“This year the quality of our entries was absolutely our best ever.” With those words David Murray, Awards chairman and publisher of The Business Magazine opened proceedings for the 18th annual Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards.
The glittering black tie event, held on November 15 at Reading’s Royal Berkshire Conference Centre, was attended by more than 340 top businessmen and women from across the region.
It was a night for celebration, not least for The Business Magazine itself which was marking 20 years of publishing, but also for the 46 finalists competing for top honours in eight different categories.
Technology specialists, catering companies and recruitment experts lined up alongside with manufacturing giants, charity groups and retail gurus as they all vied to take home one of the impressive trophies.
“Whether you walk out of here with first place or not, you should be delighted to be chosen as a finalist in this competition – and to be judged one of the very best businesses in the region,” Murray told the audience.
“All of you fly the flag for the Thames Valley – this great regional powerhouse of enterprise, entrepreneurialism and corporate endeavour.”
He paid a special thank you to the generosity and hard work of the sponsors – Pitmans, RBS, Deloitte, James Cowper, Hays, Pulsant and Grundon – and then handed over to the host Sky news anchor Martin Stanford.
He kept the audience entertained with stories of his rise from reporting the minor league football results for BBC Radio Oxford, through to covering some of the biggest ever news stories, including the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Hurricane Katrina, and the Israel-Lebanon conflict. Stanford later introduced guest of honour Hilary Devey, star of TV’s Dragon’s Den and an award-winning businesswoman and entrepreneur.
As the founder of Pall-Ex, she not only created a business network that now commands revenues of £100 million, but she also revolutionised the pallet distribution industry in the UK.
In a potted history of her career, Devey told how she had had to sell both her house and her car to finance her fledgling business, driven hundreds of miles and worked 20 hour days in order to succeed.
Sharing words of wisdom, she said: “Failure is not an option. Make sure you know your market and don’t be afraid to break the mould. Always try to differentiate yourself from competitors – your two USPs are your product or your service, and yourself.”
Devey also talked about the brilliance of the ideas and entrepreneurs who appear in front of the TV Dragons, adding: “I have seen such innovation in front of my eyes that it makes me believe this country is still great and still going forward.”
Although leaving Dragon’s Den, she will soon be fronting a new programme which helps disadvantaged youngsters work towards their dream job.
The chosen charity for the evening was Brain Tumour Research, which boosted its funds by over £2,600 from an envelope collection, with a magnum of champagne going to GE Healthcare – later an award winner itself – for the most generous donation from one table.
For full details and interviews with the winners, see the December/January issue of The Business Magazine.
Full details of the Business Awards winners can be found on The Business Awards website at www.businessawards.co.uk or on this site here. You can download images from the event here
Bath-based Future plc, the publisher of specialist online and print magazines, said trading in its…
The university of Bristol was one of six organisations to receive a contract from the…
Oxford BioDynamics Plc is teaming up with researchers at King's College London in a bid…
More than a quarter of a million extra construction workers are needed in the UK…
Kent-based housebuilder Vistry revealed it was on track to deliver more than 10% growth in…
A Dorset-based company, which has developed ground-breaking technology to recycle plastic waste and turn it…