Earls Court & Olympia Group (EC&O) won two awards at the Association of Exhibition Organisers (AEO) Excellence Awards: Best Venue Event Management and Venue Employee of the Year.

Both Earls Court and Olympia were nominated for the same award. Olympia was awarded the highest accolade in the exhibition industry when the venue won the Best UK Venue Event Management award.

The Association of Exhibition Organisers (AEO) is the trade body representing companies that conceive, create, develop, manage, market, sponsor, supply or service trade exhibitions and consumer events. The AEO is the voice of the multi-billion pound exhibition industry both in the UK and, increasingly around the globe.

Debbie Law, Olympia Customer Services Director, received the award on behalf of her team: "I was absolutely bowled over when we won. We have now won it three times in five years and it goes to show that we are continuously raising the bar of customer service levels and the team have never become complacent, but always worked hard to beat customer expectations. We have a brilliant team at Olympia and I am delighted that they have received recognition from the industry for all their hard work. This award proves that Olympia and Earls Court are streets ahead of all other UK venues in our customer service ethos and I'm just sorry that we couldn't share the award."

Karl Morgan, Event Manager at Earls Court, was awarded Venue Employee of the Year: "I couldn't believe it when my name was announced. After the initial shock I'm delighted that people in the industry think so highly of me and appreciate the things I do. Being singled out as someone who deserves an award like this is a great honour."

The high levels of customer service at EC&O have been recognised by exhibition organisers. Independent research conducted across thirty-two exhibitions at both venues has shown that customer satisfaction levels for the first quarter of 2004 were 83 per cent for Olympia and 90 per cent for Earls Court, exceeding targets of 70 per cent. Fifty-one perfect 100 per cent scores were awarded for individual levels of service.

Two of EC&O's service partners were also recognised at the Excellence Awards as outstanding employees within the exhibition industry. Eamonn Crowe from Exhibition Traffic Management Services, and John Tinney from ISS Facility Services were both presented with the Industry Employee of the Year Award.

These two legendary London venues cover approximately 36 acres (15 hectares) with approximately 1 million square foot (98.720 sq metres) of indoor exhibition space. Olympia first opened in 1887 and Earls Court in 1938 and they have played a central role in the nation's trading and cultural development ever since. With 2.4 million visitors annually and 30,000 exhibitors, they are amongst the busiest venues in Europe. Half of all Londoners have visited one of EC&O's venues at least once over the past 5 years.