Entries close next Thursday for this year’s Media Isle of Man Awards for Excellence so it’s time to send in your submission.

It’s a not-to-be-missed opportunity to raise the profile of your business enterprise, community organisation or team and showcase your achievements.

The award categories have been designed to recognise every sector and area of the community and there are entry opportunities for businesses of all sizes, community and charitable organisations, public sector teams, and individuals who have achieved extraordinary things.

The categories include: Celebrating Local Food and Drink; Digital Innovation of the Year; Sustainable Business of the Year; Nurturing our Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Teams Working Together.

There are also categories recognising health and wellbeing, and environmental and educational achievements: there really is something for everyone, and you may enter more than one category.

The online entry form has a number of simple questions including: What does your organisation do? What did your organisation achieve? And how did your organisation achieve it? You can also add supporting documents, photographs and video.

Sal Heddi, owner of Top Care, which won the award for Small/Medium, Enterprise of the Year at last year’s Awards, described the process of entering.

He said: ‘At the beginning it looks like you’d struggle to have time to do it but actually it is not that much when you start doing it and I think it is very much worth it.’

The judging process is completely independent and separate from Media Isle of Man. The judging panel is made up of 16 judges, all well-known and respected in the various sectors they represent.

They will come up with a winner and two finalists in each category and all will be invited to attend the awards night itself on Thursday, November 21.

The finalists will also take part in a professional video shoot which will be shown to the audience on the night.

Awards night is also when the winners are announced so it’s a wonderful moment for all of them but even just being a finalist is a unique opportunity to showcase your business, team or community organisation and raise its profile through all Media Isle of Man’s channels. The awards is our flagship event, a celebration of our whole community: it is filmed live and shared with an island wide and global audience.

Douglas Choral Union won the award for Nurturing our Arts, Culture and Heritage at last year’s Awards. Grace Hoodless from the DCU said: ‘What a fantastic night we all had. It was so well organised. We were so honoured even to be finalists, but to win, we were so overwhelmed.’

*For more information and to enter online visit www.afe.im.