Four wins at the C&IT Awards 2026

The C&IT Awards are among the UK’s leading awards for the B2B events industry, celebrating outstanding work across corporate meetings, incentives, conferences and events. Recognising creativity, innovation, sustainability and strategic excellence across the industry, the 2026 awards saw Emota recognised across four categories:

• Brand Activation Excellence – Arup at 80
• Internal or Team-Building Event of the Year – Roche Conference UK 2026
• Conference of the Year – Roche Conference UK 2026
• Best Sustainable Initiative – AstraZeneca at ERS 2025

The four awards span very different experiences, from bringing an organisation together around a shared ambition to creating an immersive brand experience and challenging how sustainably a major congress presence can be delivered.

Two awards for Roche Conference UK 2026

Roche Conference UK 2026 picked up two awards, winning both Conference of the Year and Internal or Team-Building Event of the Year.

Bringing together Roche UK’s entire 380-strong workforce, the three-day experience was designed to turn the organisation’s 2030 ambition into something colleagues could understand, connect with and act on.

Created by Emota, with support from employee experience specialists Forty1, Driven by Why. Powered by Us. combined behaviour-change strategy with immersive experience design. Rather than relying on traditional conference formats, the programme put participation at its heart, using everything from immersive sessions and leadership conversations to team challenges and shared experiences to move people from understanding to action.

The results reflected that impact, with 98.9% of attendees understanding Roche’s 2030 ambition and why it matters, 97.8% understanding the organisational shifts required to achieve it and 91.1% feeling more connected to colleagues across the organisation.

Brand Activation Excellence for Arup at 80

Most milestone anniversaries look back. Arup at 80 was an opportunity to look forward.

Emota worked with Arup to turn the occasion into an immersive brand experience centred around one question: How can we design better futures for our cities?

Film, sound, live content and thought leadership came together within a four-storey immersive environment to create an evening designed to provoke conversation and strengthen connections with the Arup brand. Rather than simply celebrating the previous 80 years, the experience invited an audience of CEOs, policymakers and designers to consider the next 80.

Best Sustainable Initiative for AstraZeneca at ERS 2025

For AstraZeneca at ERS 2025, the ambition was to demonstrate sustainability through action, creating a major congress presence that could reduce environmental impact without compromising the quality of the experience.

Using Emota’s Enviroplan framework, sustainability was embedded from the outset, influencing decisions across design, materials, logistics and operations. From recyclable FSC-certified paperboard and reusable flooring to locally sourced planting and the elimination of single-use printed collateral, every material was selected with its end-of-life pathway in mind.

The approach resulted in an 82% reduction in production waste, a 56% reduction in production and waste carbon emissions, and 99% of materials being reused, repurposed or recycled, while still attracting 7,962 visitors across the congress.

Four awards, three brilliant partnerships

Behind each of these awards is a huge amount of collaboration between our teams, our clients and the partners who help bring these experiences to life.

A huge thank you to Arup, Roche and AstraZeneca for trusting us with the work, and to everyone who played a part in making these experiences happen.

And thank you to C&IT and the judges for the recognition. Congratulations to all of this year’s winners and nominees.