Barnsley College team wins Gold for a second year at The College Marketing Network’s national FE First Awards

@barnsleycollege team wins Gold for a second year @cmnoffice for their Gaia event @lukejerram

Barnsley College is celebrating after winning a Gold Award in the Events Management category at The College Marketing Network’s national FE First Awards 2019, an annual ceremony which rewards and celebrates the best in college marketing.

The College’s Marketing, Communications and PR team won the Gold award for their Gaia event. This award recognises the role of the team in organising high profile and important events for their college. The awards ceremony was held on Monday 30 November.

 Barnsley College hosted artist Luke Jerram’s Gaia. Measuring seven metres in diameter, Gaia was a replica of the Earth in miniature, created using 120dpi detailed imagery compiled from NASA’s Visible Earth series. The artwork is 1.8 million times smaller than the real Earth with each centimetre of the internally lit sculpture describing 18km of the Earth’s surface.  

Over 4,800 visitors from the local community flocked into Barnsley College’s Old Mill Lane campus to gaze at artist Luke Jerram’s Gaia. As a Gold Award winner, the College was commended for achieving its aims and SMART objectives, the research and planning carried out, good engagement, budget control and for the high quality execution of the Gaia event.

Yiannis Koursis, Principal and Chief Executive of Barnsley College, said: “We are very proud that our Marketing, Communications and PR team has won Gold at these prestigious awards.

“Our students are leading us in understanding what our responsibilities to our planet are and what that responsibility should look like. Gaia placed that understanding front and centre in our College community whilst enabling us to share the magic of the experience with Barnsley, as part of Barnsley Bright Lights programme.

“The College is part of the cultural heritage of Barnsley, with a commitment to enriching the local community through events, exhibitions and displays such as this, as well as our own talented pool of student artists. The Gold award is a testament to the hard work and skills of our staff.”  

Rachel Smith, Chief Executive of the College Marketing Network, added: “Congratulations to Barnsley College’s Marketing, Communications and PR team on their win in the FE First Awards 2020, a fantastic achievement in a year when we have had a huge response to the awards. The team has clearly worked incredibly hard on this original and inspiring event that was relevant to the target audience, effectively planned, carried out and evaluated. This award recognises their success.” 

In 2019, the College won the Gold Award in the Communications Campaign category for the #morethanacollege recruitment campaign and the Highly Commended Award in the Innovation and Creativity category for its Umbrella Magazine.