With a tourist’s view of Westminster Abbey and located a minute’s walk from the famous Scotland Yard sign, you can find the BIS building at 1 Victoria Street. The Queen’s Awards Office lives on the 4th floor and we are a tight, very hard-working team of 6 who enjoy our roles.
The team
We each have areas of responsibility and expertise - Kerry runs the online entry systems, Alastair handles the Buckingham Palace reception and Judging Panels, Kieran (our postgraduate intern) looks after our videos and marketing materials and I work with Kat on Marketing and Communications, which includes managing all our campaigns and events. We are overseen by Linda who sails our regal ship through the choppy waters of each year, making sure we meet our deadlines along the way.
Our significant dates
We have all the important dates flagged on our giant milestones calendar on the wall - the big 2 are:
21 April – the Queen’s Birthday. This is the day the winners are announced plus the day the competition opens for the next year.
Last working day of September – the day the competition closes.
There is also an annual reception in Buckingham Palace for the winners which generally happens in July.
There’s an old showbiz saying that you shouldn’t shine daylight on magic - but without giving away any secrets I can say it takes plenty of planning to make sure we attract the highest quality and widest diversity of online entry forms in September. The forms we receive are examined by our various category judging panels (International Trade, Sustainable Development, Innovation and Enterprise Promotion) before the shortlist is sent to No.10 for the Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel to have the final word.
Feedback from our panels last year said that the standard of entries was at an all time high. This makes us very happy but does not diminish our mission to reach out even wider, both regionally and across the sectors.
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales - we would love to get even more entry forms from you! We have been to events in your regions so we know there are very high achieving businesses there and all over the United Kingdom so we really want you to enter.
Remember this Award is open to all UK businesses with a minimum of 2 employees and a continual improving balance sheet - does this sound like you?
Helping you with your form
When the phone rings with someone asking a question about the online form it makes us happy! It means we have one more prospective entry.
Remember we are here to answer your questions and will do all we can to help you complete and submit your form. Do you have a certain question that is preventing you from pressing the submit button? Please give us a shout - we are waiting for your call.
My final advice - please don’t leave it till the very last moment. Why not start today?
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