THE Isle of Man’s leading business personalities will gather this evening for one of the highlights of the year - the annual Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence ceremony at the Villa Marina.
Hundreds will attend the black tie extravaganza in the Royal Hall which will be hosted by TV personality and impressionist Rory Bremner.
Sixteen major awards will be presented, sponsored by some of the Island’s leading companies and featuring such honours as ‘Company of the Year’, ‘Young Achiever of the Year’, ‘Award for Innovation’ and the coveted Isle of Man Government award for ‘Freedom to Flourish’.
The evening also includes the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ which is kept secret until the end of the awards ceremony. This year’s event is has RBS International as overall main sponsor. Adrian Gill from RBS will speak after the interval.
This is the 5th year of the Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence, building on previous successful events staged at the Gaiety Theatre. The popularity of the night has led to a switch to the larger venue of the Villa Marina with dinner tables filling the Royal Hall.
Isle of Man Newspapers deputy chairman Trudi Williamson and editor Richard Butt will open the evening at 8.30pm.
Victoria McEneaney, who is joint chair of the judging panel with Colin Kniveton, CEO of the Department of Economic Development, said the night was “an opportunity to recognise exceptional achievement.”
She added, “As always the key to the success of the whole event is the large number of varied and high quality entries in each of the categories, and once again this did not disappoint.”
This year sees a new category - International Business of the Year - which has been very well supported. Overall, the number of entries is a record, many being new names. “The quality of the submissions was exceptional and made the judges’ decision-making process more challenging than ever.”
The evening will be hosted by the top impressionist Rory Bremner who has been in demand for 25 years for his sharp wit and political views. He has won twice won the British Comedy awards as top male performer and the BAFTA Best Light Entertainment Award.
Also entertaining this evening will be ‘Four Poofs and a Piano’, made famous on Jonathan Ross’s Friday night TV show. Local entertainers are the Lon Dhoo Male Voice Choir and actor David Artus. There will also be a special appearance by the Isle of Man Commonwealth Games team, who are not long back from the Delhi Games.
The judges for this year’s awards were:- Victoria McEneaney (RBS International), Colin Kniveton (CEO, Dept of Economic Development), Adrienne Burnett (Ballakermeen High School), Nick Verardi (Appleby), Ann Clayton (consultant), Chris Hall (Manx Telecom), Mike Langdon (Chief Constable), John Knight (The Children’s Centre), Mike Hodgson (IOMA), Stephen Bradley (Tynwald Mills), Deb Brydon (Hansard), Carol Hunter (IOM Government), Mark Lewin (Sefton Group), Lesley Keenan (Dept of Health), Tim Craine (Dept of Economic Development) and Mike Shaw (Chamber of Commerce).
• The full results and photographs from this evening’s awards ceremony will appear on the isleofman.com website tomorrow morning.
The event will be streamed live on the internet this evening at:- www2.iomtoday.co.uk/AFE/AFE_2010/index.html Then click on live stream.
