Beardshaw Adds International Expertise on Return Visit to RVBIGS 09

Chris Beardshaw, award winning garden designer and Riffa Views’ Landscape and Gardens Ambassador, is back in Bahrain to add international expertise to the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show 2009 (RVBIGS 09) during his visit as Ambassador to the Show for the second consecutive year.

Chris arrived last Wednesday to oversee the final details of the set-up for the Riffa Views Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand. He will be attending all three days of the Show, with the aim of sharing his wide-ranging skills and experience alongside the many features that RVBIGS has to offer this year’s visitors.

Commenting as he toured the many stands on display at RVBIGS 09, he said “I am very enthused each time I return to Bahrain and see the progress that the Show is making. This time of the year sees the start of the major international garden and lifestyle show season and RVBIGS is ideally placed to continue to move forward and attain its aim of excelling on the international stage.”

Chris has been a driving force in the development of the Eden Challenge competition and is the Chairman of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge Adjudicating Panel that previously judged the four category winners, whose models have been built up as real life exhibits and are displayed on the Riffa Views Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand. With inputs from a number of areas, including the media’s rating, Chris along with Shaikha Maram bint Isa Al-Khalifa, Director of the BIGS Organising Committee, will judge and decide the 2009 Eden Challenge Overall Winning School.

Beardshaw sees the Eden Challenge competition as a very important element in the education of Bahrain’s younger generation, allowing them a greater understanding of and active involvement in their environment. Whilst the announcement will focus on the competition’s Overall Winner, he is keen to recognize all the schools who participated, “It is of particular importance to me that the efforts and skills of all students engaging with the Eden Challenge are celebrated, since these illustrate the extraordinary focus and talents of a generation on which there are increasing demands and expectations.”

The 2009 Eden Challenge Overall Winning School will be announced by Chris and Shaikha Maram on the Riffa Views Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand at 12 noon today – Saturday 18th of April. Students from all four category winning schools that are vying for the overall prize will be on the Stand for the announcement and are all very excited by the prospect of their school being awarded the top prize. The Overall Winning School will receive a cash prize of BD3,000 towards the school’s environmental resources and activities.

Following the announcement of the Overall Winning School, again on the Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand, Chris Beardshaw and Shaikha Maram will announce the winner of the Riffa Views’ award for ‘The Best Stand of RVBIGS 09’, together with the two runners-up. This award was introduced by Riffa Views at RVBIGS 2007, their first Show as Title Sponsor, with the aim of encouraging the exhibitors to strive each year for better stand designs and content. It is an initiative that has certainly worked as the standard of the Show’s exhibits has improved significantly and the award is very sought after by all exhibitors. In addition to the prestigious title of ‘Best Stand of RVBIGS 09’, the winning exhibitor will also receive a cash prize of USD5,000, with the 1st and 2nd runners-up exhibitors receiving cash prizes of USD3,000 and USD2,000 respectively
For Chris Beardshaw, the Bahrain International Garden Show has become an important and enjoyable focus for his undoubted talents. As he comments, “I have the good fortune to be involved in some of the top international garden and lifestyle exhibitions and shows around the world – after my visit to RVBIGS, I travel onto Japan for the Japanese International Garden Show and then back to the UK for the Chelsea Flower Show. All of these Shows are exceptional in their own right and RVBIGS is no different. I feel privileged to have an involvement with the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show, a unique exhibition and demonstration of the most focused and relevant individuals and businesses in this field of expertise.”

The core of RVBIGS gains strength

This year’s Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show (RVBIGS’09) has again attracted a wide range of global exhibitors, with confirmed international participants from Europe, the Far East, Africa and the Gulf region. This continuing international recognition and exposure is part of the long-term strategy adopted by the BIGS Organizing Committee, the Bahrain Exhibition & Convention Authority (BECA) and title sponsors, Riffa Views, to further establish BIGS on the international exhibition calendar.

As title sponsor of RVBIGS for the last three years and in keeping with its commitment to continually raise the profile of the Garden Show, each year Riffa Views has been introducing a wide range of new initiatives to augment the interest of an ever increasing number of visitors to the Show.

Following the success of last year’s Riffa Views Showcase of Local Arts and Crafts, Riffa Views will once again provide a platform at RVBIGS for an important area of Bahrain’s community, the agricultural sector. The Riffa Views Farmers’ Market will bring to life a traditional Bahraini farmers’ market and enable the local farmers and producers to display their produce, create an awareness of the importance of their contribution to Bahrain both historically and in the present-day and tempt the show’s visitors to experience ‘home-grown’ products at their best.

“In selecting the area of local agricultural expertise to showcase this year, we believe that we are not only paying a fitting tribute to a major part of Bahrain’s heritage but we are also showcasing a fascinating element of the island’s working community” commented Riffa Views’ CEO, Richard Browning.

Once again, the Riffa Views Eden Challenge environmental competition has proved a great success with the schools of Bahrain and RVBIGS’09 will see the four winning entries built up and displayed harmoniously on the Riffa Views Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand. In keeping with the overall theme of this year’s Garden Show – ‘water for life’ – and the competition’s underlying aims, the Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand will consist of a refinement of the “water conscious garden” of the Khawla Secondary Girls School, which won the secondary schools’ category of the competition.

