Poised in the wings, the great and the good of the Island are set to be honoured in the Isle of Man Newspapers' annual Awards For Excellence ceremony this evening (Thursday).

The accolades will be awarded to 16 outstanding winners, voted for by Isle of Man Newspapers' readers and a panel of judges.

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A comprehensive report will feature in Tuesday's Isle of Man Examiner -
but you can watch the ceremony from the comfort of your own home by logging on to iomtoday.co.im from 8.30pm to take advantage of a live feed direct from the Gaiety Theatre.

>> Click this link to visit the LIVE FEED page

A report from the event, including details of all the winners, will appear on iomtoday after 11pm tonight while video footage and photo slideshows will be available to view from tomorrow (Friday) morning.

>> Visit the Awards for Excellence website

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Judges' chairman Hugh Davidson was born and brought up in the Island and after qualifying as a barrister became marketing manager at Procter and Gamble.

He later worked in 15 countries as president of Playtex International in Canada and Europe and as founder of Oxford Strategic Marketing before returning to the Island six years ago.

Mr Davidson was chairman of the Marketing Society and played a major role in structuring their awards, which were the premier marketing awards in the UK.

He also chaired the judges of the Manx Executive Challenge, run by the Chartered Management Institute.

Until earlier this year he was visiting professor of marketing at Cranfield University.

Mr Davidson said: 'The Freedom to Flourish initiative, giving everyone the opportunity to reach their full potential, is one of the unique aspects to these awards. The Awards for Excellence were one of the first things to come out of this three years ago and are designed to recognise and celebrate the success of individuals and organsisations.

'Another important aspect of the awards is that they cover business, public sector and voluntary sector and the judges and entrants reflect that diverstiy. That makes judging particularly difficult.'

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Awards for Excellence 2007 - Watch video footage from last year's ceremony

>> Chowdhury named as Island's top business person

>> 2007 Awards night celebrates pride in Island life

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With a 25 per cent increase in entries this year from organisations, the judges have had to put in more than 100 hours' work assessing each one.

Judging was carried out according to strict criteria, some common to all categories and some unique to specific awards.

All entries were assessed for their contribution to the Freedom to Flourish initiative, whether they offered good value to their customers and whether people were helped to reach their full potential.

Other factors considered included innovation, team work and charity, cultural and community involvement.

Business awards will go to high achievers in a range of categories from Company of the Year, Effective use of Information Technology, Marketing Effectiveness and Customer Service, to Business Person of the Year and Freedom to Flourish.

Individual awards will be made to the Island's Personality of the Year, Volunteer of the Year and Public Sector Person of the Year.

A prestigious pre-awards function crossing five venues – two in the Villa Marina and three in the Sefton Hotel – gets under way earlier in the evening.

The operation, planned with military precision, will see a top catering team from the Sefton Group serve everything from wine and champagne to canapes and full meals to the 600 guests.

Represented on the 12-strong panel of judges are leading figures from the spheres of healthcare, education, business, finance and the Isle of Man Government.

Among them are Department of Health and Social Security chief executive David Killip, the Island's biggest employer with around 3,000 workers, Manx Telecom director Chris Hall, director of education John Cain and John Hollis of the Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce.

Mr Davidson added: 'I judged the UK Marketing Society awards for three years.

'We had entries from companies like Microsoft, Procter and Gamble and Coca Cola – the cream of the international market – but I am still delighted and impressed by the quality of entrants in the Isle of Man Awards for Excellence.

'Some of these are among the best I have seen,' he said.