Olympic Medallist to Set the Pace at Cornwall Business Awards 2012

09.02.12

Cornwall Development Company has announced that former Olympic Medallist Roger Black MBE will be the keynote speaker for the Cornwall Business Awards 2012, the most prestigious business awards event in the county.

Suzanne Bond, Chief Executive of Cornwall Development Company, Cornwall Council’s economic development company, says: “The year the UK is hosting London 2012 is a great time to mark the similarities between high performance in sport and high performance in business.

And the fact that the Olympic torch is starting its UK journey in Cornwall in the same week as the Cornwall Business Awards in May 2012 makes it especially appropriate. We are thrilled that Roger Black will be our speaker this year.”

Roger Black MBE represented Great Britain at the highest level in the world of athletics, both as an individual 400 metre runner and as a member of the 4x400 metre relay team, winning fifteen major Championship medals. His greatest achievement was winning the Olympics 400 metre Silver medal in Atlanta in 1996 and he is currently a Team GB 2012 Ambassador.

He says: “There are many similarities in the magic ingredients that set the winners apart from the crowd in sport and in business - being proactive, sheer hard graft and a relentless ambition and appetite to excel. So it is a huge pleasure for me to speak at the Cornwall Business Awards 2012.

I see this is an exciting time to be a business in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. The county is in the process of rolling out a pioneering superfast broadband programme, which will make it one of the best connected places in the world. This will revolutionise the prospects for businesses, enabling them to reach out to new customers on a global scale.

In the same way that London 2012 is providing a world stage for athletes, Cornwall now has a world stage for its own innovative business talent and expertise. The Cornwall Business Awards 2012 are a great way of highlighting this.”

Suzanne Bond continues: “This is the seventh year that Cornwall Development Company has staged the Cornwall Business Awards. Yet again, we look set for a bumper year. We have already received an inspiring range of entries from businesses of all kinds and sizes and we are looking forward to seeing many more before the deadline in mid March.”

Around 350 business leaders are expected to attend the awards dinner at St Mellion International Resort on 17th May, with live video streaming being used to share the results around the world.

Any business based in Cornwall or the Isles of Scilly can enter one or more of fourteen award categories, which include Young Business Person of the Year, Best New Business in Cornwall and Most Creative Use of Design.

A new award category this year is ‘Best Use of Superfast Broadband’.

Entries for the Cornwall Business Awards 2012 should be made online and the closing date for entries is March 16th.

The award categories are:

Young Business Person – sponsored by First Great Western

Best New Business – sponsored by Worldwide Financial Planning

Best Third Sector Business – sponsored by the Eden Project

Customer Focus – sponsored by Coodes

Best Employer – sponsored by Cornwall College Business

Best Use of Superfast Broadband – sponsored by BT

Most Creative Use of Design – sponsored by University College Falmouth

Best Business Leader – sponsored by Ginsters

Excellence in Marketing – sponsored by Francis Clark with Winter Rule

Most Dynamic Growth Business – sponsored by Plymouth University

Best Diversification – sponsored by Niddocks

Best International Business

Business Innovation – sponsored by Combined Universities in Cornwall

Best Entrepreneur – sponsored by Unlocking Potential

Winner of Winners – sponsored by St Austell Brewery


A full list of the award categories and criteria, and an online entry form, are available now at www.cornwallbusinessawards.co.uk