Business Simulations wins Government & Enterprise Award at International Serious Play Awards 2026

Cruise, the company's operational excellence business simulation, recognised for building strategic thinking and decision-making skills

For immediate release

27 August 2026, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Business Simulations has won the Government & Enterprise Award at the 2026 International Serious Play Awards for Cruise: The Operational Excellence Business Simulation. Cruise is the company's flagship simulation for building strategic decision-making skills using real-world scenarios and experiential learning.

'We're delighted to be recognised by the judges of this prestigious awards programme,' said Scott Thompson, managing director of Business Simulations. 'Cruise gives leadership teams a genuinely challenging space to practise the kind of high-pressure decision-making they face every day. This award is a genuine reflection of the lasting learning our whole team works so hard to deliver in our simulations.'

Cruise is an immersive, live and in-person learning experience that places participants in the role of a luxury cruise ship's senior leadership team. Over a simulated four-day Mediterranean voyage, teams command the ship using interconnected decisions on navigation, guest experience, crew morale, safety and profitability. Players build strategic thinking, collaboration and decision-making skills under pressure that carry directly back into their day-to-day roles. Like all of our simulations, Cruise is impactful because it creates psychological safety for experimentation and lasting learning.

The Government & Enterprise Award recognises the strongest simulation-based learning interventions built for workplace, leadership and public-sector training. This year's International Serious Play Awards attracted entries from 16 countries. The awards recognise exceptional gameful products that harness the power of play and games to advance education, training and meaningful real-world impact.

'The judging panel ran a genuinely thorough and thoughtful critique of Cruise, and it was a pleasure to demonstrate the simulation's strengths to them,' said Tom Parsons, head of client delivery at Business Simulations. 'Recognition like this from such a rigorous international panel means a great deal to the whole team behind Cruise.'

About the International Serious Play Awards

The International Serious Play Awards recognise exceptional learning interventions. Entrants stem from across the world, working in professional studios, in-house training teams, independent designers, university teams, nonprofits and student creators, spanning standalone simulations, modules within larger learning ecosystems, embodied and experiential learning, and immersive, technology-driven experiences.

The awards are presented at the Serious Play Conference, held annually across North America and Europe. For more information, visit seriousplayconf.com or view a full list of winners at seriousplayconf.com/awards-2026.

About Business Simulations

We deliver experiential leadership development for some of the world's leading and most ambitious organisations, many from the Fortune and FTSE 100. Through engaging, collaborative learning experiences, we help businesses unlock the full potential of their emerging talent, leaders and c-suite executives.

Our portfolio of immersive, live and in-person simulations includes learning experiences for collaboration, business and financial acumen, change management and high-performing teams. Our family of signature simulations is offered alongside tailor-made solutions that can be designed to replicate any business environment.