{"id":5308,"date":"2015-10-05T12:53:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-05T12:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ballymenachamber.co.uk\/?p=5308"},"modified":"2015-10-05T12:54:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-05T12:54:17","slug":"awards-gala-evening-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/?p=5308","title":{"rendered":"Awards Gala Evening 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ballymena businesses were out in force last Thursday\u00a0(1st October)\u00a0at the Gala evening in Tullyglass\u00a0House Hotel to celebrate the 13th\u00a0Ballymena\u00a0Business Excellence awards. The awards are organised annually by Ballymena Borough Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the principal\u00a0sponsor this year was Mid and East Antrim\u00a0Borough Council.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Back Row: Chris Wales, Ian Paisley MP, Chamber President Alan Stewart, Gene Fitzpatrick, Dean John Bond and Aiden Donnelly\u00a0Front Row: Lisa Stewart, Councillor Audrey Wales MBE and Joyce Bond<\/h6>\n

Chamber President Alan Stewart\u00a0welcomed everyone.\u00a0He said\u00a0\u201cOn behalf of Ballymena Borough Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you all\u00a0here\u00a0tonight to celebrate our 13th\u00a0Ballymena\u00a0Business Excellence Awards.\u00a0The fact that there are\u00a0500\u00a0people present here this evening\u00a0clearly illustrates\u00a0the\u00a0high esteem in which the\u00a0local business community\u00a0hold this event.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Chamber President Alan Stewart addresses the audience.<\/h6>\n

Tonight is about celebrating the\u00a0success of the Ballymena\u00a0Business Community\u00a0andfocusing on the huge contribution made by local Businesses and to highlight the commitment made by individuals. As a Chamber we see this as an excellent event to promote Ballymena to the rest of Northern Ireland as a great place to live, work and do business.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I would like to thank all our sponsors, especially\u00a0our principal sponsor Mid and East Antrim\u00a0Borough Council. Chamber has had an excellent working relationship with the Council in recent years and we look forward to building on that relationship in the future. To our individual category sponsors, many of whom return year on year to support the awards, we really are grateful for your support\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

Councillor Audrey Wales MBE, Chair of Economic Growth and Development said that she was delighted to represent Mid and East Antrim Borough Council at such a prestigious event. She said\u00a0\u201cAs I look around this room all I can\u00a0say is WOW!! Yet again Chamber\u00a0has\u00a0produced an amazing attendance and excellent programme confirming this as the biggest Business Awards Ceremony in Northern Ireland with almost 500 attending. As Chair of Mid & East Antrim Borough Council\u2019s Economic Development & Growth Committee, I am delighted. Proof if it were needed\u00a0that Ballymena and\u00a0its villages are indeed \u2013 Open for Business.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"Councillor Audrey Wales MBE, Chair of Economic Growth and Development, Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.<\/h6>\n

As we all know, the purpose of the awards is to demonstrate the commitment to excellence shown by businesses within the Ballymena area.\u00a0As principal sponsors of this year\u2019s awards, Mid & East Antrim Borough Council is fully committed to creating an environment in which commerce operates successfully.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Ballymena is a great place to do business and we are proud to be home to some great globally recognised organisations and extremely successful home grown ones. The current economic climate although showing signs of recovery \u00a0makes us more determined to collaborate and work jointly with businesses to ensure our strategies and plans benefit our local people.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are beginning the development of Mid and East Antrim Borough Councils first Integrated Economic Strategy and I can assure you that we will engage widely with local businesses and work in partnership to support growth and prosperity across the Borough for all our citizens. Growing our economy is the number one priority for our council.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I appreciate business is challenging but tonight is about a celebration of excellence within our businesses. \u00a0May I congratulate everyone who has entered the Business Awards and again commend Ballymena Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their dedication and continued efforts in organising this prestigious event. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Thank you Ladies and Gentlemen enjoy the evening.”<\/em><\/p>\n

You can view our full gallery of winners and guests by\u00a0clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ballymena businesses were out in force last Thursday\u00a0(1st October)\u00a0at the Gala evening in Tullyglass\u00a0House Hotel to celebrate the 13th\u00a0Ballymena\u00a0Business Excellence awards. The awards are organised annually by Ballymena Borough Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the principal\u00a0sponsor this year was Mid and East Antrim\u00a0Borough Council.\u00a0 Back Row: Chris Wales, Ian Paisley MP, Chamber President Alan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5311,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5308"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5313,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions\/5313"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ballymenachamber.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}