New awards will crown the very best businesses in the region

Coventry and Warwickshire businesses, community groups and individuals can now put themselves forward to be crowned at a major new celebration event for the region that will ‘do things differently.’

The Coventry & Warwickshire Business and Community Awards 2025 launched with a bang at the Belgrade Theatre as more than 100 business and civic leaders gathered to get the full lowdown on the new event.

The Awards have been developed by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and will take place at the Belgrade Theatre in March 2025.

The Chamber has opted to make the ceremony much less formal than other awards, with guests sitting theatre style and enjoying a night of glittering entertainment – curated by the Belgrade –during which the winners will be crowned in ten categories. That will be followed by a chance to celebrate the region’s success stories at an after-show party.

The entry process has been made simple and the price of tickets for the ceremony will be made affordable for businesses and individuals of all sizes and sectors.

Ten categories are now live to enter and include:

• The Workforce Developer –Commitment to People Award

• The Global Player – Export Business of the Year Award

• The Planet Saver – Green Business of the Year Award

The Rapid Riser – Start-up or Scale-up Business of the Year Award

• The Problem Solver – Business Diversification Award

• The Equality Trailblazer – EEDI Business of the Year Award

• The Community Champion –Community Business of the Year Award

• The Not-For-Profit Champion –Community Organisation of the Year Award

• The Creative and Culture Activator –Creative and Cultural Award

• The Inspirational Individual –C&W Person of the Year Award

It was announced at the launch that Coventry Building Society, Purple Planet Packaging and Wright Hassall have confirmed their support for the event and have signed up as category sponsors, while 12:03, a creative brand agency, revealed the brand identity of the awards.

Corin Crane, chief executive of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We wanted to create a new awards event for Coventry and Warwickshire to recognise our brilliant businesses and the contributions they make to the region’s economy and community.

“Crucially, we want to do things differently and make it unique to the city and the county. It is also important that these awards are accessible, inclusive and affordable.

“That’s why the event will bring together the awards, a show – featuring artists and performers from across the region – and food and drink supplied by local businesses.

“We are so excited to be launching and now we’ve got three big asks of our regional business community.

“We want you to enter and put yourselves forward for one of our ten awards. We want you to help us promote the event and tell of your colleagues and contacts to get involved. And we want you to come on board and support the event through sponsorship because that is what will help us to make this the most incredible awards night possible.”

Neil Murray, Belgrade Theatre Interim CEO, said: “We are so pleased to be partnering with the Chamber on this event.

“The Belgrade plays such a key role in the fabric of Coventry and Warwickshire and being part of an event such as this underlines that. We want to open our doors to as many people and businesses as we can in the region and this event helps us to showcase ourselves and the work we do.

“It promises to be a great event that celebrates so many of the positive things that are going on in our region.”

Entries are now open at https://www.cw-chamber.co.uk/awards/