The Precious Awards 2009

'It was the best one yet'...that's how our sponsors summed up the 2009 Precious Awards, sponsored by Pearson plc, which took place on November 16.

We had asked our guests to 'dress up' (cryptic huh?) but they truly did us proud as finalists and guests arrived in an array of beautiful dresses and stunning shoes. Our co-host Rasheed Ogunlaru even wore a silver suit!

The first part of the evening bore witness to some furious networking - which is what Precious is all about - over some wine and food - and there was a genuine air of positivity and optimism all around.

Then the awards presentation kicked off (hosted beautifully by Rasheed and Jessica Huie) and for me it all passed in a flurry, thank goodness we recorded it. Some of the most poignant moments included Jessica Elliot, winner of the PRECIOUS Young Entrepreneur of the Year dedicating her award to her friend Daniel De Gale and Jo Behari, the PRECIOUS Entrepreneur of the Year, busting into tears on hearing she had won!

I'm really proud of all our finalists and I was struck by how determined, passionate, humble and indeed how very precious they all were. I wished we could have given awards to all of them, yet as the saying goes and as the judges said repeatedly throughout the judging - they are all winners. Indeed, and we'll be doing our best to support all of them.

Click here for a list of the 2009 PRECIOUS Awards winners

And the winners are...

Oh what a night!

The 2008 Precious Awards was an evening to saviour and I'm still reeling from the positivity and warmth this night of celebrating some of the UK's top Black and Asian female entrepreneurs produced.

Our hosts for the evening were Hannah Pool, Guardian writer and author and Rasheed Ogunlaru, the Precious business coach, who opened the event with messages of support from David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Baroness Amos.

The evening proceeded in style with an entertaining, warm and humorous speech from Jennette Arnold, leader of The London Assembly. Recently named as one of the most powerful black women in the UK Jennette had the audience almost entranced as she shared her story of her rise to the top. And then the awards began…

Seeing each of the winners head up to the podium to receive their award reminded me of how difficult the judging process had been. There was lots of healthy discussion and debate between the judges about the winners of each category, which only served to emphasise the high quality of the nominations we received. What was most telling to me was that so many of our winners were so surprised to be recognised. This enforced for me why the Precious Awards are necessary to play a role in celebrating the dedication, passion and sheer hard work that Black and Asian female entrepreneurs display to achieve success.

And the winners were:
Best Business: Samantha Alfred, Jivana Style,
Creative Business of the Year: Imtaz Khaliq: Imtaz Bespoke Tailor,
Best Service Business Paschorina J. Mortty: The One Event,
Best Start Up Business: Annick Adjo: Atelier Annick Ltd,
Best Social Enterprise, Abiola Okubanjo and Yemisi Gibbons: Forefront Training
Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Samata Angel: Samata's Muse,
Inspiring Leader within the Workplace, Nike Folayan: Mott Macdonald UK

The Precious Entrepreneur of the Year: The Judges Prize, went to Natasha Faith and Semhal Zemikael of La Diosa two young incredibly focused inspiring women whose luxury jewellery brand is set to soar even higher. I'm so proud of them and all our finalists and winners.

We're already planning the 2009 Precious Awards... I hope that you will be able to join us.