This weekend, JCI UK held our first ever Virtual Conference and unveiled the national award winners for 2020. Though we couldn’t meet in person this year it was still a great opportunity to get dressed up and celebrate the fantastic achievement of JCI UK members across the year.

In our debating competition teams went head-to-head to demonstrate their ability to form logical arguments, work as a team and give each other a good verbal thrashing!  The winners of this year’s JCI UK debating competition were our JCI Northern Ireland, Michael Lynch, William Redpath and Selina Horshi. There was one debater who the judges really felt stood out awarding the prize for best debater to JCI Belfast’s Michael Lynch.         

On the Friday evening of National Convention, several JCI members took part in our off-the-cuff, extempore public speaking competition. This year’s winner was Selina Horshi from JCI Derry.

The winner of the award for Best Inter-Organisation Collaboration Project was JCI Southampton for their Language Buddies project.              

The award for Best Local Global Goals Project went to JCI Manchester who used the active citizen framework to work towards SDG 10 Reduced Inequality with a project that improved members confidence when talking about racism and tackling issues surrounding inequality. A certificate of merit was also awarded in this category to JCI Southampton’s Think Local campaign.

The prize for Best Local Personal Skill Development Programme was awarded to JCI Manchester’s Hustle Hour programme.

The winners of the Best Local Community Empowerment Programme award went to JCI Barnsley for their litter picking programme.

Most Outstanding Social Project was won by JCI Sheffield for their chocolate chatters event to Cadbury world.

In what has been a challenging and unanticipated year for JCI Organisations across the UK and globally, JCI Barnsley were recognised for their efforts with the award for Most Outstanding Response to COVID.

JCI London’s buddy programme won the award for Most Outstanding Local Communication Programme.              

The winner of the award for Most Outstanding Member was Niki Davies from JCI Cornwall.

The Most Outstanding New Member award went to Paul Stafford from JCI Derry.

The award for Most Outstanding Preparation by a Deputy President recognises the Deputy who has shown to put a great deal of time, effort and thought into planning for next year as Local President.  The winner was Michael Rothon from JCI Southampton.

JCI offers ‘a year to lead’ and taking on the role of Local President is one of the most important roles within JCI – representing your members and leading your chamber in providing development opportunities to create positive change. The winner of Most Outstanding Local President was Selina Horshi from JCI Derry.

Throughout 2020, JCI UK local organisations put on a wider variety of activities across all areas of opportunity: business, community, training, social and international. The winner of the award for Most Outstanding Local Organisation was JCI Southampton.

The final awards presented over the weekend were JCI UK National President James Lambert’s discretionary awards.  The winners of these awards were:

• Most Outstanding Legacy to Sarah Beckwith       
• Most Outstanding Senator to Kate Canty              
• ThePowerOfUs award went to the Training Tuesday Series           

A massive congratulations to all our award winners!