Devon women excel at business awards

The second year of the Venus Business Women Awards National Finals doubled in size with 124 regional winners compete for a National Venus Award Trophy.

The Venus Awards National Finals is something quite unique and special.  It brings together all the regional winners, a group of truly inspirational and influential women, to an event where the crème de la crème vie for the National title in their respective categories.  This year 23 winners from eight regions were crowned at a lunchtime celebration held at the beautiful and stunning Hand Picked Hotel - Audley’s Wood, Basingstoke.  The Chairman and Chief Executive of Hand Picked Hotels, Julia Hands, who was a guest speaker remarked that she had never experienced such a wonderful atmosphere in any of her hotels before.  Praise indeed.

The deserving National winners were chosen from a massive 13,225 nominations and applications as well as 34,066 votes.  With inspirational Speakers Jenni Steel and Dr Lynda Shaw, the day also included stories of hardship and triumph with plenty of laughter and many tears.

Spearheaded locally by Celia Delaney from Speaking Success, the Devon awards attracted more nominations than any other of the Venus Regions and was held at Exeter University on 21st November.

Talking about the phenomenal growth of the Venus Awards, Founder Tara Howard, herself a business woman and mother of four, commented; “It really is inspiring to see how much support and enthusiasm there is for the awards and what a difference they can make. 

I’ve even had past winners confess to me that the awards have changed their lives as well as increase their business – that’s really powerful, and drives me forward to expand and launch the awards in new regions to recognise more deserving women.”
220 winners, sponsors and supporters from Dorset, Southampton, Brighton and Sussex, Devon, Bristol, Portsmouth, Oxfordshire and Birmingham came together for a superb three course lunch to witness the ultimate Venus Awards ceremony of the 2014 season.  

Devon Venus Awards regional winners carried off the National Title for the Employer Category, sponsored in Devon by Sandler Training, which was won by Nicole Flanagan, owner of Vagabonds Milkshake Bar. Nicole Flanagan is a young, bubbly and confident business woman who injects not only fun but a strong positive attitude to the way in which her business operates which has a strong influence on her staff, providing them with a positive influence to work from a young age.

Tess Stuber won the Green Business Category for her Beach Schools South West company.  Beach Schools South West is an outdoor learning company dedicated to learning on the shoreline. They provide a service to schools, organisations, holiday clubs,

Community groups and families teaching children curriculum based subjects on the beach with an environmental twist. They hope that the passion of their Beach Schools Leaders will transfer to the younger generation and enable them to be more aware of environmental issues that affect our marine environment & to learn to be able to protect.

Sally Allen-Gerard won the prestigious Lifetime of Excellence Award.  For 30+ years Sally ran her marketing/publicity agencies with major blue chip clients working with President Clinton, Francois Pienaar, David Frost and many more. In 2009 Sally created Wizard Jeans now with global sales & distribution plus a new fashion outlet in Torquay.

Venus Awards are looking to expand the awards to other regions of the country so that more women can receive the recognition they deserve.   They are on the search for a National Title Sponsor as well as well-connected men and women that would like to spearhead their local Venus Awards.   To find out more visit www.venusawards.co.uk

More about all the winners can be found here.