Make this the year you enter the Awards for Excellence.

It’s the Isle of Man’s most prestigious and glitzy awards event, a chance to dress up and celebrate a huge and diverse range of achievements from all sectors of our community.

The awards ceremony is held at the Villa Marina in November, and this year it will be compered by Miles Jupp.

To be a part of it you need to enter the Awards. There are 16 award categories in all offering opportunities for businesses of all sizes, public sector teams, charitable and cultural organisations and individuals. Small Medium Enterprise, Company of the Year, Customer Service, New Business/Innovation, Business Person of the Year and Digital Champions are just a few of them.

The Awards judges pick three finalists in each category and all are invited to attend on the the night when the winners are announced.

Past winners and finalists all speak of what an amazing experience it was and how entering had helped to raise the profile of the business or charitable organisation.

’You can gauge it by the number of people mentioning it to you and the feedback was just amazing,’ Dave Bell of Expol, winner of last year’s Small Medium Enterprise award.

Tynwald Mills was the winner of the title Company of the Year in 2015. Their marketing and project director, Matthew McSevney, said: ’I think it’s important for an Isle of Man company to enter the Awards.

’There are a lot of companies out there who are trying to make a difference on the Isle of Man, and follow the Freedom to Flourish values, and it gives them the opportunity to be recognised for their hard work.’

Audrey Fowler was part of the team from DEFA who won the Public Sector Achievement of the Year award in 2015. She recalled: ’When they announced the winners, I was so shocked but really pleased for the Food and Drink Festival to get it.

’It’s a fantastic night and something I’ll always remember - just total glitz and glamour!’

Stephen Trimble, head of product at Continent 8, who were the winners of Company of the Year in 2014 said: ’When we went through the process of filling out the form and putting our entry in it was a great opportunity for us to look at our business and we actually were impressed by ourselves - we’re doing so much that’s good here and we don’t usually shout about it.’

You can find details of all the award categories and download entry forms on this website on the right of the red bar at the top of it..