A Night at the Business Achievement Awards

March 26, 2018

Author: Bernie Batt

Having migrated to the City of London less than 3 years ago, I am still learning which events of the year are the must attend events. Last Wednesday night, the London Chamber of Commerce hosted the Business Achievement Awards Gala at the London Convention Centre.

It was an exciting well-attended event, where many pillars of the community were able to network and honour some notable businesses. Positive sentiment echoed throughout the night. With pride, Londoners would exclaim that this was the largest business achievement gala in the country, and state how many years consecutively that they had attended.

I ran into SWO Angel members Barry Cleaver, partner at Miller Thompson, Al MacKinnon, Director of Sales at Core Solutions and Peter Mastorakos, who amongst other roles sits on the Board of Directors for the Chamber of Commerce.

Big Blue Bubble was nominated for the Beyond Borders Award, in recognition of significant expansion internationally. Our member, Damir Slogar founded Big Blue Bubble, whose game, My Singing Monsters, has received widespread acclaim. In the game, the player becomes a maestro of a symphony of singing monsters.

Unsurprisingly, the Canadian Centre for Product Validation (CCPV) was awarded the Innovation award. SWO Angels members know their group well as we held our February investment meeting at the CCPV, followed by a facility tour. Our members have witnessed first-hand their testing capabilities which in many respects are unmatched in North America.

Chris Dowding, our Deloitte sponsor, had the honour of presenting the Business of the Year, Small Business Award.

Notably for me personally, my tenants, Diebold Nixdorf and Northern Commerce were recipients of the Excellence in Human Resources and Business of the Year, Large Company Awards.

All said, this event is one event which represents the spirit of London, and the strength of our businesses. In my path to becoming a Londoner, this is certainly an event that I will attend again in the future.