ICC Birmingham Shows Off Its Skills For The Nickelodeon Fruit Shoot Skills Awards 2012

From ITCM:

ICC Birmingham shows off its skills for Nickelodeon

The International Convention Centre (ICC), Birmingham was heaving with excited children and parents as the venue played host to the Nickelodeon Fruit Shoot Skills Award.

Better known as “The Skillies,’ the awards recognise and celebrate talented young people from across the UK to prove just what can be achieved when you set your heart and mind to something. The event also included appearances from the likes of pop starlet Pixie Lott and performances from boyband Lawson, as well as and former X Factor contestant, Amelia Lilly.

Award categories included ‘Coolest Moves’, ‘Best Trick’, ‘Rising Music Star’ and the ‘Fruit Shoot Inspiration Award.’ The show was filmed by Nickelodeon and aired on the channel on Thursday 23rd August at 10am. The day kicked off with the pre-show Skills Activities party outside the ICC, where guests were given the opportunity to try and master various 'skill stations' themselves.

Snowboarding simulators, rock climbing walls, football keepy-uppy stands, basketball mini-clinics and street dance tutorials were just a few of the activities on offer for guests and members of the general public.

The public mall on the ground floor of the ICC was also used for pre-show entertainment with hosts SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick greeting the lucky 8000 ticket holders arriving to watch the live show.

A 15 metre wide by 12 metre deep stage for the performances was built from scratch in Hall 3, and over two thousands seats were laid out for audience members. To give guests a real concert experience, the venue events team built in two ‘mosh pit’ areas at either side of the stage, where selected children could stand and enjoy the show, with only a matter of metres between them and their favourite stars.

ICC Event Manager, Karen Payne was responsible for the show. She said: “This was the first time we have worked with Nickelodeon and everyone from our technical crew to our client hosts thoroughly enjoyed working on the event.

“Managing over 10,000 excited people at The ICC, whilst still being open to the public, was quite a challenge but we had a number of planning meetings with the Nickelodeon team so we were able to work together to make sure the day ran smoothly.

“The end result was exceptional; the transformation of Hall 3 was quite amazing and the whole feel and atmosphere when you walked into the hall was completely different to anything we have done before.

“Seeing all the children’s smiling faces and watching them enjoy the show definitely made the weeks of planning worthwhile.”

Peter Drake, VP, Creative Director Nickelodeon, said: “Nickelodeon’s Fruit Shoot Skills Awards was one of the biggest on the ground events we have staged in recent years and it was a fantastic success.”

The Skillies Awards are the third TV event the ICC has hosted this year. Earlier this year, the ICC Birmingham hosted the Birmingham Britain’s Got Talent auditions, which were filmed in the Hall 1 auditorium. In March, a Birmingham based TV station targeting British Asians, BritAsia TV, used the venue to hold a concert for Punjabi folk singer and poet, Satinder Sartaaj – an international superstar – for the Birmingham leg of his UK tour. The concert attracted 2,842 viewers, selling out on the night.