On Friday 12th November, hundreds of Portico people came together to celebrate the most magical event in our calendar, the Portico People Awards!

Held at the elegant Plaisterers Hall, the night was truly one to remember! And after 18 months of social distancing, furloughs, and perhaps too many lockdowns, this year’s theme ‘Together Again!’ was more important than ever before. There was delicious food, lots of dancing, catching up with colleagues and missed friends, and of course, the revel of our 15 award winners!

Our winners included teams and individuals across our entire business who have been true custodians of our values ‘Love, Immersive and Experience’ over the past 18 months. Each are truly inspiring, and all receiving heartfelt nominations around their natural desire to support their colleagues, guests, and clients, create unforgettable impressions, and going above and beyond every single day.

This year we created a new award category to recognise the challenges our people and teams faced during the pandemic – The Community Award. The community Award recognises those who went above and beyond to support their communities and charities during the pandemic. The Community award was presented to two individuals, Sean Hughes, and Deenesh Dabydoyal.


Sean’s Story:


During the pandemic and alongside work, Sean focused his energy into raising money for The Alzheimer’s Society by training for the London Marathon – a tiresome job, where he raised a total of £2,054!!


What Sean had to say about his win:

“Firstly, Congratulations to all the other nominees for the Community Award. You all did incredible work. I am delighted to have won as I hope it shines a light on the incredible work that the Alzheimer’s Society does. I’m now back in training for the Paris Marathon, stay tuned for updates!!”


Deenesh’s Story:


The second Community Award went to Deenesh. At the start of the pandemic, Deenesh was made redundant and become a vaccinator to support the nationwide roll-out. After finding a part-time role in Portico, Deenesh continued supporting the NHS. Despite not having a medical background, Deenesh assisted hundreds of team members across the UK.
To say ‘thank you’ for all his hard work during the pandemic, in May 2021, he was personally invited at No.10 by the Prime Minister for a ‘thank you’ reception. Deenesh was one of the highest vaccinators in the entire country!


What Deenesh had to say about his win:

“I am so honoured to have been at the Portico Awards, and so grateful to be the recipient of this award. This award also extends and promotes us all to do whatever we can to support, no matter how big or small. I was lucky to have been at the centre of the national plan to deliver the vaccine and able to use my skills to deliver a greater help by coaching teams, co-running micro projects and now part of the biggest vaccination project.”

With the many challenges our people have faced the past 18 months, we are thrilled to share our positive news by sharing links to our winners’ spotlights below. We hope you enjoy the read!

Our Winners and their stories: