Top women in business urged to enter awards
Jul 9 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal
THE best businesswomen in the North East are being urged to compete for some of the most sought-after prizes in the business world.
The Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, run by the Women into the Network organisation from Durham, have been running for nine years now.
Such has been the success of the awards, last year’s presentation ceremony and dinner took place at The Sage Gateshead, with a phenomenal attendance of more than 700.
That makes the awards one of the biggest events of their kind in the whole of the UK, not just in the North East.
The overall sponsor is regional development agency One NorthEast, and other supporters include The Journal, South Tyneside Council, the Mailing House Group, Gateshead Council, Arts Council England North East, Northumberland County Council, University of Teesside, Solutions Recruitment and the Susan Dobson Memorial Fund.
Dorothy Kelly of One NorthEast said: “One NorthEast recognises the potential for women’s enterprise development to make a significant contribution to wealth creation in the North East.
“As a region we need to create between 18,000 and 22,000 new businesses between now and 2016. If this is to be achieved, we need more female entrepreneurs to create new business ventures to at least the level of male entrepreneurship.”
Last year’s winner of the night’s top award, the Susan Dobson Award for Entrepreneurship, was Nickie Gott who runs her own business, events company She’s Gott It! in Durham.
She was visibly overwhelmed to be chosen as the winner, saying: “It was the proudest moment of my career. I honestly could not believe it. It was like I was being given a huge pat on the back for all the hard work that my team and I had put in to the business.
“I was so emotional as I had one day wanted to win this and could not believe it was me.
“We had a big party to celebrate and invited all our clients. We have had a boost to sales as a result of the PR and the networking opportunities it has given me.”
We at nebusiness will be featuring all the awards categories over the coming weeks, with details of how to enter. The categories are Young Woman Entrepreneur, Woman in Retail, Woman Social Entrepreneur, Best Cultural and Creative Business, Rural Woman Entrepreneur, Woman in Technology or Innovation and Woman in the Service Sector.
To enter, go to www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk and click on the awards button on the homepage.
