Winners of our top awards will be revealed tonight

May 1 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

THE biggest event in the region’s business calendar will tonight reveal the winners of the finals of the North East Business Awards.

The event at Hardwick Hall Hotel, near Sedgefield in County Durham, is presented by The Journal and our sister paper the Evening Gazette in Middlesbrough.

As always, we will see the best known faces in the business community gather together to celebrate their peers’ achievements.

The awards ceremony and dinner will be hosted by BBC presenter Wendy Gibson with an audience of 800 guests.

Our guest speaker this year will be the Rt Hon Nick Brown, the Minister for the North East, kindly joining us on the night of the local elections around the UK.

Companies from throughout the region will be battling it out to win one of 12 sector-based categories, as well as the prestigious overall title of Company of the Year.

The categories to be contested tonight are: small business; innovation; technology; internet and ICT; manufacturing; environment; corporate social responsibility; learning, training and skills; export; services; and cultural & creative business.

The company of the year award will be contested by Newcastle International Airport, the winner of the Tyneside & Northumberland heat; Garlands Call Centres, from Tees Valley; and Darchem Engineering, who triumphed in Durham and Wearside.

See tomorrow’s Journal for full details of this year’s winners in the North East Business Awards.