Isle of Man Newspapers Awards

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On Thursday night I was lucky enough to be invited to the Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for Excellence 2008 thanks to the guys at Isle of Man Post.

I must admit the evening was very entertaining as the islands great and the good gathered at the Sefton Hotel and Villa Marina for pre-award drinks and a meal (which was surprisingly good too) before heading through into the fantastic Gaiety Theater for the evenings 18 awards.

The Isle of Man Newspapers Awards for excellence is in its third year now and was the brain child (I think) of Trudi Williamson of Isle of Man Newspapers and Professor Hugh Davidson as part of the islands rather over used not sure what it’s trying to be ‘Freedom to Flourish’ initiative.

The evening was a celebration of excellence in organisations and individuals within the Isle of Man community and it was great to see so many people being recognised for all their dedication and hard work.

The host for the evening was the very ,very, very, very funny and quick witted Graham Davies, with some other memorable moments coming from Anna Goldsmith and Geoff Corkishes Manx rendition of ‘Show me the way to Amirillo’ or was it Peel?

Some of the worthy winners on the night included Volunteer of the year which was awarded to Paula Lunt who has worked incredibly hard to set up Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation, after the death of her 25-year-old son Craig from an undetected heart defect in 2005.

Paul McCann was chosen as the Sefton Group’s Public Sector Person of the Year for his dedication as manager of the Noble’s Hospital neo-natal unit

The CMI Personality of the Year winner, was cyclist Mark Cavendish

The Nationwide International Business Person of the Year award winner was Microgaming boss Roger Raatgever.

The Britannia International award winner for Innovation and Independent Thinking went to CVI Optics Ltd, who manufacture high-energy laser optics and are based in Onchan.

The Island’s Aircraft Registry was the winner of the Collins Stewart Public Sector Achievement of the Year award.

Online Regional Travel rightly so won an award with the HSBC Award for Effective Use of Information Technology for their development of the world’s first global flight booking engine that can be used in mobile phones – a really cool product.

As I was a guest courtesy of Isle of Man Post Office, I better do my bit! The Isle of Man Post Office award for Marketing Effectiveness winner was the Isle of Man Creameries and it was good to see Findlay Macleod collect the award I think for the second year running?

There were also many many more great awards and a full list is avaialable on the Isle of Man Newspapers website.

The final award of the evening went to Robin Gibb for Life Time Acheivement, however his mimed rendition of Ellan Vannin was incredibly naff and the fact that he looked to be reading the words from an auto cue did make me ask a few questions albeit in my own head if not anybody elses!

All in all it was a great and memorable night though.

Probably got myself scrubbed of the guest list now for next year but hey I am a turtle and sometimes you have to stick your neck out!

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