Razzamataz founder receives Lifetime Achievement Award

"I’m so proud how we have all worked together to continue to provide the Razzamataz experience to our customers via our online platform,” said Denise Hutton-Gosney

Denise Hutton-Gosney, MD and founder of Razzamataz Theatre Schools was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Club Hub UK online ceremony in May. She was among 15 award winners for 2020.

“I’m delighted to accept this award on behalf of my amazing head office team and wonderful principals,” said Denise. “This has certainly been a challenging few months but I’m so proud how we have all worked together to continue to provide the Razzamataz experience to our customers via our online platform.”

The judges were looking to honour someone for the Lifetime Achievement Award who had worked in the kid’s activity industry for more than 10 years and who has made a significant impact on hundreds of children’s lives. Razzamataz has provided children with unique experiences for more than 20 years and has seen former students go on to progress to exceptional careers.

Actress and performer Danielle Fiamanya who is currently starring in &Juliet in the West End said: “Razzamataz was the first theatre school I stepped into and I just wouldn’t be here without Denise and my scholarships at the school. Completely indebted to you.”

Echoing this is Ellis Fulton who now lives in Sydney, Australia, working as a health and safety manager on a construction site in Bondi. “Razzamataz was a place to have fun, sing, dance and push yourself to the limit. It taught me a lot about myself and I am very grateful I was part of it.”

Winners were selected from six finalists in each category, who had been shortlisted from a total of 1,019 applications, representing 388 kid’s activity businesses. The standard of finalists was extremely high and represented a diverse range of kid’s activities, clubs and related businesses.

The awards were independently judged by a panel of expert judges, most of whom are children’s activity professionals or specialists in their field. They selected the winners based on their commitment to excellence, innovation and growth of their business through their business performance, achievements, brand values and passion for what they do.

The event and award ceremony should have been held in Birmingham on 16 May but has been postponed until 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The event is designed to help kid’s activity providers to grow their business through insight and tips on social media, brand awareness, marketing, franchising, sales, customer service and everything involved in running a kid’s club. It’s a full-day event, including networking opportunities with hundreds of people from the sector from all over the UK.

“It’s such a tough time for all businesses at the moment, especially the kid’s activity providers sector,” said Tessa Robinson, founder and director of Club Hub UK. “I really wanted to help them and give them a little boost with this online event to announce the winners and enjoy their achievements on the day that we should have been together in Birmingham. Everyone was so supportive of each other, it felt like we were actually all in the same room.”