Kruger Cowne Awards 2019
13th December 2019
We are proud to announce the winners for the Kruger Cowne Awards 2019.
A new year (and decade) is almost upon us, and as the curtains draw to a close, we’ve taken time to look back at the incredible talent who have graced stages, to challenge and inspire audiences across the globe.
As a whole, we are incredibly grateful to be part of the Events Industry, where we can support businesses and individuals who are set to pave the way for 2020, and beyond.
With thousands of artists to choose from, it was no easy task to select our winners, and for our Speaker of the Year category, Elle Macpherson took the main award for 2019.
When we reflect on all of the talent that we work with and represent, we consider a great number of criteria. In terms of speech or performance these include; content, topic, relevance, delivery, audience interaction and time keeping. In terms of the speaker themselves we look at: reliability, ease to work with, flexibility, professionalism and commitment.
This year, Elle excelled in many of these criteria. Having taken a sabbatical from her public and keynote speaking for a while to focus on the development of her WelleCo business she came back with all guns blazing. The knowledge that she had gained from taking her wellness concept through to a multi-million dollar international business as a female entrepreneur set her in very good stead to undertake fascinating and valuable deliveries to audiences around the world. We have never witnessed such engagement with audiences, nor the amount of positive press coverage and social media that arose for the organisers for the events.
Throughout a really demanding schedule of bookings, Elle remained a pleasure to work with and dealt well, and obligingly, with a number of unforeseen things sprung on her at some of the events.
Strongest moment: Selling out every venue on a tour. Most touching moment: 11 year old girl coming to her after an event sobbing her eyes out saying that Elle is the greatest inspiration in her life. Weirdest moment: Elle rescuing our CEO Mark Cowne from a group of lovely slightly inebriated ladies who wanted to shave his beard off.
Elle is the most well-deserving recipient of this year’s award and we would have every confidence in recommending her for prestigious / blue chip events internationally that need a highly professional speaker on female entrepreneurialism, innovation, leadership, business development, marketing & branding, adversity, heart and wellness, mental health & wellbeing.
When you have a moment, take a look below to have a look at the other 30 category winners too, as well as our announcement for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The categories cover everything from Diversity & Equality to Health & Wellbeing; Education to Futurists; Sustainability to Technology and everything in between.
Speaker of the Year – Elle Macpherson
Lifetime Achievement Award – Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE
Diversity & Equality – Akala
Retail – Amanda Wakeley OBE
Architecture & Property – Arthur Kay
Adventure – Ben Fogle
Leadership – Sir Bob Geldof
Sport & Teamwork – Boris Becker
Futurist – Dave Stewart
Technology – David Rowan
Adversity – Emmanuel Jal
Fashion – Caroline Rush CBE
CSR – Gina Miller
Comedy – Hugh Dennis
Science, Education & Environment – Dr. Jane Goodall DBE
Business Development – Jochen Zeitz
Politics & World Affairs – John Simpson CBE
Philanthropy – Josh Littlejohn MBE
Music – Joss Stone
Author – Col Dame Kelly Holmes MBE (mil)
Marketing & Branding – Mark Borkowski
Hosts & Moderators – Naga Munchetty
Finance & Economics – Noreena Hertz
Customer Service – Oliver Peyton OBE
Security & Risk – Philip Baum
Travel & Tourism – Sir Richard Branson
Health & Wellbeing – Selene Nelson
Entrepreneur & Innovation – Sharmadean Reid MBE
HR & People Management – Steven Bartlett
Design & Manufacture – Tom Dixon OBE
Mental Health – Will Young