Liverpool creative events business Meet & Potato wins deal with Maritime UK to deliver its national awards ceremony. Tony McDonough reports

Meet & Potato has secured a new deal with Maritime UK that will see it deliver the industry body’s annual awards.

Based in Liverpool, Meet & Potato (M&P) already has extensive experience working with the maritime sector. For several years it has worked with Mersey Maritime to deliver its annual awards as well as a number of hybrid conferences.

In the summer Chris Shirling-Rooke left his role as chief executive of Mersey Maritime to become CEO at Maritime UK. Ruth Wood stepped up from head of commercial at Mersey Maritime to become its interim chief executive.

This new deal will see Meet & Potato become Maritime UK’s official event partner to support its future regional and national event strategy. It will reunite Chris Shirling-Rooke with founder and chief executive of M&P, Jon Kelly.

“Winning a new client is always fantastic, but winning a client following a number of years of recognition from previous events is particularly brilliant,” said Jon.

“Our production team is really excited to get going and to bring some M&P magic to Belfast (where the 2024 UK Maritime Awards will be held.”

Maritime UK is the collective voice of the maritime sector which supports more than 1m jobs, adds £49bn to the UK economy and facilitates 95% of UK global trade worth over £500bn a year. 

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Chris Shirling-Rooke added: “Our events are an opportunity to really celebrate our industry and everything that is achieved so we need to work with partners we really trust to translate that message and produce top class events that people talk about.

“We have no doubt that Meet & Potato are those people and we are looking forward to working with them.”