Croke Park has picked up a prestigious international award for Best Product Innovation for their ground-breaking 50-Mile Menu at The Stadium Business Awards 2024 at Emirates Old Trafford.
Launched in 2023, Croke Park is changing the game by championing seasonally inspired and locally acquired food for meetings and events held at the venue, with carbon ‘foodprint’ scores and a new 50 Mile concept, making it easier for businesses to plan sustainable and environmentally conscious events.
Croke Park Meetings & Events source 85% of all produce from within the island of Ireland, with 70% grown or produced from within a 50-mile radius of the stadium, including Croke Park’s very own farm. This statistic inspired the multi-award-winning events team to develop the new menus, which serves to showcase local suppliers and give clients more choice and power when it comes to deciding how strong a sustainability focus they want their event to have.
Marie Smyth, Head of Venue Business at Croke Park said, “We are absolutely thrilled to win such a prestigious award amongst our peers internationally. We are always looking for ways to innovate and add to our sustainability journey. The 50-Mile Menu was very much part of this process, working closely with our catering partner Aramark, to ensure the offering was something that gave our clients choice across a broad range of catering that were sustainable, locally produced and, of course, delicious.”
“The final collection of menus is something we are very proud of and they have been very positively received by our clients. We are delighted that this innovation has been recognised by our international stadium business peers - it is a wonderful acknowledgement of the innovation and determination of our team at Croke Park.”
On the night, Croke Park was also in the running for the Venue of the Year and the Unsung Hero Award.
Now in their 15th year, TheStadiumBusiness Awards are the only awards to recognise a whole spectrum of achievements from across the global stadium industry.
The awards ceremony took place in front of an audience of senior industry figures at the end of the first day of The Stadium Business Summit 2024 conference, with the winners decided by the votes of a 19-strong, international expert #SBA24 Judging Panel.
For more, visit crokepark.ie/meetings-events.
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