ORGANISERS of the Evening Press Business Awards 2000 are expecting yet another surge of entries following a renewed "take part" plea by the York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.

Roland Harris, chief executive of the Chamber, has sent out entry forms to 655 firms in the region, telling them: "It is vital that we promote the diverse range of businesses in York and North Yorkshire. These awards offer an excellent opportunity to showcase all that is good in our area.

"I hope that in this Millennium Year that there will be record entries and that all of those excellent businesses that we know exist will take this opportunity to show their quality to a wider audience.

The awards, the most prestigious of their kind in the region, are backed by Barclays Bank, (Small Business of the Year), North Yorkshire Training and Enterprise Council (Progress Through People Award), Compris ( Best Innovative Use of New Technology), Yorkshire Water (Best Environmental Company), York and North Yorkshire Export Forum (Exporter of the Year), Torch Telecom (Growth Business of the Year), Garbutt & Elliott (Business Personality of the Year) and DE Ford insurance brokers (New Business of the Year).

Deadline for entries is Monday September 18, but the sooner the entry the quicker it can be considered for a profile story which will appear in the Evening Press and stay on the Evening Press website at www.thisisyork.co.uk

Finalists will feature in their own video to be screened at a glittering black tie awards ceremony at the Merchant Adventurers Hall, York, on Thursday, November 30.

The competition has its own dedicated website at www.epbusinessawards2000.co.uk where criteria for categories can be studied. Just electronically draft your submission in no more than 2,500 words and copy and paste it into our interactive entry form.

Or you can have an entry form posted to you by phoning Business Editor Ron Godfrey on 01904 567130.

Evening Press Business Awards