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This October, The Grand Hotel Gosforth Park in Newcastle played host to over 300 attendees for our annual ABC Awards 2024. This prestigious event celebrated the remarkable achievements of the Asian and wider community in the North East over the past year, spotlighting key efforts in promoting inclusion and unity.
With our Inclusion By Default campaign being at the heart of everything we do, the narrative at the ABC Awards was always going to be about inclusion, which couldn’t be more important this year.
A number of award winners and our Chairman spoke movingly about the recent riots and how both the Asian and wider communities in Newcastle and the North East have come together to support each other.
The talks and stories were a great reminder of the strength we have when we unite as a community, which was reflected throughout the whole evening.
As usual, Tommy Sandhu our host for the evening brought everyone together with some very memorable and funny moments, especially with his magical musical powers (in his words) and the dance moves! They never fail to entertain. However I think the guests he picked on had better moves than him. Sorry Tommy!
While the ABC Awards Dinner has a reputation for being one of the most entertaining and fun awards shows in the Northeast (if not the most, but we're biased), it is also the only awards event that truly connects, supports and promotes local businesses and individuals within the Asian and wider community.
We do this by highlighting the outstanding talent within the Asian and wider community here in the North East. Selected from a vast number of nominations, this year's winners perfectly showcase the region's diverse and inclusive abilities:
Chairman's Award: Kam Chera, Nicki Clarke OBE, Amit Bahanda
Health and Life Sciences Award: Sreejith Raveendran
Public Sector Award: Sajda Nawaz-Bhatti, Akmal Ahmed
Third Sector Award: Neeraj Sharma
Independent Award: Sneha Rachel Sam, Uma Malhotra
People's Choice Award: SBV Law: Bhavesh Vasa
Lifetime Achievement Award: Ash Aggarwal
Northern Business Woman Award: Surbhi Vedhara
Professional Award: Abu Ali, Rizwan Shahid
Business Award: Hasan Hamid, Wenyan Sharp
Inclusion By Default Award: Zoe Hingston, Show Racism the Red Card, Durham Miners Association, Fiona Surrey, Sunderland University, John McDonald, The Spectral Lioness, Stephen Lewis Elms, Dialogue Society, NUFC Foundation
Each award highlighted the incredible work people and organisations are doing to make our community better and more inclusive, especially all chosen as winners of this year's new Inclusion By Default Award.
We also helped launch a new venture on the night - the Northern Business Woman Magazine and to go with it, the new Northern Business Woman Award. We recommend checking this out and keep your eyes peeled for the next issue.
But the night wasn’t just about giving out awards. It was also a chance to hear some inspiring speeches from community leaders about resilience and the importance of community and working together. The vibe all night was fantastic, with cultural performances and of course the delicious food, bringing everyone together to celebrate our shared heritage and strengths.
We want to congratulate all the finalists, the winners and thank everyone who made the event such a success, especially our sponsors. We couldn't provide our Awards without your support, so a huge thank you to you too.
The ABC Awards 2024 was a great success filled with smiles, unity, and a shared commitment to making the future of our community more inclusive.
We would like to invite you all to next year's Annual Awards Dinner for 2025 - and if you become an ABC Member you will benefit from exclusive discounts (some earlybird offers) on sponsorship, tickets and tables.
We encourage you to join ABC as a member, demonstrate your support for our Inclusion By Default Campaign and enjoy many other exclusive benefits through ABConnexions.
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