Like many people, I’ve never been lucky enough to go to the Oscars, but I am more than delighted that I will be attending the Oscars of Hertfordshire that will be happening next month.
The Inspiring Herts Awards are now in their 13th year, and will be held at the superb Tewinbury Farm Hotel in Welwyn on Thursday, June 27.
It’s going to be a particularly special occasion this year, as our Chamber is marking its centenary – and to fit with our 1924 founding year, the awards gala dinner will be following a Roaring Twenties theme.
As I said earlier this year at the Chamber’s Women in Leadership conference, the greatest power that we, as business people, have is the ability to recognise our own strengths and challenges, and surround ourselves with the right people.
This sums up the spirit of our Inspiring Herts Awards. They are about recognising and celebrating the achievements of others, yes – but also about self-evaluation, ever pushing yourself to the next level, and making connections with the perfect contacts to help get you there. Drop the meekness, embrace confidence in yourself and never let go of that ambition.
We have had some excellent entries this year, and I know our expert judges had a hard time narrowing organisations down to make the shortlists.
The winners will be following in the footsteps of truly worthy winners from past years, some of whom have gone on to also win even higher recognition.
Welwyn Garden City measuring instrument manufacturer and longstanding Chamber member Kane International, for instance, won two categories in our awards in 2021, and a year later received a Queen’s Award – the most prestigious award a British business can win.
This year’s crop of finalists spans a wide variety of industries from across our Herts business community, from family-run funeral directors and country estates to international defence manufacturers and pioneering tech firms.
All of them contribute to making Hertfordshire a great place to do business and thrive. The big companies often get a lot of the attention, but you may not realise that small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) make up 99.9 per cent of the business population in the UK.
They also account for three fifths of the employment and about half of turnover in the British private sector. In short, they are the backbone of our country’s economy and it’s only right that the SMEs in our business community get the attention they deserve.
Our awards aren’t just about pennies and pounds. The categories don’t just recognise financial success, but also contributions to community, diversity and inclusion, people development and workplace wellbeing – they’re just as much about the enrichment of the communities surrounding these companies as they are about the growth of the award nominees themselves.
For example, our diversity and inclusion award winner last year was Pages Care Farm, an inspirational initiative in Elstree where therapy programmes are held for young people with special needs and individuals facing loneliness, anxiety or other wellbeing challenges.
Businesses such as this can make such a difference in our communities, and give the vulnerable in our society memories that can last a lifetime.
I am looking forward to sharing the awards gala dinner with all our finalists, sponsors and guests, but it isn’t the only big event we have on the horizon.
The centenary celebrations will continue next month with our annual summer party at Sopwell House. I’ll tell you more about that next month.
See hertschamber.com to find out more.
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