Celebrate your business and staff in style at this special awards night
With a deadline fast-approaching to enter this summer’s Cirencester Business Awards, Raikes has teamed up with the town’s chamber of commerce to champion what has fast become a must-attend event.
Dear Readers.
We hope you all had great weekends. It was a busy end to last week for former Gloucester City Council leader Paul James, whose book on the regeneration of the city was launched at the Cathedral’s Parliament Room.
We covered the story in our Monday edition last week with an interview with James and some of those who worked on many of the projects featured in the book and that continue to see the city transformed. You can read it here, if you missed it.
While we’re on the subject of regeneration, in our Friday members’ only edition our interview with Rich Palmer got plenty of attention. It gave us an excuse to look at just where Gloucester City Council is with deciding a new tenant for the former Chambers public house – now sitting smack bang in the centre of the £100 million-plus Forum Digital development in the city centre. You can read that here.
And still on the subject of regeneration, this time talking about the cultural rather than physical landscape of the city, we would like to say a massive round of applause to those who make Gloucester History Festival happen. That brilliant event drew to a close over the weekend with names including Chris Packham, Nandini Das, Jeremy Bowen, Michael Wood, Janina Ramirez, Phil Moss, Jon Eeles and Dom Joly bringing hundreds of visitors to the city.
Please do send us your story ideas to andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk. Or telephone 07956 926061.
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (we’ve already let you know about QuoLux, Willans LLP and Gloucestershire College, and more partners will be revealed over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support from all of you is invaluable! For commercial opportunities visit our About us page or email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
Why today’s main story?
It’s difficult to describe just how important it is to celebrate the communities in which we live, and little do it better than awards. Which is why The Raikes Journal has partnered with Cirencester Chamber of Commerce to help pre-promote its fantastic forthcoming business awards, made possible this year by headline sponsor Redkite Solicitors.
We’ll be running stories over the next few weeks to remind anyone whose business sits within the GL7 postcode area that while the awards night is July 5, you only have until May 24 to enter one or more of the 10 awards – with the 11th, Business of the Year, also up for grabs too.
These awards grew out of the Covid-19 pandemic and launched as a joint community and business awards as the chamber sought to both celebrate the efforts of everyone who had battled through the pandemic and supported one another, and to underscore just what fantastic people and companies there are in and around the town.
We’ve picked out just a handful of the awards you can enter, spoken to the sponsors and some of last year’s winners – who tell us just what being voted a winner by their own community meant to them. Even if you don’t live in Cirencester, we hope you’ll learn more about the county by us lifting the lid just a little for you to see inside.
Your Raikes’ briefing
🧗♀️ It is no great shock to those who have followed the story of Gloucester Climbing Centre that it is closing the doors of its warehouse in Parliament Street near the city’s Docks. This is not a business in decline, however. It is on the up in every way (if you’ll excuse the pun). To explain, the owners have spent some considerable time – much longer than they had hoped – battling to secure planning for a new centre able to cater for families and Olympians alike. That centre, 270 Climbing Park, officially opened in June last year.
🎉 We mentioned this last week, but as this edition is going big on awards – and because we particularly like these ones, - here we go again. This is the Believe in Gloucester Awards – 15 categories voted on by you and ranging from retailer of the year to young ambassador of the year, from food business of the year to charity of the year. You have only until Thursday 31 May to make your suggestions. Find out more here.
⚔️ If you are someone who follows the goings on in high office in Gloucestershire, even the relatively ceremonial ones, here's one for you. The county has a new High Sheriff - Mark Hurrell, the former boss of the BBC in Gloucestershire. The role will see him “lend active support to the principal organs of the constitution within their county - the Royal family, the judiciary, the police and other law enforcement agencies, the emergency services, local authorities, and church and faith groups”. It also comes with a rather natty outfit. Picture britches and we believe even a sword!
🚪 Here at Raikes we have featured the charity before, but this piece of news allows us to remind you once again of The Door. The Stroud-based charity is appealing for more volunteer mentors to be trained to help young people dealing with a range of issues. Those mentors are particularly needed in the Cirencester area. It currently supports an estimated 1,000 young people aged 11 to 25, and their families, every year. You can find out more here.
🍞 We featured this firm most recently when its managing director, George Herbert, was one of the keynote speakers at the recent B Corp-focused business event staged by one of our Founding Partners, QuoLux. This time the family-owned Hobbs House business is in the news because it has expanded into a new headquarters in Chipping Sodbury, Gloucestershire. It is a move which takes the firm's HQ from 20,000 to 30,000 square feet.
Our chosen charities: The Hollie Gazzard Trust, Sunflowers Suicide Support and the Chamwell Centre!