A water sculpture in a water pond made of acrylic; a water mosaic that incorporates clay delmon seals produced by the pupils of Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School and a water-mobile that recycles water through a hydroponic garden; these are winning Eden Challenge projects that, together with the use of turf grass instead of real grass, demonstrate that a garden can be green and incorporate different kinds of water features without the need to use real water; and even when real water is used, there are efficient ways to use that water to support a garden.

Visitors to the Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand will be able to experience the enthusiasm and excitement of the school children from the four winning schools as they will be on hand throughout the three days of the Show to provide further information about their projects.

For the second consecutive year, Chris Beardshaw, Riffa Views Ambassador, will attend RVBIGS as both Ambassador to the Show and Chairman of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge adjudicating panel. Along with Shaikha Maram bint Isa Al-Khalifa, Director of the RVBIGS Organising Committee, Chris will judge the “Eden Challenge Overall Winner” which will be announced on the Eden Challenge Exhibits Stand at 12 mid-day on Saturday, April 18th. This announcement will be followed by the unveiling of the “Overall RVBIGS09 Winning Stand” for which the winning exhibitor will receive a monetary prize to recognize its efforts to continue and enhance the international quality of the Show’s exhibits.

Chris Beardshaw has developed a great affinity for what he regards as an internationally important garden show, “……. I feel privileged to have an involvement with the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show, a unique exhibition and demonstration of the most focused and relevant individuals and businesses in this field of expertise.”

As Riffa Views gets set for the final year of the development’s title sponsorship of BIGS, Richard Browning believes that the various initiatives brought to the Show by Riffa Views have contributed to “….strengthening the core of the Show, which is now strong enough to stand by its own. These initiatives have helped the Show grow in stature over the last three years to become a sustainable international event. We are looking forward to others building on this legacy in the future to ensure that it continues to grow, allowing the Bahrain International Garden Show to rank up next to the best of the international shows.”

The Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show 2009 will be held from April 17 to 19 under the gracious patronage of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, King of Bahrain and under the support of Her Highness Shaikha Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, wife of the King of Bahrain.

Khawla school takes top seniors spot in Riffa Views Eden Challenge

In the second of our profiles of the winning schools in the 2009 Riffa Views Eden Challenge, this week’s spotlight falls on the Khawla Secondary Girls School, winners of Category D – for senior students between 16 and 18 years of age. The Khawla School, founded in 1979 and currently ‘home’ to 917 students, came out on top against eight other schools in the secondary school category, all of whom were submitting detailed project designs for ‘water conscious gardens’.

The School’s Eden Challenge project team was selected based on those students showing most interest in participating in the Riffa Views Signature Estates organised schools’ environmental competition. According to the School’s Vice Principal and teachers, the girls on the Eden Challenge team worked incredibly hard to research the Challenge – using the internet and libraries, visiting gardens and plant nurseries all over the island to get ideas for their project.

And their efforts certainly came through, based on what the judges thought of the final project submission; Chris Beardshaw, Chairman of the judging panel, commenting that the judges viewed the Khawla School’s entry as “…. a well considered and well worked scheme that demonstrates a good understanding of the possibilities offered by a designed landscape. The incorporation of the Riffa Views Eden Challenge logo was well received, as was the level of detail and thought demonstrated in the model and associated works.”

Taking part in the Eden Challenge gave the students a great opportunity to learn more about plants and gardens and the environment. They were able to use this new appreciation in their project entry – a water conscious garden, demonstrating a space of beauty and energy where it is possible to enjoy and engage with the outdoor environment. In addition to including innovative water saving devices, the Khawla School students also considered safety aspects such as security exits, facilities for special needs people and the use of environmentally friendly natural products.

All of which found great favour with the Eden Challenge judges, “The standard of workmanship involved in the submission was highly praiseworthy and clearly this represented a significant investment of time and skills.” And not only with the judging panel, also with the rest of the School and the parents of the students taking part in the Challenge, who were all very supportive of the girls’ efforts and delighted to hear of the project’s success.

The School plan to use the category winning cash prize of BD1,000 to improve the School garden and add to the School’s environmental focus in the class-room. The School will also have the pleasure of seeing their entry turned into a real, live garden on the Eden Challenge stand at the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show 2009 (“RVBIGS 2009”) – the judges felt that “…..for the purposes of the Show, a section through the project entry design would be the best way of demonstrating the principles of water movement, use in the landscape and water conservation issues.”

And it won’t just be the design on display at RVBIGS 2009 – the School are looking forward to being as interactive and as creative as they can with visitors to the Eden Challenge stand and already have ideas of printing information flyers and having staff and students, all dressed in relevant costumes, present on the stand during the Show as a way of explaining more about their garden.

Richard Browning, CEO of Riffa Views Signature Estates, welcomes the School’s enthusiasm, “I think it’s great that the School want to be so involved with the stand. They are very proud of their winning entry and rightly so; their desire and commitment to share their garden and its ideas with visitors to the Eden Challenge stand are exactly the type of ongoing interest and commitment to the environment that we were hoping for when we established the Eden Challenge competition. We look forward to working closely with the students and the School at RVBIGS 2009.”

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