On Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st February, Smart Live worked alongside Smart Venues and Smart Hospitality to design, produce and cater for the prestigious Sunday Times Best Companies To Work For Awards at Battersea Evolution. The annual event celebrates 325 organisations placed on 4 lists published by The Sunday Times, and welcomed around 2,400 guests across two nights. The awards were hosted by well-known presenter Mark Durden-Smith, and founder and CEO of Best Companies, Jonathan Austin.

Both evenings followed the same format, with the first evening being dedicated to smaller corporate companies and the second for larger companies.

All guests enjoyed a champagne reception, a delicious 3-course dinner, stunning entertainment and a DJ and disco to round off the evening.

Both evenings kicked off at 7pm with a red carpet welcome and networking champagne reception, before a dramatic kabuki drop revealed the impressive main dining space and invited guests through to dinner.

Resident caterers, Smart Hospitality, delivered a seamless service to the large numbers they are well renowned for. For starters, guests enjoyed cured duck and fig terrine with apple and ginger jam and maple sliced toast. And for mains, Irish braised ox cheeks with horseradish creamed potato, bone marrow and sourdough crumb were shortly followed by a dessert of dark chocolate melting pudding with red berry compote, fior di latte ice cream and gingerbread crumble.

The awards took place after the delectable and highly anticipated dinner, and were followed by a DJ set from Benny Blanco and the All Stars until the early hours of the morning, all expertly executed with high-end AV production throughout the main area.

As always, Battersea Evolution provided a flexible space perfect for the event; the atrium was used for the reception area, complete with lounge furniture, a central bar and a Selfie Wall, while the 3,750m² main space was transformed to host the awards, dinner and the after-party.

If you’re looking for creative and experienced event management for your next event, visit the Smart Live website here. Alternatively, if you envision Battersea Evolution being the venue for your next event, and Smart Hospitality being the caterers, visit our venue website here.