We are export award winners!
It's not often that we scrub up and put on our black tie dinner jackets and our glamourous dresses, but last Friday a group of us headed to Birmingham's Think Tank at Millenium Point for the 2007 West Midlands International Trade Awards Dinner!
We were amongst many of central England's up and coming exporters including some well known companies in the region, all nominated for prizes from UK Trade & Investment. UKTI is a government organisation dedicated to helping business.
The reason we were there is that we take part in the UKTI's Passport to Export scheme, which is designed to help companies that are looking to expand into new international markets. It has allowed us to look at new business partners in the US, and also to go and investigate Australia and the Far East and see what prospects are there (John will be blogging soon about his recent trip to Korea). We were nominated for "West Midlands Passport Exporter of the Year"...
...and we won! Because we sell our wares on the internet we rarely think of ourselves as exporters (I call it painless export - you don't need couriers), which makes this award all the more exciting! The photo on the right is of Howard and I with Louise Barth who was our Passport to Export trade advisor.