Spring to Action Ltd

Ethnic Minority Business Awards

Have you booked your place yet?

Nottingham plays host to these unique awards which celebrate success of vibrant businesses, owned by ethnic minority businesspeople.

The awards take place on 17th September at the Nottingham Belfry and cost £50+VAT each.

The evening promises to be a success!

Enter Creme of Nature's Award

The shampoo manufacturers Creme of Nature are offering a £10,000 award to the most deserving African-Caribbean community organisation that works with women. Closing deadline is 28th February 2010.

You'll need to show:

• Evidence of need
• Communty benefit
• Your track record and expenditure
• How the £10,000 prize will make an 'outstanding' difference

For more information contact Creme of Nature on 0845 4500 581 or email them.  Good luck!

Derbyshire Enterprising Women Excellence Awards 2009

The Enterprising Women network has announced its latest event to celebrate excellence.  Perhaps you know a woman who has demonstrated enterprising skills and want to recognise it?  The deadline for applications is 1st June 2009, with the announcements of winners at an event at Eastwood Hall conference centre on 3rd July.

Categories include:

• Enterprising Business Woman of the Year
• Enterprising Woman in the Community
• Enterprising Woman with Determination

Find out how to enter and Join them at the Award Ceremony

Nominate an Extraordinary Women - and celebrate the achievements of women in your local community

Our friends at Smart Women are sponsoring one of the national 2009 Extraordinary Women Awards, set up to celebrate the achievements of women who have not been recognised before.

Nominations are now open for categories of:

• Extraordinary Entrepreneurship
• Extraordinary Personal Contribution
• Extraordinary Personal Endeavour
• Extraordinary Achievement in an Organisation
• Extraordinary Young Woman

The most outstanding woman from the above categories will also win the Extraordinary Woman of the Year 2009. 

So if you know a woman who has achieved something out of the ordinary, why not nominate her for one of these awards?

Nominations must be in by Saturday 14th February 2009. 

The Awards Ceremony and Conference will take place at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham on Thursday 21st April 2009 where four great speakers will entertain, amuse and inform us and the 2009 Extraordinary Women Awards will be presented.  You can book your tickets online too.

Kate

Points mean Prizes

So, the Olympics have begun. 16 days or so of sporting prowess (hopefully at least some of this will come from British sportsmen and women).  For at least those 16 days I constantly feel guilty that I should be doing some sport, but I can't argue about how inspiring it all is.

In the business world, it too is Awards season.  I'm not entirely sure there is a season actually, there seems to be a constant flow of new awards you can apply for. I still haven't decided how relevant I think they are to businesses, perhaps some more than others.  After all, there can't be too much science involved - how do you judge if one business is 'better' than another?  This is particuarly true as different sectors have different growth rates.

Regardless, awards will still continue, no matter what I do or don't think. It's hard to discount their marketing potential - particuarly when they are local ceremonies and you're selling to local customers.  A full page colour picture of the team with a big award in the local newspaper is pretty good PR. When I've judged these competitions the decision often has to be based on the strength of what people have submitted with their application.  Sometimes these are followed up with a site visit or interview to get abit more information.  What we did find though, is that some companies were discounted simply because they didn't give us enough information to make a decent judgement.

There is a kind of art to the entry form. Unlike the usual British reserve, you really do need to sell yourself and shout from the rooftops.

The new-er kid on the block is Women of the Future Awards, celebrating young women of outstanding talent and potential, across nine different awards categories. The deadline for Women of the Future nominations is Friday September 5, 2008. Categories are:

• Business Corporate
• The Professions
• Art and Culture
• Science and Technology
• Entrepreneur
• Media Award
• The Mentor Award
• The Woman of the Future Voluntary Award
• The Woman of the Future Corporate Award

Meanwhile, I will return to my Olympic-watching (not exercise-doing). Who knows, perhaps next year we might enter ourselves for some award or other, when I've decided what I think of them.

Kate

UK Catalyst Awards

Catalyst are looking for inspiring stories of people who use social technology to help their community in a new Awards scheme.  They're particularly interested in communities doing things for themselves, in new and exciting ways.  Examples could be: the environment, education, skills, health and community cohesion.

Apart from speading your message to the wider community you'd be able to pitch your idea to an esteemed panel, including the likes of UnLtd (the folks who helped us get started).  There's also a rather lovely awards ceremony where you can celebrate your success.

Categories include:

• The Shock for Good Award
• The Self-Help Award
• The Young Achiever Award
• The Community Award
• The Enterprise Award
• and much more

The closing date for entries is the 16th June, so get your thinking caps on!  Enter here

Let us know how you get on, and remember to spread the message, it sounds like a fantastic Awards idea.

Kate

Rewarding Inspirational Women Entrepreneurs

Prowess has just announced their awards categories for 2008.  If you haven't heard of Prowess before, they support women's enterprise development nationwide and have impressive credentials.  They have an excellent annual conference, which is abit of 'who's who' of female entrepreneurs and new businesses.  An great networking opportunity en masse, I've heard many stories of how its the best conference people attend all year.

But back to the awards.  They vary in nature, from celebrating the 'Inspirational Business Mum' to 'Business Mentor of the Year'. If you've been inspired by someone, this is a great chance to recognise them for their work.  The closing date for nominations is 11th April 2008.

Good luck to everyone.

Kate

East Midlands Women of Worth Awards

Has your female-owned business acheived success in the past year?  Do you want to celebrate that success with other businesses and become an inspiration to other women in the area?  The East Midlands Women of Worth Awards has 3 categories you can enter:

1. Business Women of the Year

2. Best Young Business of the Year

3. Most innovative Business

Find out more or nominate yourself - and let us know how you get on!  The application deadline is Monday 4th February 2008.

The Awards Ceremony is taking place on 6th March 2008 at Pride Park, Derby.  It sounds like it'll be the Oscars of the local business scene, with lots of familar faces and great networking opportunities too.  To find out more information contact Laura-Jane Franklin, Women's Enterprise Co-ordinator at EMDA on 0115 988 8461 or email laura-janefranklin@emd.org.uk

There are always lots of business awards to enter, but this is a local competition and only for women-only businesses, and that brings with it lots of advantages for PR and marketing.  I know other award winners have been asked to speak at high profile events, bringing them even more PR and goodwill.  Its abit like a stamp of approval, a great opportunity for a new business with the weight of the EMDA PR team behind you, you'll probably find you suddenly get access to the media like never before.  Best of luck.

Kate