Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

But an even more satisfying figure shows that, taken collectively, they were only worth a 10th of that amount at the time we chose them as champions.

That ability to spot a world-class business when it is only a twinkle in a VC’s eye is what sets Business Weekly’s hall of fame apart from winners of other competitions.

Nor – unlike rival competitions – has the East of England Business Awards had a single failure. All our champions have stood the test of time and gone on, either in their own right or through upward international mergers & acquisitions, to greater things and higher value.

The 2006 Awards comes to a climax when winners are announced at a glittering presentation dinner at Queens’ College, Cambridge, on Thursday, March 22.

A shortlist of 34 companies is announced here today and the judging process has been stepped up to determine winners of five categories – Innovation, Private Company of the Year, Quoted Company of the Year, International Trade and Corporate & Social Responsibility.

From the shortlisted companies in all those categories, the judges will choose a Business of the Year – a company that has achieved something truly outstanding in the last 12 months.

Reigning champion, Cambridge Antibody Technology, is a classic example.

With the business sector anticipating a hat-trick of titles for the all-conquering CSR, our judges honoured CAT for becoming the first UK company to produce a blockbuster drug (over $1 billion in sales).

That judgement looked gilt edged when pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca moved in to acquire CAT in a £702 million coup less than four months after our Awards triumph.

Similar foresight by our judges had seen ARM chosen as Business of the Year three years before it became Cambridge’s first $1bn company. We also picked CSR well before it earned global acclaim. Such judgements have enabled overall champion companies and category winners raise cash, profile and morale with investors, staff and clients.

Sir Robin Saxby, who steered ARM from a barn and seedcorn funding to a world leader, returned to be a guest speaker at a subsequent Awards dinner and said: “Of all the business awards I know, this is the most professionally organised and the most significant in its reach and influence for winning companies.”

The Government’s chief scientific adviser, Professor Sir David King, a guest speaker two years ago, added: “I am delighted to be able to go back to the Prime Minister and tell him that innovation is alive and kicking in the East of England and I have seen an impressive example of that in these Awards.”

Shortlisted companies mingle at the presentation dinner with the region’s leading serial entrepreneurs and key government influencers from the UK and overseas.

Lucrative business is achievable through this networking – a bonus long before the crystal obelisks are handed out.

These Awards hold up a mirror to the East of England’s broadening economic profile. Entries span the entire region and a host of different sectors.

What encourages us most is the large number of cutting edge science & technology businesses in the line-up and the number of technology consultancies.

This is by no means a Cambridge-centric awards competition, but the entry is redolent of the early years of the Cambridge Phenomenon – bristling with young innovators and the consultancies that can take the rawest of products to a commercial success. Stem cell science is represented for the first time. A battle of the consultants is warming up with Cambridge Consultants, TTP and Plextek in the mix.

There is also a healthy representation from the biotech cluster.

But this isn’t just a tea party for tekkies: Shortlisted companies encompass: Air conditioning & refrigeration; Sport-related healthcare; instrumentation; IT consultancy; plant design; web software; business travel; leisure; construction; R & D; recruitment; analytical services; courier work; electronics; aquaria and aquatic design; medical devices; engineering & manufacturing; high definition TV; visual solutions.

World famous inventor Trevor Baylis will be guest speaker at next month’s gala dinner and says he is looking forward tremendously to meeting like-minded innovators at what has become the social highlight of the year in the East of England business calendar.

Awards 2006 shortlist A total of 34 companies have made the shortlist for the East of England Business Awards.They are now firmly in the judging mix but no results will be unveiled before the presentation dinner on March 22.

Shortlisted companies (in alphabetical order)

Adcock Group

Advance Performance UK

Akubio

Anglia Business Solutions

Artimi

AVEVA Group

Business Web Software

Cambridge Broadband

Cambridge Business Travel

Cambridge Consultants

Cambridge Leisure Park

Display Link

Hallmark Healthcare

Haymills

Howes-Macnaghten Technology

IDTechX

1Spatial

JobServe Ltd

LCG Bioscience

Lumora

Melbourn Scientific

MTvan.com

NovaThera

PBL Technology

Plastic Logic

Plextek

ProMetic Biosciences

Reef One Ltd

Shearline

Sphere Medical TTP

Verifile Ltd

Vidanti

Visual Planet