#YSAwards

Tonight was the 12th Sunday Mail Young Scot Awards - and what a night it was!

It was another incredible evening. We returned to the Crowne Plaza/Armadillo in Glasgow, with increased numbers for the dinner and even more guests and ticketholders for the Awards Show.

The theme for the event – codesigned by the Young Scot/SNH ReRoute panel – was young people and nature. There were real trees inside and on stage, bramble mocktails, stunning images of natural Scotland, a green carpet with glittery woodland nymphs on stilts and the sound of birdsong accompanying dinner!

The menu was codesigned by young people – Beef in Irn Bru anyone? – and our incredible Chair of the Judging Panel Bethany Wilson aged 17, delivered the Young Scot speech to over 500 guests. She rocked it. As did the Shining Stars Choir – young performers with additional support needs – who raised the roof with their infectious welcome song.

And then on the Awards themselves with our flawless host Edith Bowman. The stage was huge, the screens vast and with a resolution so pinsharp they were worthy of the Academy Awards – but none of it outshone our finalists and winners. Every single one an inspiration – moving the audience to laughter, tears and a desire to do more to support and champion our diverse young Scots. The winners were humble; uplifting and courageous – paying tribute to others and promising us they would use the honour to do even more.

Follow the hashtag #YSAwards on social to find links to videos for each of our finalists. My picture is one of our overall Young Scot of the Year 2017, Chelsea Cameron from Dundee, as she made her speech after scooping her Award - from my viewpoint on stage!

Add to all that sparkling performances from Glasgow rising stars 100 Fables and X-Factor finalist Emily Middlemas – who performed a sensational version of Uptown Funk with the Arts category winners the Ayoub Sisters – and it was a night to remember.

We were trending on Twitter in the UK by 6.30pm – and stayed there. We streamed the ceremony live on Facebook; created unique Snapchat filters and gave sneaky insights into what was happening backstage on Instagram. The GANTT chart created to schedule every social media post was a thing of terrifying beauty.

Tomorrow morning the team will be busy curating all of the content; editing videos; issuing local press releases and arranging interviews on radio and TV for our winners. Bacon butty and coffee runs will be plentiful, as will chocolate!

A heartfelt and huge thanks to so many people who help make it happen – from the Sunday Mail, Scottish Gas and all of our sponsors to the members of the Judging Panel. The Young Scot staff team have been relentless in their focus on making this the best night possible for the finalists and to sharing their stories to challenge stigma and celebrate young Scots. They have worked tirelessly and I couldn’t be more proud of them.

Shall we do it all again next year?