Why three charities – and at least one of which Raikes has introduced you to before? It’s because they are all due to benefit from the awesome event that is Gloucester 10k, due to take place on Sunday 30 June. Staged by Davies & Partners Solicitors, this began as and has remained community orientated, and for a number of years has had the full force of the mighty Gloucester Quays Rotary behind it making it happen. The Hollie Gazzard Trust marks 10 years this year, and works tirelessly to educate and address domestic abuse and stalking. Sunflowers supports people bereaved and affected by suicide in Gloucestershire and The Chamwell Centre in Longlevens is a visionary and unique centre to enable children, young people and adults throughout Gloucestershire, to overcome disability. You can find out more about the Gloucester 10k here.
Celebrate your staff at this year’s Cirencester Business Awards
With a deadline fast-approaching to enter this summer’s Cirencester business awards, Raikes have teamed up with the town’s chamber of commerce to champion what has fast become a must-attend event.
By Andrew Merrell
All businesses are proud of their staff, but there will no doubt be one employee they think deserves special recognition or would like to say a huge 'thank you' to - and if that describes how you feel, then this is your opportunity to go big and make it public.
We are talking about the Employee of the Year prize in this year’s Cirencester Chamber of Commerce Business Awards - your chance to see that special staff member, and your company’s name, up in lights.
A new category for this year, the award aims to “recognise and celebrate the valuable contributions employees make throughout the year to businesses and organisations”.
And it is backed by one of the county’s most unusual and successful businesses - Air Salvage International (ASI), also one of the world’s largest privately owned providers of aircraft disassembly and recovery services – based at Cotswold Airport.
Mark Gregory, chief executive officer of ASI, said: “We are very pleased to be sponsoring the Employee of the Year category which will be highlighting the outstanding contributions made by individuals within local organisations.
“This will give those who have exceeded expectations and really made a difference within their respective roles, a chance to shine and be rewarded for their efforts.”
Adam Vines, president of Cirencester Chamber of Commerce, said: “Employee of the Year is a brand new category this year that we’re really excited about.
“For the first time it gives employers the opportunity recognise and celebrate individual members of their teams and the contribution they’ve made to the business”
Everything you need to know to enter the award is on the chamber’s website, but there are also these words of advice up front: “Judges will be expecting you to make comment on the scope of the work undertaken and the outcome of their work, the initiative and innovation demonstrated by the employee, how the individual has made a difference in the course of their employment and any obstacles which the employee may have had to overcome to achieve the outcomes of their work.”
And if you can’t decide which of your staff to put forward, don’t worry. You are entitled to make more than one nomination! Imagine the impact on morale – both to that member of staff and across the board at your business – even just to be nominated.
In total there are 10 categories at this year’s showcase event - as well as the headline Business of the Year Award – which is sponsored by headline partner Redkite Solicitors.
Other categories include Apprentice of the Year - sponsored by McGills Chartered Accountants, Medium/Large Organisation of the Year - sponsored by Fortem IT, Team of the Year - sponsored by Siddington Park, Ethical Business of the Year - sponsored by the Bathurst Estate, and Self-employed/Freelancer of the Year - sponsored by Cirencester College.
This year’s awards presentation is taking place on Friday 5 July at the Royal Agricultural University’s Boutflour Hall, capable of seating 120 guests. The evening will start with welcome drinks at 7pm and the awards ceremony will be hosted once again by Vernon Harwood.
You can find out more about the awards right here. Be quick though, the deadline for entry is until May 24!
A couple of diary dates
Thursday 18 April
Hub8 in partnership with Brink Coffee & CyNam would like to invite you to our monthly breakfast networking event specifically catered to our Technology and Cyber Security companies and professionals and companies that support them in and around Cheltenham and Gloucestershire.
Saturday April 20
The first Forest Food Forum will take place from 9.30am to 4.00pm on Saturday 20 April, 2024 at Dene Magna School, Mitcheldean. You can find out more here.
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our Founding Partners (we’ve already let you know about QuoLux, Gloucestershire College and Willans LLP and more will be revealed over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support of all of you is invaluable!
🔓 You’ve been reading a free edition of The Raikes Journal, for which we are grateful. Please do spread the word about what we are trying to do - create a real, journalistically-led, community-orientated, Gloucestershire-focused digital magazine. If you upgrade to paid, you will get on average eight extra members-only editions every month and will be able to see beyond any paywalls, as well as read Raikes’ rolling Top 100-plus Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will also be allowed to comment on stories, make suggestions for what we should be writing about, vote in our awards, and might even be invited to our roundtable events. And you’ll be supporting the rebirth of high-quality journalism in Gloucestershire on a website championing the county you love — all for just £2.30 per week (Ask us about 20 per cent off for groups of two or more subscribers).