August 25th, 2009
2009 Shortlist Announced
Some of the Brighton’s biggest and best – and youngest and newest – make the 2009 list of 37 BAHBA finalists.
For the sixth consecutive year, the BAHBAs have attracted an increasing number of entries from all sectors of the city – particularly digital.
A recent report named Brighton as one of five ‘supercities’ focussing on new economic endeavours, such as digital media and broadcasting, which will be the focus of the country’s economy over the next 20 years. And this is certainly reflected in the 2009 shortlist which features 13 companies of this nature.
One of the digital companies who entered for the first time this year, Blast Theory, has been shortlisted in two categories.
The award for “New Kids on the Block”, sponsored by Royal Mail, remains the most popular category of all and shows that, despite the recession, Brighton is still home to a number of successful start-ups. The shortlist features four completely different businesses – a patisserie, a taxi service, a book shop and a sound production company.
Two companies will be defending their titles this year. The Hotel du Vin, which has won Best Place to Entertain Your Clients for two years running, will be hoping to take the trophy for a record-breaking third time whilst The Duke of York’s Picturehouse will be defending its title of Best Customer Service for the second year.
Tony Mernagh, Executive Director of the Brighton & Hove Economic Partnership, took the Chair to lead the judges in their decisions this year. He was joined by representatives of Sussex Innovation Centre, MdHub, Wired Sussex, Acumen Business Law, Nido Marketing and sponsor representatives.
Commenting on the entries: “The quality of the applicants goes from strength to strength and I am constantly amazed at the number of clearly world class businesses we have right here in the city. The judging gets harder every year because there are just so many great applicants to choose from.”
