Lancashire Business View has revealed its most diverse shortlist yet for the Red Rose Awards, naming a wide range of businesses competing for prestigious trophies at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens on March 14.
Hundreds of nominations have been whittled down to just six finalists in each of the 25 categories - which range from new business of the year to the international achievement award.
The remaining hopefuls now have one final chance to present their story to panels of Red Rose Awards judges over two days at Ewood Park in Blackburn in February. Lancashire Business View can also reveal Blackpool and the Fylde College as the new judging partner for the 2019 Awards. More than 70 judges will make their decisions in panels of four or five.
The winners names will then be kept under wraps until the prize-giving extravaganza on 14 March. The black tie event, which features locally sourced food and entertainment, will give one winner in each category a chance to walk the stage and collect their trophies before an audience of more than 1,100.
Oliver Burton, CEO at Forbes Solicitors, headline sponsors of the awards for the ninth year, said:
“We always enjoy the judging element of the awards and this year has been no different. Deciding the finalists is a very difficult task with the quality of entries received each year. We’re looking forward to meeting finalists on the interview days to hear more about their stories and success in Lancashire and beyond.”
John Stanworth, head of corporate banking at Barclays in Lancashire, a headline sponsor for six years, added: “As always the award entries have been of a very high standard making judging a very difficult job indeed! The finalists should be very proud to have made it to this stage.
“We are looking forward to meeting them, and celebrating their successes on the night of the Awards.”
Richard Slater, publisher of Lancashire Business View, which stages the Red Rose Awards, explained that this year’s event had been refreshed to give more organisations a fair chance of competing.
He explained: “We fettled the format ever so slightly for 2019. We limited the number of categories each business can enter to three. The result has been that some of the smaller or lesser known companies have had a better chance to make the final shortlist, which has given us a better opportunity to promote the county’s diversity."
Richard added: “The volume and quality of entries has remained as high as ever and we now move on to the presentation part of the process, before our panels of highly qualified judges faces the difficult task of selecting the winners.”
Lancashire Business View has revealed its most diverse shortlist yet for the Red Rose Awards, naming a wide range of businesses competing for prestigious trophies at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens on March 14.
Hundreds of nominations have been whittled down to just six finalists in each of the 25 categories - which range from new business of the year to the international achievement award.
The remaining hopefuls now have one final chance to present their story to panels of Red Rose Awards judges over two days at Ewood Park in Blackburn in February. Lancashire Business View can also reveal Blackpool and the Fylde College as the new judging partner for the 2019 Awards. More than 70 judges will make their decisions in panels of four or five.
The winners names will then be kept under wraps until the prize-giving extravaganza on 14 March. The black tie event, which features locally sourced food and entertainment, will give one winner in each category a chance to walk the stage and collect their trophies before an audience of more than 1,100.
Oliver Burton, CEO at Forbes Solicitors, headline sponsors of the awards for the ninth year, said:
“We always enjoy the judging element of the awards and this year has been no different. Deciding the finalists is a very difficult task with the quality of entries received each year. We’re looking forward to meeting finalists on the interview days to hear more about their stories and success in Lancashire and beyond.”
John Stanworth, head of corporate banking at Barclays in Lancashire, a headline sponsor for six years, added: “As always the award entries have been of a very high standard making judging a very difficult job indeed! The finalists should be very proud to have made it to this stage.
“We are looking forward to meeting them, and celebrating their successes on the night of the Awards.”
Richard Slater, publisher of Lancashire Business View, which stages the Red Rose Awards, explained that this year’s event had been refreshed to give more organisations a fair chance of competing.
He explained: “We fettled the format ever so slightly for 2019. We limited the number of categories each business can enter to three. The result has been that some of the smaller or lesser known companies have had a better chance to make the final shortlist, which has given us a better opportunity to promote the county’s diversity.”
Richard added: “The volume and quality of entries has remained as high as ever and we now move on to the presentation part of the process, before our panels of highly qualified judges faces the difficult task of selecting the winners.”