Around 750 members of the North-east business community are gathering this evening to celebrate excellence and entrepreneurship at the annual Northern Star Business Awards.
Every seat has been sold for the ceremony at the AECC, which is the flagship event for Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce and the highlight of the north-east business calendar.
Now in their twelfth year, the Northern Star Business Awards are the Chamber’s annual accolades for successful businesses across the region.
They recognise companies in the North-east for their exceptional accomplishments across a range of fields from energy to innovation, people development to customer service.
Thirty-nine finalists will be on the edge of their seats at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre tonight as they breathlessly await the announcement of the winners in the 14 award categories.
Also announced on the night is the winner of the lifetime achievement award, which is presented to recognise an outstanding contribution to the north-east region.
This year sees a new award category “Made In Aberdeen” which celebrates collaborations between arts and business.
The host for the evening is multi-award winning sports presenter Hazel Irvine.
An engaging and authoritative sports anchor, she is the "face" of BBC Sport’s golf coverage including The Open and the US Masters, snooker and major events such as the Olympic Games and Commonwealth Games.
Hazel fronted one of the corporation’s longest-running shows, Ski Sunday, for a decade and has also covered a huge number of other high-profile events such as Wimbledon, the London Marathon, the Boat Race, Final Score, four football World Cups and European football championships.
A new principal sponsor for the awards has been unveiled this year as Aberdeen FC Community Trust.
The trust is one of the five charities that has been chosen to benefit from the event. The other charities are Drugs Action, Satrosphere, The ARCHIE Foundation and the breadmaker.
Over £7,000 was raised for local charities through the generosity of the guests who attended last year’s event.
In last year’s successful sell-out event, nearly 100 businesses battling it out to be named a Northern Star.
Leading oil executive Sir Ian Wood was handed a lifetime achievement award in 2014 for his outstanding contribution to the region and the Overall Business of the Year award was Inoapps, one of the leading Oracle Platinum Partners and Applications specialists in the UK.
AGCC membership director Liam Smyth said: “The Northern Star Business Awards is the biggest celebration of success and gives recognition to business organisations across all sectors in the North-east.
This year’s finalists can be proud of their achievement and look forward to a night of celebration on September 24 at the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Centre in the Bridge of Don.
“The night itself is a tremendous occasion and the 12th Northern Star Business Awards will showcase outstanding achievement in business from across a range of categories.”
Category sponsors are Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire councils, Aberdeen International Airport, Clydesdale Bank, HGF Ltd, Investors in People Scotland, IOSH, Redwave, Robert Gordon University, Scottish Enterprise and Suse.
Associate sponsors include Aberdeen Core, AECC, Anastasia Florists, Crerar Hotels, and XIC.
You can follow the evening’s developments on Twitter at #timetoshine
The finalists in the categories are:
- Achievement in International Business
- Equalizer International
- Flowline Specialists
- Rigzone
- Commitment to Innovative Use of Research & Development
- Embrion
- Meta Downhole
- N-Sea
- Commitment to People Development
- Banks O' Dee Sports Club
- Indigo Technologies
- Stork
- Excellence in Customer Service
- Beetroot Restaurants Ltd
- Grampian Fasteners
- Macrae & Dick Honda
- Excellence in Health & Safety
- Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre (AECC)
- Aberdeen International Airport
- Aker Solutions
- Made in Aberdeen
- Aberdeen Festivals/Statoil
- North Hop Aberdeen/Frasermedia
- Outstanding Contribution to Society
- Aberdeen FC Community Trust
- Community Food Initiatives North East
- DA (Drugs Action)
- the breadmaker
- Outstanding Contribution to the Energy Sector
- Blaze Manufacturing Solutions
- Expro
- Step Change in Safety
- Overall Business of the Year
- CHC Helicopter
- EFC Group (Electro-Flow Controls Ltd)
- The Bryant Group (Scotland) Limited
- Rising Star
- Aberdeen FC Community Trust - Dean McBain
- Entier Limited - Danielle Ritchie
- Lubbers UK Ltd - Nick Latham
- Wood Group Kenny - Samantha Murray
- Student Placement
- Aker Solutions
- Stena Drilling Ltd
- Total E&P UK
- The Business Diversity
- The Green Award
- Deeside Activity Park
- Rubberatkins
- Sureclean