Final preparations underway for this year's BIBAs ceremony

Nine months in the making, and the BIBAs awards night is now just weeks away.

Forty competition hopefuls will be among more than a thousand guests in the stunning Blackpool Tower Ballroom on Friday 15th September, eagerly waiting to find out if they've done enough to win.

Between now and then, it's 'all hands to the pump' for the team at the North and Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce that organises the BIBAs.

Putting on an event the size of the BIBAs ceremony, famous for its glitz and glamour and known as 'the Oscars of the Lancashire business scene', is no easy task.

"Months of detailed, precision planning go into getting ready for the BIBAs ceremony every year," said Babs Murphy, chief executive at the Chamber.

"From sourcing and liaising with local suppliers, through planning menus with our chosen caterers, producing table plans for more than 1,000 guests, finding and booking the entertainment, to designing the night with our events production partners, nothing is left to chance.

"Right now, with a little over two weeks to go, the team is flat-out as it runs through final preparations."

That includes getting one of the UK's biggest glitter balls out of storage, along with the famous BIBAs statues that will soon be taking their place at either side of the stage, flanking the winners as they're called-up to collect their awards.

While the Chamber is busy preparing to execute its well-laid plans, excitement is mounting for the finalists.

Lisa Sourbutts is the founder of CUBE HR that won the Service Business of the Year award in 2021. She said: "The anticipation in the last couple of weeks was tough, I remember it was all we could talk about in the office!

"Even just getting to the finals felt like a major achievement, but we really wanted to win and could hardly wait to get to the awards night.

"The Chamber team do a great job of planning and organising the competition and ceremony, they deserve an award of their own."

Norman Tenray, CEO of construction supplies business OBAS UK, agreed: "There's nothing quite like the BIBAs when it comes to celebrating the achievements of Lancashire businesses in style.

"The Chamber team works solidly on it for nine months, and the fact that they pull it off year-after-year without a hitch is testament to the hard work and effort they pour into it behind the scenes."

Awards will be handed out to winners in twenty categories, from Start-Up to the prestigious Business of the Year.

The finalists have been chosen following an exhaustive judging process that started in January when the competition opened to entries, formal interviews that took place at Blackpool Football Club in May, and a second round of interviews in June that saw the 105 volunteer judges visit shortlisted finalists in their own places of work