A Kenilworth events specialist which has diversified to help businesses communicate with their audiences throughout the pandemic is set to compete for a national award.

Jimmy Birchmore Events, based at Stoneleigh Park, is on the shortlist for the Best Rural Diversification Project in the Rural Business Awards after winning the Midlands regional final.

The award category, sponsored by leading property consultancy Fisher German which also sponsors the national final itself, recognises rural initiatives that have gone above and beyond to offer something different to its customers.

The company will now go head-to-head with other regional winners from across the UK in an online national final on Thursday, February 24.

Jimmy Birchmore Events, established in 2009, offers a fully integrated and complete event service, specialising in agriculture, environment, food chain and land-based sectors.

Despite being hit significantly by Covid-19, already losing eight months of work by the time the first Government lockdown was implemented in March 2020, the business looked for opportunities to adapt and innovate to support its clients.

It launched a virtual events service, offering clients everything from running enhanced webinars to large-scale virtual events, which involved a fully branded studio production and were attended by hundreds of people.

Jimmy Birchmore, owner of the business, said: "Covid-19 has put immense pressure on the events industry and I'm exceptionally proud of the team which has overcome the huge challenge we faced with a 99 per cent reduction of our usual live events for 18 months.

"But the whole team worked incredibly hard to research the needs of our clients who we would normally support with in-person events, take part in additional training and develop a whole new skill set to enable us to launch this arm of the business.

"Not only have we utilised and strengthened our audio-visual skills, we have also worked with trusted partners to deliver events in fully-branded studios.

"We have held a number of incredibly successful, high-quality virtual events which have enabled our clients to continue communicating with their audiences in a professional manner.

"We're now seeing an upswell in demand for in-person events once again which is excellent, but we will continue to innovate and adapt and are also looking at what elements of virtual events can be retained.

"Streaming virtual speakers and hosting a live question and answer session with them at a face-to-face event is not only possible, but very achievable, now we have the technology at our fingertips.

"We were delighted to win the the Best Rural Diversification Project Award for the Midlands which was testament to the hard work of the whole team, and we are now looking forward to the national finals. It is wonderful to receive this recognition from the industry."

Anna Collins, Molly Dickson and Louise Duffin, of Fisher German, are on the Rural Business Awards' judging panel.

David Merton, Head of Rural at Fisher German, said: "Jimmy Birchmore Events is a fantastic example of how truly important diversification can be.

"The business worked extremely hard to innovate and adapt during what has been an extremely difficult time for so many sectors, and the attitude of the whole team and what they have managed to achieve is incredibly inspiring."

Jimmy Birchmore Events' fellow category nominees are The Coo Shed in South Ayrshire, The Enbarr Foundation in Wales, Musgrove Willows in Somerset and Nettlecombe Farm on the Isle of Wight.

To find out more about Jimmy Birchmore Events, visit the website here.