Capital Business Media has announced a £500,000 investment into new events company The UK Business Events & Awards Company to develop a leading awards programme to reward business excellence and innovation.
The UK Business Events & Awards Company will further extend the reach of the Canary Wharf based full-service specialist media and information business which operates in the UK, Ireland and the US.
Established in 2004, the owners of Business Matters have nearly two decades of experience working with fast-growing businesses with a large portfolio of business related brands and EV Powered, a leading title in the fast-growing electric vehicle space.
The new company will run events for both CBM-led schemes, as well as for external clients such as Aston Martin. The first high profile awards scheme now open for entries is The Business Champion Awards designed to herald and celebrate the best of British business across the UK.
The Business Champion Awards has been shaped based on new research by CMB that reveals over 60% of SMEs find an awards win to be a positive driver for growth – but often cost and time investment made it restrictive for smaller businesses to enter.
Given these findings, the Awards will adopt a digital-first approach with all judging taking place over video call to minimise cost and time investment. The Awards will also be carbon neutral and allow businesses to focus on running their business by streamlining the process.
The Awards have twelve categories ranging from rewarding champions of innovation; sustainability; diversity; as well as individual awards for SME of the Year and Entrepreneur and Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Full category list here.
The judging panel is made up of a stellar line-up of UK business leaders including Phil Jones MBE, MD, Brother UK; Charlie Mullins OBE, CEO, Pimlico Plumbers; Alex Robson, CEO, West End Drinks; Dean Forbes, CEO Forterro; and Rune Sovendahl, co-founder Fantastic Services amongst many others.
The deadline for entries is Wednesday 15 December 2021, and winners will be announced at a glittering awards ceremony hosted by presenter Huw Edwards on 23 March 2022 in London, two years to the day since the UK was placed into Covid restrictions.
Richard Alvin, Group MD, Capital Business Media, said: ‘We know businesses love to be able to shout about awards, but often the process and time investment can put many off, particularly when they want to focus on trading. With the creation of The UK Business Events & Awards company, our ambition is to shake up how business awards and events are run.
‘Our approach is to create stand-out awards programmes that are progressive; innovative but most importantly don’t put up too many barriers for businesses to enter in the first place. We’ve seen some brilliant companies start up and not only survive but thrive against a challenging backdrop of the pandemic, supply chain issues, Brexit and the usual myriad of challenges that come with running a business.
‘Our hope is to continue to build and extend on the success of these first award programmes and in 2022 build out more schemes to become the biggest and most inclusive awards programmes in the country.’
In addition to the Business Champion Awards, EV Powered is also running its first awards scheme to celebrate and reward the UK’s fastest growing automotive sector with the finalists’ ceremony taking place 24 March, the day after the Business Champion Awards.