A sell–out crowd of 500 people watched 16 awards presented at the ROCCO’s on Friday 18th Nov at the Normandy Hotel, Renfrew – the annual business awards of Renfrewshire Chamber.
The area’s premier business event, now in its thirteenth year was sponsored by Paisley 2021 for UK City of Culture. Chamber President Audrey Cumberford (Chief exec & Principal of West College Scotland) gave a warm welcome to the audience and highlighted the chambers successes in the last 12 months. She emphasised the opportunity for Renfrewshire with record investment planned via the Glasgow City Region City Deal and the potential of winning the City of Culture bid. Council Leader Mark Macmillan gave the main sponsor address and urged companies and individuals alike to hit the “back the bid” button via the 2021 website.
Paisley’s own megastar Paolo Nutini had a video message for the audience to encourage their support and the difference culture can make for young people was highlighted by Street Stuff’s Ben Milne & Mark Kerr. Rocco favourite Fred MacAulay hosted and was impressed by the performances of 3 piece girl group Loxi, Singer Lisa Kowalski and an energetic 2021 themed piece by Pace Theatre Co. The ROCCO raffle raised £8,000 for local charities and good causes with St Vincent’s Hospice and Street Stuff Culture Bus Project the main charities of the year.
Commenting on the awards, Chamber chief executive Bob Grant said “a huge thank you to all our sponsors, those who donated prizes for our raffle and a hearty congratulations to all the finalists and winners. Our 13th ROCCO was lucky for 16 winners and a great success. You can view all images on the chamber Facebook page and comments on #2016Rocco. I encourage all Rocco winners to utilise their win across their PR channels. Thank you to the entire Chamber team for all their work before and on the night to ensure our 500 guests had a great time. Special thanks to principle sponsor Paisley 2021, Diageo who supplied our drinks reception, Cameron Presentations & Gap TV for all the AV, The Printbrokers for the program, Gary from NS Design for the excellent social media coverage and Normandy Hotel for a tasty meal. Finally thanks to Loxi, Lisa Kowalski and Pace Theatre Co. for entertaining us so well. Planning for Rocco 2017 is already underway and we hope to see you enter and attend next year.”
