West Grantham Academy pupils to be asked to design awards for Grantham Journal Business Awards 2024
School pupils are going to get involved with designing the trophies for this year’s business awards.
Jamie Clare, owner of Iconic Engineering Solutions, is asking pupils at West Grantham Academy to design a new award which will be presented to this year’s winners at the Grantham Journal Business Awards on Friday, November 22 at Arena UK in Allington.
Jamie, who is a governor at West Grantham Academy, will then adapt and manufacture the winning design which will be presented to winners. The winner’s name will be printed on the bottom of each award.
He said: “I thought rather than treat it like any other job, I thought let’s have a bit of fun with it.
“I thought it would be interesting to let some of the students have a go with coming up with an idea for the award.
“We are looking for inspiration for what the award can look like and we were thinking of having a theme, but we haven’t come up with one yet.
“But it could be something like sustainability, something closer to home or something that makes Grantham famous.”
Jamie is keen to get the pupils involved as they are the “next generation of engineers”.
He added: “I think little jobs like this are a really good way to get students aware of this industry and the manufacturing businesses on their doorstep by getting them involved in these awards.”
The event, sponsored by Pentangle and ENVA, includes 10 award categories and the winners are revealed in a glittering awards ceremony.
There the finalists in our 10 categories will be treated to a drinks reception, sponsored by Listers, followed by a delicious meal.
The winners, including the winner of our special Judges’ Prestige Award, will then be unveiled during a glittering awards ceremony.
Readers and businesses can fill out a simple nomination form online.
From there, a comprehensive nomination pack will be sent out to the nominated businesses and these must be filled out and returned to our events manager before the businesses are eligible for the next stage in the process.
A panel of judges will consider all the applications and draw up a shortlist of three in each category.
Each of these three businesses will then be invited to the ceremony.
The categories:
Best Social Enterprise (Sponsored by PVS Media)
This award is open to charities and social enterprises who can demonstrate significant commercial and social impact of their activities.
Judges will want to see clear evidence of commercial awareness and innovative strategies that complement the altruistic aims of the organisation.
Business Innovation (Sponsored by South Kesteven District Council)
This award celebrates new ideas, processes, products, services, technologies and applications that have had an impact on an organisation’s success.
This award will go to the organisation that can best demonstrate an ability to create, grow and develop innovations or processes that substantially improve the commercial performance or prospects of the company.
Environmental Champion (Sponsored by ENVA)
Presented to the business that can demonstrate a commitment to reduce its carbon footprint with projects such as cutting its use of fossil fuels, caring for the natural environment, improving the use of resources by cutting waste, reducing pollution and increasing its environmental understanding.
Customer Care
This award will go to an individual who stands out from the crowd, has an entrepreneurial spirit, demonstrates outstanding achievement and inspires others around them.
The winner of this award will have been instrumental to the success of their business, growing the reputation of their business.
Best New Start-Up (Sponsored by Mark Bates)
Has your business been a roaring success in its infancy? Has it exceeded all your expectations or is it exactly on the right track, looking strong and with excellent prospects for the future?
You may be a one-man band looking to expand, or you may have started at a larger scale and already proved your ideas work.
This award is open to companies in business for up to three years at the date of launch (Friday, July 5, 2024).
Employee of the Year
Individuals may nominate themselves or be nominated by their employers or colleagues.
The judges will be looking for an outstanding contribution not only to the organisation and its success, but also to colleagues’ welfare and enhancing the working environment and customer experience.
Apprentice of the Year (Specialist Engineering Plastics)
This award is for the rising stars of tomorrow within a company apprentice scheme who have made an exceptional contribution to their workplace and can demonstrate commitment to personal development, dedication to career progression and outstanding levels of success.
Independent Retailer of the Year
This award is open to all independent retail businesses and will be awarded to the business that can best display ‘first-class’ customer service, market and customer engagement excellence, product and services innovation and differentiation, the ability to adapt to consumer/trading trends.
Businessperson of the Year
This award will recognise the organisation, irrespective of size or sector, that can prove the customer really does come first.
You will need to be able to demonstrate commercial success and strategies for growth whilst achieving excellence in looking after customers.
The organisation must have objectives for high quality customer service and clear methods of monitoring and evaluating standards.
Business of the Year (Sponsored by Downtown)
This award is open to a business trading for more than three years with a minimum of five employees that can show evidence of business growth, a commitment to the local community, a business strategy and vision for the next three to five years, proven success and achievement during the past two years, management with the ability to drive the business forward and a genuine commitment to staff.
From our winners, our panel of judges will also choose an overall winner to receive our Judges’ Prestige Award — entries are not accepted for this award.
With grateful thanks to our headline sponsor Pentangle and Enva, category sponsors ENVA, Downtown, PVS Media, South Kesteven District Council and Specialist Engineering plastics, event programme sponsor Hood Parkes and Co, drinks reception sponsor Lister, and winner’s champagne sponsor Reflect Recruitment.
MAKE A NOMINATION
Any business within the Grantham Journal’s news coverage area can enter from now until the deadline of Friday, September 6.
From there, a comprehensive nomination pack will be sent out and these must be filled in and returned by Friday, September 13.
Businesses can enter a maximum of three categories and give as much information as possible.
The entry form is at www.granthambusinessawards.co.uk
After the closing date, the judging panel will shortlist three finalists in each category. The three finalists in each will be contacted by the judges before the winner is revealed at the ceremony.
Each entry will be measured against the category criteria and the judges' selected finalists will be announced in the Grantham Journal on Friday, September 20, ahead of the awards ceremony at Arena UK on Friday, November 22.
