Launched in 2015, the Cardiff Business Awards have recognised outstanding achievement in business and celebrate talent, ambition and innovation from across Wales' capital city.
This year’s awards – to be held in Cardiff City Hall on June 23rd 2017 - come at a time when Cardiff is developing an exciting future that will ensure its continued economic growth over the next few years.
One of the key influences on this renaissance will the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal. Ratified on St David’s Day, this £1.2 bn of public funding will unlock significant amounts of private sector finance to boost jobs and prosperity not only in Cardiff but across the wider region.
It includes funding of £734m for the South Wales Metro - which will transform the transport infrastructure around Cardiff and the surrounding areas - as well as support for innovation, digital infrastructure and business.
But before even a penny of this funding is spent, there are already major property investments that are transforming the city.
For example, the new HMRC headquarters in Wales will create up to 1,000 jobs on the site of the old Thomson House, the former offices of the Western Mail & Echo. This follows the development of Central Square in front of the railway station which includes a new £120m headquarters for BBC Cymru Wales estimated to inject more than £1bn into the local economy over the next ten years.
And JR Smart, one of South Wales’ leading property developers, has created over 1 million sq. ft. of new office and student accommodation at its Capital Quarter scheme that will be home to over 1,000 staff in organisations such as cyber-security firm Alert Logic and Public Health Wales.
In fact, private sector jobs continue to be created throughout the city by both large and small firms. Firstsource announced recently that it was creating 300 jobs to add to the 1,500 it already employs on two sites in Cardiff, whilst telecommunications giants BT and Vodafone will be establishing 150 new posts between them as they expand their customer service operations.
There are also exciting plans by Nigel Roberts of Paramount Office Interiors to build a new railway station on the eastern side of Cardiff as part of his vision to open a business park focusing on science and technology and employing 15,000 people.
Smaller businesses are being encouraged to grow and develop across Cardiff which remains the main location for the Wales Fast Growth 50 firms. Indeed, in 2017, seventeen of the fastest growing firms in Wales were based in the capital city, creating over 400 new jobs since 2013.
The Entrepreneurial Spark hub, powered by NatWest Cymru, has so far supported sixty four businesses which have attracted more than £1m in investment and created ninety five jobs in the six months since it opened. In addition, the Tramshed Tech Hub is proving to be a successful location for new creative and digital companies.
The city’s higher and further education sector continues to make a real impact. Cardiff University has started on the next phase of its £300m innovation campus which will include SPARK (the world’s first social science research park) and the Institute for Compound Semiconductors.
Ambitious plans have been unveiled by Cardiff Metropolitan University for a multi-million pound new School of Technologies whilst the University of South Wales has recently launched USW Exchange, an exciting development that offers services to support both start-ups and existing businesses.
And in a unique public-private sector partnership, Cardiff and Vale College has recently joined forces with people specialists ACT to become the major provider of apprenticeships and skills training in Wales.
All of these fantastic developments have helped to boost the city’s business profile over the last twelve months but perhaps the one event that will really put Cardiff on the map will be the UEFA Champions League Final, which takes place on Saturday 3rd June at the Principality Stadium.
As the biggest club football match on the planet and the most-watched annual sporting event, it will generate a worldwide TV audience of up to 300 million fans in 200 countries.
More importantly, it gives Cardiff the opportunity to sell itself on the global stage and will help to market the city probably more than any other event since the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
Therefore, Cardiff is clearly a place on the up and there can be no better time for local businesses to celebrate their success through the 2017 Cardiff Business Awards.
Given that the closing date for entries is at the end of next week, I would encourage organisations from all sectors across Cardiff to enter these prestigious awards and recognise the amazing efforts being made by the business community to develop our capital city as a magnet for enterprise and innovation over the next few years.