With a month to go until entries close for the 2025 blooloop Innovation Awards, presented with AREA15, our judges highlight what they will be looking for this year and explain what makes these awards unique in the industry.
Philipp Edelmann, head of attractions at Netflix and an Innovation Award Judge in 2024 and 2025, says:
“It’s thrilling to see so much creativity and innovation in one place. Being a judge for the blooloop Innovation Awards gives me the opportunity to see cutting-edge technology in attraction design first-hand and to recognise some of the great visionaries of our industry.”
Edelmann adds he is specifically looking forward to “seeing fresh and unique concepts and technology being used to enable storytelling and fan joy.”
blooloop Innovation Awards validate creativity
Bart Kresa, founder of BARTKRESA design, and a Judge in 2024 and 2025, says: “The blooloop Innovation Awards are good because they validate creativity and hard work – they recognise the effort, originality, and problem-solving behind innovative ideas.”
Fellow judge Amanda Mayne, head of partnerships: international touring exhibitions at The British Museum, and a 2024 and 2025 Judge, says she is looking for “Projects that engage and reflect true audience impact, not just industry opinion.”
On the value of the awards, she says: “The blooloop Innovation awards highlight outstanding achievements, giving credit and credibility where it’s due, whilst motivating industry players to strive for higher standards in a competitive field.”
Sam BompasReading the entries to the blooloop Innovation Awards is a high adventure into the realms of imagination, creativity and ingenuity.
Sam Bompas, director of Bompas & Parr, and a 2024 and 2025 Innovation Award Judge, says: “Reading the entries to the blooloop Innovation Awards is a high adventure into the realms of imagination, creativity and ingenuity. Swashbuckling ideas and projects are rewarded amongst the brimming trenchers of our peers. The blooloop Innovation Awards is the shimmering crown of the year.”
Bompas also says he always wants to see “genuine world firsts and new typologies of experience! “
Judith Owens, chief executive at TBL International, says she is delighted to once again be part of the judging team for the blooloop innovation awards:
“At a time when creating memorial experiences is more important than ever, I look forward to seeing how submissions have used technology to bring the guest closer to the story, how they bring the narrative to life and strengthen the emotional connection.
“Our industry is at the forefront of emerging technologies, but it’s how we use technology to bring our visitors into our world and truly understand our stories where the real innovation lies.”
Why enter?
Michael Casper, vice president of business development at Area15, says the Awards are a great way for Area15 “to engage with the best and brightest in experiential entertainment,” adding it “gives us a first look at new experiences to see who we can work with.”
When it comes to previous winners, Brian Paiva, CEO of Octopus Design Studio, 1st place in the Creative Technology category in 2024, says:
“The blooloop Innovation Awards is the single best way (whether you win anything or not) that I have found to get your project, design and/or technology in front of the industry’s leading influencers and key decision makers. Period.”
“ACMI was very honoured to win the 2024 blooloop Innovation award for Immersive Experience – Culture for our Works of Nature exhibition, produced in collaboration with Marshmallow Laser Feast,” says Eloise Fryer, exhibitions co-ordinator at ACMI, which won 1st place in the Immersive Experience – Culture category in 2024.
“The standard of all the entries was very high, so we feel we were in excellent company, and the additional exposure the award has given this exhibition has been really gratifying.”
To find out more about the categories and entry process, please click here.
Enter the blooloop Innovation Award 2025 here. Entries close on 29 September 2025.
We thank our sponsors for 2025: AREA15, Christie, Lumdsen, Blue Telescope, Forrec, Holovis, SSA Group, and Museum Studio.
