First Alcan Wansbeck Business Awards celebrate the 'change makers'

Nov 20 2007

MORE than 300 people attended the first ever Alcan Wansbeck Business Awards, which was was held in one of the new industrial units on Ashwood Business Park, Ashington, in September.

The black tie event – organised by the Wansbeck Business Forum with headline sponsorship from Alcan and Port of Blyth sponsoring the champagne drinks reception – was hosted by television personality Wendy Gibson.

Angela Steward, chair of the forum said: “This award ceremony lets us recognise and celebrate that Wansbeck has business at its very best within the district. This will be the first of many such events where we will showcase the huge talent, creativity and cutting edge developments within our business community.

“In fact, the event was designed to demonstrate to all that Wansbeck is a great place to be in business. The Forum’s vision is to harness the energy of the business community so that they can play a vital part in transforming Wansbeck – to be Change Makers.”

Go Wansbeck chairman, Brian Smith OBE, said: “The Wansbeck Business Forum is playing a vital role in Wansbeck and in supporting our programme. The attendance at this event shows how they have mobilised the business community.

“At Go Wansbeck we want to grow that community and we’re using the multi-million pound government funding to encourage existing businesses to expand and more people to start-up. I’m now looking forward to next year’s business awards with even more entries from more business sectors. This is a very exciting time to be in business in Wansbeck.”