
In the retail categories, judges also shortlist via a scoring mechanism, and then visit each of the finalists in their showrooms to see the businesses up close for themselves.
And then, in the Product Innovation, categories, a panel of expert independent retailers will score the entries to reveal a shortlist which will then be put to the kbbreview retailer readership in a highly-controlled survey to choose the winners.
This is the first year the retailer panel has been used in this way.
“It’s another record year and I’m so delighted to see such a diverse range of projects, retailers and products,” said kbbreview editor Tim Wallace.
“It’s great that so many people have taken the time to enter and it shows the value that they attach to the kbbreview Retail & Design Awards.”
The winners will be revealed at a huge gala ceremony on April 4, 2019, at the Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. It is the first time the awards have been held outside of London or Birmingham in their current format.
“We’re celebrating 25 years in 2109 and what we wanted to do was hold the awards somewhere totally new – both in terms of geography and type of venue,” said kbbreview managing editor Andrew Davies. “We decided almost immediately that Manchester was the perfect place – it’s got a massive industrial heritage, a distinct personality and a vibrant and creative culture.
“And in the Victoria Warehouse we have a venue that embodies all those things.”
To book your seats and tables go to www.kbbreview.com/awards