The annual celebration of excellence in the north east call centre industry took place on Friday night at Rainton Meadows Arena, and some of the Quvu team were present to enjoy an evening of glitz, glamour and a good old fashioned party.
In keeping with the Oscars theme of the event, guests were made to feel like Hollywood royalty on entering the Arena with a walk up the red carpet and paparazzi style photographers either side snapping away as you wandered in for the 11th North East Contact Centre Awards.
The evening’s sponsors were ushered to the second floor to a large open balcony area where a drinks reception awaited with free glasses of champagne provided, while the vantage point provided a great birds-eye view of the venue in all its glory.
It was here we realised we’d walked straight past the photo booth located in the foyer area, so not wanting to waste an opportunity for a bit of light hearted fun we made our way down to get our photos taken complete with Oscars awards, masks and blue-lensed star sunglasses.
Soon after it was 7.15pm and time to take to the tables for the start of the ceremony. Being a sponsor the Quvu team were conveniently seated near the front with an excellent view of the stage, but by this time tummies were rumbling and everyone seemed more interested in when the food was coming out!
After a slight delay the food was on its way out from the hectic kitchen and on to our tables. In case you’re wondering, we know it was hectic because we could just about see through to the kitchen whenever the door swished open; hardly surprising given how many dinners the chefs had to cook!
Much to our satisfaction, we seen that the Quvu advert we took our in the evening’s programme was placed on one of the two middle pages, directly opposite the menu, which meant it was clearly visible all night across all tables.
The starter, game paté with peppery salad, went down well and left you wanting more so the main course, pork steak with apple and cider sauce with seasonal vegetables, went down even better. However, the highlight for us on the Quvu team was undoubtedly the dessert which came later during a comfort break – raspberry and champagne torte!
The ceremony then commenced and finally it was later Quvu and our Managing Director, Janni Thornton’s turn to be in the spotlight, presenting the seventh award of the evening – the Contact Centre Team of the Year, which was won by the recruitment team at More Than; so well done to them.
As the alcohol begun to take hold the disco came at just about the right time, with plenty of guests clearly in party mood and within good reason after 10 awards in total were handed out to winners from various companies including Virgin Money, Barclays, London & Country Mortgages and Sage.
It was a great evening for the Quvu team on the back of a good year for the business and a big thank you has to go to Sunderland Live and Sunderland City Council, for organising such a lavish evening.
