The ProCon Leicestershire property and construction awards are being extended into 2021 to avoid uncertainty about the ceremony being able to be held this coming November.
The ProCon network had been due to celebrate its eighteenth annual awards with a gathering of 620 people on November 12, at Leicester City’s King Power Stadium to discover the best new local building projects.
But the very real possibility of such a large sell-out event being cancelled or postponed due to the coronavirus has prompted the ProCon board into skipping this year’s ceremony and instead working towards November 11, 2021.
ProCon chair Umesh Desai, from De Montfort University, said: “The importance of the health of our members, sponsors and guests at the ceremony has guided this decision.
“Despite lockdown restrictions gradually easing it is highly likely the need for social distancing will remain, especially indoors, and almost certainly preclude us being able to accommodate all the people we would wish to.
“ProCon member’s businesses and sponsors will be formulating and following their own guidance for their teams which might prevent them attending such events for some time. So we have taken the responsible course of action.”
Entrants who had already begun compiling their applications for this year can continue to do so. The window of eligibility will be extended and will now run for 30 months from January 2019 to July 2021.
Tickets for the awards ceremony sold out back in March and all ticket holders will be invited to retain their seats for November 2021 or return them for a refund. Further details will be provided to them.
The ProCon Awards were backed by three corporate sponsors.
They are Salus Approved Inspectors, Unique Window Systems and Vistry Partnerships. The Leicester Mercury is the awards’ media partner.
Umesh said: “Expanding the Awards into a 2020-2021 format will still enable great projects to receive recognition as finalists and the very best of them to win what will be very special awards.
“The 2021 awards ceremony will be particularly special and is now a date in next year’s calendar which the whole industry in Leicestershire and Rutland can look forward to.”
ProCon will now seek to provide an enhanced range of other online and offline events, as changes in rules and public health advice evolve during the summer, autumn and winter.
Umesh said: “We still want to connect our members with each other and to create the forums for that to happen.”
