For financial communicators, the IR Society’s awards is a major event in the corporate calendar.

On 24 November, the Best Practice Awards was hosted in the shadow of the Tower of London, the society’s logo projected up onto the walls of the castle. Outside of the venue, a few people with placards protested National Express’ presence at the awards due to its alleged infringement of US labour laws.

Companies that performed well on the night included Trifast, which won in two out of three categories, and BASF, which won in two categories and was highly commended in a third. Go-Ahead also won in two categories and National Express, which was nominated in three categories, received a highly commended recognition in ‘Best overall communication of company investment proposition: FTSE 250’.

‘Best newcomer to IR’ was won by Adam Phillips from Halfords Group, ‘Best IRO’ by David Walker from Hays and ‘Best overall company IR’ was won by AstraZeneca, who also won a highly commended award in the ‘Best digital reporting: FTSE 100’ category.

The awards were hosted by comedian Shappi Khorsandi and were introduced by Sue Scholes, chair of the Investor Relations Society. For the full list of winners visit the IR Society website.