Last weekend, JCI UK unveiled their national award winners for 2019 during our gala dinner which took place in the spectacular surroundings of City Hall in Belfast.  Please keep reading to find out all about our award winners and to see a selection of photographs.  To see all the official photographs from the gala dinner and awards ceremony, please head over to the JCI UK National Convention page on Facebook.   Public Speaking Champion   Chris Adamson from JCI London, who spoke on the topic of “now is the time to step up” was the winner of this year’s public speaking competition and will have the opportunity to represent JCI UK at next year’s European Conference in Dublin.       Debating Champions   During this year’s National Convention in Belfast, several teams went head to head as the government versus the opposition 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 JCI South which comprised of Chris Adamson from JCI London, David Khanna from JCI London and Michael Rothon from JCI Southampton.     Best Debater There was one debater who the judges really felt stood out from all those who took part in the JCI UK debating competition and who really gave it their all.  The winner of the best debater prize was Chris Adamson from JCI London.             Extempore Champion On the Friday evening of National Convention, several JCI members took part in our off-the-cuff, extempore public speaking competition.  This competition tests the quick thinking and verbal skills of our members as they have to think on their feet and often outside the box.  The winner of this year’s extempore competition was Rachael Shah from JCI Manchester.         Best Networker Award Attending a JCI event, particularly one with members and senators attending from all across the UK and overseas is a great opportunity to meet new people.  To encourage this and to help members make the most of the conference and experience as many aspects as possible, members were set a number of challenges and tasks by JCI UK’s Admin Director Vicky Biggs and required to complete the best networker’s booklet.  The winner of this year’s best networker award was Fee Francis from JCI Southampton.         Best Trainer This award recognises a member who has developed their skills in a variety of subjects and in particular a certain field (perhaps public speaking) and now helps others by delivering countless hours of training on this subject to members both within this country and other countries.  The winner of the best trainer award for all her work in organising this year’s JCI UK marketing roadshows was Ruthie Pinion from JCI London.       Best Local Community Engagement Programme The programme that won this award really engaged both members and non-members alike and raised a substantial amount of money for charity. The focus of the programme was something that was clearly an issue for the local area – anxiety, stress and depression and also aligned with the 2019 JCI UK plan. The winner of this award, for their charity and health and well-being programme, was JCI Manchester.           Best Local Global Goals Project JCI on a worldwide basis supports activities that work towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.  The winner of this award ran a campaign that changed hearts and minds and got members involved from outside the local chamber. The focus of the project was on SDGs 12, 13,14 and 15 and there is scope to continue the project further with the potential to run it as a national or even international campaign in 2020 and beyond.  The winner of the Best Local Global Goals Project with their project surrounding reducing usage of single use plastic was JCI Southampton.       Best Local Growth & Development Programme The award was given to a chamber that designed a programme to help grow and develop the chamber.  The winning programme provided a wide range of events which helped diversify the membership and focused on all of the JCI areas of development (personal development, business, international, community and social) with a high percentage of members being actively involved with the programme.  The winner of this award was JCI Southampton who during 2019 organised 60 events to celebrate their 60^th year.         Best Local Personal Skills Development Programme This award category focuses on those local chambers who put on training events that provide opportunities for members to learn new skills or develop existing ones. In this category, there were two particularly strong entries and so the judges decided to award a certificate of merit to JCI Southampton for their “future proof your career” programme. The winner of this award was JCI Nottingham for their “inspiring action and developing leaders programme”.  JCI Nottingham won this award because they developed partnerships with external organisations including the Chamber of Commerce and the local university. Their programme saw a high level of membership participation with strong feedback obtained from the attendees.     Most Outstanding Social Project Socials are the glue that can be so important in holding chambers together as members get to know each other over a friendly pint or coffee.  JCI Barnsley won this award for their annual pub train crawl.  JCI Barnsley have run this social for many years but this year’s team were still keen to learn from lessons learnt in the past and changed the format of the event to make it better and it is on track to be made into a JCI UK national social event in 2020!             Most Outstanding Programme The winner of this award were JCI Manchester for their Manchester Young Talent Awards (MYTA’s) which has now been running for an impressive ten years and this year saw 400 people attend the awards ceremony.  This year’s MYTA’s organising team worked closely with external organisations and sponsors.  The event also attracted a lot of social media engagement and the team behind the programme enhanced their personal development by pushing themselves out of their comfort zone.         Most Outstanding Local Communication Programme The aim of this award is to showcase the chamber that ran an impressive variety of communications to raise awareness of the chamber and its events. Again, there were two particularly strong entries in this category and a certificate of merit was awarded to JCI Manchester for their 2019 marketing communications. The winner of this award was JCI Southampton with their campaign around 60 events in their 60^th year.  JCI Southampton’s programme tied in with the national aim to Step Up and included a brilliant range of communications from digital to video and flyers. There was a great opportunity for the council team and members to develop their marketing skills which increased awareness of the chamber as a fun, active network.   Most outstanding new member The winner of this award was Lewis Ball of JCI Southampton.  By winning this award, Lewis receives sponsorship of £250 to use towards an international event in 2020.  During 2019, Lewis developed and delivered his first training session, has been a consistent and reliable pair of hands within JCI Southampton and provided dedicated support for a local food bank which resulted in the creation of a permanent collection point in his workplace.       Most outstanding member The winner of this award was Peter Robertshaw from JCI Barnsley.  This year, Peter really focused on his personal development and attended a number of national and international academies.  Peter has been actively engaged in his community by working with third party organisations to have a real impact in their local area.  It was also clear that Peter has a real desire to learn and grow and to be the best person he can be.           Most Outstanding Preparation by a Deputy President This award is for the Deputy who has shown to put a great deal of time, effort and thought into planning for next year as Local President.  The judges were looking at how those nominated have begun to prepare their local plan of action and approach, build their team and be clear about what they want to achieve. This was a very tough category for the judges to decide and they therefore awarded a certificate of merit to Rachael Shah from JCI Manchester. The winner of this award went to Zoe Toseland of JCI Southampton.  During 2019, Zoe worked closely with other chambers in the Southern region to create a stronger JCI presence; has ensured members voices were heard in the development of their plan for 2020 and has attended multiple national and international events.   Most Outstanding Local President 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. Ellen Walker of JCI Manchester was the winner of this award.  During 2019, Ellen took personal responsibility for key elements of JCI Manchester’s Plan of Action which delivered great success; developed strong relationships with other key organisations for the benefit of JCI Manchester and has successfully led a council team of 15 members.     Most Outstanding Local Organisation During 2019, JCI UK has had many chambers doing a variety of activities across all areas of opportunity: business, community, training, social and international. The winner of this award was JCI Manchester.  During 2019, JCI Manchester ran a programme of events that consistently reached and engaged with non-members. They also implemented a programme that aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 3 and the JCI UK Plan of Action.  JCI Manchester also utilised existing corporate partners to bring large levels of sponsorship and support to events which has increased the brand identity within Manchester.       JCI UK National President’s Discretionary Awards The final awards presented last weekend were JCI UK National President Mark Smith’s discretionary awards.  The winners of these awards were as follows:   Best Legacy - JCI UK Chamber Taskforce   Best Senator - Tracy Viner   Best Leader - Phoebe Benta of JCI Nottingham    Step Up Award - Michael Lynch of JCI Belfast and COC Director for JCI UK's 2019 National Convention   A massive congratulations to all our award winners!