The best of Northern Ireland’s Public Relations practitioners gathered last night at Belfast’s Europa Hotel for the 2011 Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) PRide Awards.

The annual awards, which were hosted by UTV’s Paul Clark, celebrate the best PR and communications campaigns from the past year and the top professionals delivering them.

Major winners on the night were JPR who collected seven gold awards including Best Use of Social Media and Best Event and three silver awards, and Smarts collecting three gold awards and five silver awards. Holywood based Smarts claimed the gold award for Outstanding PR Consultancy while the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People (NICCY) won the top award as Outstanding In-House PR team.

Other gold award winners on the night were Victim Support NI, Coca Cola HBC NI, Weber Shandwick, Morrow Communications, Translink and Aiken PR. This year’s recipient of the CIPR NI’s Outstanding Contribution to PR Industry award was Lord John Laird, founder of JPR, while Deborah King from Stakeholder Communications won the Outstanding Young Communicator’s gold award.

The CIPR PRide Awards have grown in strength and stature, recognising public relations success and achievement in the nations and regions. With over 1000 entries UK wide this year, the CIPR PRide Awards is the only awards scheme which showcases the best PR work being carried out across the UK regions and nations and sets industry standards.

Ross Williamson, Chair of CIPR Northern Ireland said: “To win a CIPR PRide Award is a tremendous achievement and I congratulate all of this year’s Gold and Silver winners. A CIPR PRide Award is a seal of professionalism – it identifies, recognises and rewards the outstanding achievements and talents of those working in the PR industry in Northern Ireland.” 

There were over 114 entries in the Northern Ireland competition. The prestigious event was sponsored by PRWeek, Precise, Harrison Photography and Coca Cola.