The Awards

Nominations

It is anticipated that the majority of award nominations will come from SFEDI Advisory Board member and SFEDI stakeholders’ own awards ceremonies which have been held in 2007. However, nominations will be sought from further afield through press releases, websites and through our media partner. This will make this event the ‘award of awards’ event in the widest possible sense of enterprise support. There is a micro site on www.sfedi.co.uk to facilitate this.

All nominations must be received by Wednesday January 30th 2008.

Nominations can be in any format electronic or paper or audio or a/v.

The nominations for individual awards must cover:

The name of the individual              Their organisation      Contact Details

Nominated By                                  Their contact details

Describe the nominee’s involvement in enterprise support or training (quantity and quality)

Describe how the nominee works ‘beyond the call of duty’ to achieve excellence in practice.

Provide a real case study as testimony to this (with contact details of the case – so that the judges may contact them to ask further questions.  Please note we may as part of a two part nomination process  e-mail or telephone the small business owner case to get them to describe how they have benefited from the support.   

Nominations for the two organisation awards (including media) should cover the above, apart from the last two categories which should be:

Describe why the nominee has achieved more at a higher standard than any of their competitors

Provide a real case study of what this has meant in helping real small and home enterprise owners to start up or survive or thrive. (Provide name and contact details of a small or home enterprise owner whom the judges can contact). 

Judging Panel:

The judges will convene in early February 2008 and will comprise the SFEDI Advisory Board Chair and Vice Chair, SFEDI Board Chair and Vice Chair and Chief Executives from three of the major event sponsors.  They will agree two finalists for each award of six award categories - Platinum and Gold.  They will also decide on the overall UK Champion individual.   

7 Award Categories: 

1. Enterprise Champion - Business Owner/Entrepreneur: superb supporter of other small and home business owners.
Sponsored by:

2. Enterprise Champion - Enterprise Support Professional: Adviser, Mentor, Coach, Trainer or Business Information provider

3. Enterprise Champion - Professional service provider: accountant, book keeper, banker or consultant

4. Enterprise Champion – ‘Buddy’: volunteer, family member/friend/colleague

5. Enterprise Champion Corporate: large company, institution or govt agency
Sponsored by:

6. Enterprise Champion - Product or Programme: best new provision of assistance to small and home business owners’ know how to succeed (film/TV programme/course/ book/software etc.).
Sponsored by:

7. Overall UK Champion Enterprise Supporter 2008: the outstanding individual from all nominees for the above 6 awards.

Purpose

· For SFEDI Advisory Board members to nominate and celebrate those individuals (stars & champions) who have done the most during 2007 to help start ups, the self employed and small and home business owners to survive and thrive. 

· To showcase to policy makers, policy advisers, press and key opinion formers what best practice looks like in providing training and support for enterprise – particularly to prospective and existing owners of small, micro and self employed enterprises.

· To provide a focal point for SFEDI Advisory Board efforts to influence government to support and enable their organisations to meet the support and training needs of small and home business owners and in so doing to get a fairer share of the government skills and support funding for the self employed and micro business owners.

· To provide a focal point for SFEDI’s advocacy that cost effective and successful public and privately funded enterprise support is about ‘going with the grain’ and enabling existing networks of enterprise supporters and champions. This network includes other small business owners, accountants, book keepers, teachers, trainers, business advisers, mentors, coaches, bankers, family members, large company suppliers, business clubs, small business members and enterprise support professionals. 

·  To publicise the work, national occupational standards setting and best practice defining and promoting by the members of the SFEDI Advisory Board.

For information on sponsoring an Award, please click here