Rainbow Room International Annual Congress Awards

Scotland’s largest salon group, Rainbow Room International came together for their Annual Congress at the luxurious Airth Castle Hotel and Spa. Team members from Rainbow Room International’s 12 hair and beauty salons arrived at the spectacular venue for a day of inspirational presentations and challenges and an awards ceremony packed with recognition and rewards for many team members.

The day started with owner of the group, Alan Stewart, welcoming everyone to the congress. As they approach their 40th year in business, Alan spoke about Rainbow Room International’s vision for client retention and what all the salon teams can do to ensure their clients become lifelong clients. Alan then introduced Rainbow Room International Academy Director, Leigh Kerr to the stage, who presented an opportunity for the team. Leigh discussed a Swedish exchange whereby two assistants from Sweden would join the Rainbow Room International team and six of the Rainbow Room International assistants would have the opportunity to go to Sweden. Leigh’s presentation was followed by AJC93 PR providing the salons with a presentation on the highlights of the year, showcasing the best coverage from 2018 all showcased in a short, fun presentation.  Schwarzkopf General Manager, Julian Crane, introduced his team and spoke about the relationship between both companies and then introduced his colleague, Derek Wall, who presented ‘Change’, and how life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change – providing some inspiring advice to the Rainbow Room International teams.

Owner, Linda Stewart, then set the salons a challenge – to present their vision for 2019, complete their mission statement and mood board and how they planned to achieve this. After this inspiring presentation from the salons, Riccardo Corvi, Director of the Ayr Salon, presented a film highlighting the secret of the success of the Rainbow Room International top icons – Joy McQuillan, Pamela Wallance, Jacqueline Curran, Douglas Fortune and Louise Foxworthy, who are the highest earning stylists in the company. The film discussed how they have climbed the career ladder, retained clients and how they provide the ultimate service to their clients, whilst truly loving what they do.

Riccardo then went on to introduce the Rainbow Room International Artistic Team Directors, Suzie McGill and Dylan Brittain and their models to the stage. While they worked on the models hair they spoke about taking catwalk trends and bringing them into the salon and how colour is so important in order to complete a look and how it can be bespoke to each client and can’t be copied. Suzie then spoke about the uniqueness of the Rainbow Room International brand and how it provides continual training and development of each and every team member. Riccardo then introduced the rest of the Art Team onto the stage, Diana Carson, Yazmin McMail and Paddy McDougall, who worked on models with varying hair lengths. The younger members of the Art Team, Megan Deigan and Misha McLean, Summer Telford and Alijah Nerheim then joined them on the stage with their colourful models whose hair they cut and styled. All models then took to the catwalk showcasing their finished looks and their dressed hair inspired by the catwalk. It was a truly inspirational day for all the salons.

In the evening the teams and invited guests came together for the RRI Congress Awards. The awards include Assistant of the Year and Fantastic Hairdresser of the Year through to the sought after Salon Team of the Year award. This year the Salon of the Year Award went to the team at Uddingston who also scooped up a further five awards on the evening including Reception Team of the Year.

Uddingston Director, Suzie McGill, was joined on-stage by her entire salon team to collect the prestigious award from company directors, Alan and Linda Stewart, and was overjoyed, thanking Alan, Linda and the judges for recognising the team’s hard work throughout the year.

With the awards over and everyone happy, it was time for the party to begin with the team dancing the night away. A delighted Alan and Linda Stewart said:

Thank you to each and every one of you for a successful year. We believe in each individual member of our team, everyone is special and has the ability to constantly improve and develop. In 2019 we celebrate our 40th anniversary and we’re looking forward to another year of incredible success for the Rainbow Room International brand.

Rainbow Room International Congress Winners:

Assistant of the Year Level 2 - Joele Bolton, George Square

Assistant of the Year Level 3 - Freya Esson, Uddingston and Kenzie Carmichael, Bearsden

Achieving A Rating - The Team at Howard Street

Reception Team of the Year – Uddingston

Academy Trainer of the Year - Gabby Craig, The Academy at Howard Street

Creative Men’s Image Award - Diana Carson, Uddingston

Creative Image Award - Megan Deigan, Bearsden

Creative Collection - Diana Carson, Uddingston

Creative Team Collection – Uddingston

Social Media Award:

• Bronze – Reece Orr, The Academy at Howard Street
• Silver – Adele Quinn, Clarkston
• Gold – Stephanie Patrick, George Square

Fantastic Hairdresser of the Year - Adele Quinn, Clarkston

Caring Award – Ayr

Professional Role Model in Training - Tara Jack, Crow Road

Salon Team of the Year - Uddingston