Childcare Expo launched the Star Product Award in London earlier this month where show exhibitors were offered the opportunity to nominate a product or service from their range that they felt was a key resource for early years professionals.
A total of 38 companies took part with nominations ranging from clothing items, sanitising water, and wooden people to online logs, indoor climbing frames and online adult courses for Maths and English.
Visitors to the event embraced the awards and voted in their hundreds for their favourite innovation at the shows special voting station. All voters were also automatically entered into a prize draw for one lucky winner to receive a set of four jungle chairs from Fine Solutions.
After the show, the votes were counted to reveal in 3rd place was Hope Education with their ‘Bugs Life’, a home for spiders, bugs and other creepy crawlies designed to encourage young children’s interest in nature. Abigail Reed from Hope commented “we nominated Bugs Life for the award as we are aware it gets a lot of attention from both children and adults which was proven at Childcare Expo. Children enjoy the fun and intriguing side to it, whereas adults see it as an educational tool that also looks quite nice outdoors! It was also our competition prize at Childcare Expo, so one attendee will soon be finding out they have won their own Bugs Life!”
The Nursery Press Planning Books took 2nd place in the awards. The comprehensive set of six half termly planning books are designed to be all a childcare setting needs to produce an exciting, stimulating and creative learning environment. Liz Baker from The Nursery Press said “we are delighted to have come 2nd in the Star Product Award at Childcare Expo. This award is made all the more special because it was voted for by attendees of the exhibition – the people who work with the children on a daily basis.
“Our planning books were popular with everyone that visited our stand and their positive feedback was great to hear. They loved the fact that the books provided a stimulating learning environment without the need for expensive recourses. One nursery manager told us “You really have a unique product here, my staff will love it. It’s thinking of the ideas that’s so time consuming and it’s all here ready to go”.
The shinning winners of the Childcare Expo London 2015 Star Product Award were Cool Canvas with their child sized wooden Mud Kitchen designed to offer a unique outdoor environment for young children to develop the skills they need for learning and life.
Nicole Politis, Director of Portico Nursery Group was the lucky winner of Fine Solutions jungle chairs and voted for the Mud Kitchen. She commented “I voted for Cool Canvas to win as their stand was bright and colourful, I just wanted to go and play in the outdoor kitchen and touch everything. It was well built and designed; the materials used were good quality and very sturdy.”
Oliver Wotherspoon from Cool Canvas explained “Tamsin and I are so pleased to have won the Star Product Award. We’re just a small family business and this was our first time exhibiting at a large event. We didn’t know what to expect but the whole experience of meeting other exhibitors, chatting with visitors and having such a well organised platform to showcase our resources was excellent.
“We’re really pleased that the visitors voted our product, it means a lot to know that our passion in EYFS outdoor play has had this opportunity to shine and that it was so well liked. Thank you to all the team at Childcare Expo, the other exhibitors and all the visitors, we look forward to seeing you all next year with our secret garden stand in 2016!”
Childcare Expo will be returning to London on 4 & 5 March 2016 and its sister show Childcare Expo Midlands will be taking place later this year at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry on 25 & 26 September. To register you interest for these events please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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