Celebration of city’s standout successes

THE Geelong business community is set to celebrate its best, brightest and most innovative at the 33rd annual Geelong Business Excellence Awards.

Geelong’s showcase business awards will be attended by about 600 guests at The Pier on Thursday night.

The Deakin University Geelong Business Excellence Awards mark achievement across a raft of categories before the naming of the night’s top honour, the Business of the Year.

Key individual categories include Business Leader of the Year and Young Entrepreneur of the Year while other awards note achievement in areas including manufacturing, retail and family business.

The chair of the judging panel, Simon Flowers, said the quality of applications reflected the professionalism and maturity of the Geelong business community.

“Our finalists are from a range of industries and sectors and truly represent the diversity and cream of Geelong businesses,” Mr Flowers said.

The 20 awards across business and individual categories are thinned to 57 finalists.

“The role of the judges was made especially difficult this year by virtue of the quality of the entrants, and as you will see when then finalists are announced,” Mr Flowers said.

Award applicants are assessed across key areas of their business including marketing, customer service, health and wellbeing, accessibility and, of course, the size of each business.

The process of entering the awards has long been recognised as a significant assistance in developing business plans and strategies.

Geelong Chamber of Commerce chief executive Bernadette Uzelac said the awards provided a vehicle to showcase and recognise entrepreneurialism, innovation and the depth of business excellence in the Geelong region.