Senior councillor urges people not to miss out on the Sunderland Echo Business Excellence Awards 2024.

Sunderland City Council is again the awards' main sponsor.

Transcript

00:00Councillor Kevin Jones, it's a pleasure to be here today. The City Council, once again,

00:06our main sponsor. The Council have been involved with the awards since they began as the Sunland

00:09Network Portfolio Awards. How important is it to show your support?

00:13Once again, the Council are delighted to be supporting the Sunland Network Business Excellence

00:16Awards this year. The awards give us the opportunity to celebrate and champion the businesses from

00:21right across the city, from those who are providing that diversity, inclusion and entrepreneurialism

00:26right across our city, and it's important that we celebrate those achievements and everyone

00:31in those organisations who are helping that come to fruition.

00:35And obviously we've seen some exciting changes, the Sheep Falls development, the new stables

00:39there, culture houses coming up in the city centre. How much is Sunland changing as a

00:44place to do business?

00:46Well, Sunland's seen massive transformational progress with the £2 billion worth of investment

00:51that's going into the city, and this is our opportunity to support businesses to achieve

00:57what they can do in supporting us in becoming a city that is dynamic and vibrant and people

01:03want to come and live and work and play. So our business play a massive role in that and

01:08we're delighted we'll be able to support them with these awards and we'll be able to champion

01:13and celebrate the individuals and the businesses who are coming to Sunland, investing in Sunland

01:19and helping us achieve our goals.

01:21And if anyone's in two minds about whether to enter, what would you say?

01:24I would say enter into the awards, they're a great opportunity to recognise businesses,

01:30both large and small, whether it's someone who's setting up just as a small business

01:35and taking their first steps into self-employment to the larger employees in the city. It just

01:40gives us that opportunity to celebrate everyone, the businesses themselves and also the individuals

01:45within that and we can all come together, have a brilliant night and celebrate the amazing

01:50city that we have in Sunland and everyone who's making that happen.