Hundreds of female entrepreneurs, their colleagues and other business professionals from across the region gathered at The Sage Gateshead on Friday 16th November to see Nickie Gott of events management company ‘She’s Gott It!’  win the Susan Dobson Award for Entrepreneurship and be named ‘North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2007’.

Nickie, who formed the company in 2002, impressed the judges with her professional and inventive approach to events management and communications.  With an impressive portfolio of major projects in the public, private and voluntary sector, the latest contract has seen Nickie win a four year deal to deliver the world’s biggest winter festival in Edinburgh.

On winning the award, Nickie said: "I've never felt so proud. People have believed in me for a long time, and have put their faith in me – my family and my team. This just affirms that maybe I should do that too.

“To be up there in front of so many successful women, and to be told that you really are successful, is amazing. This award will give us the strength and motivation to go on to do even bigger and better things.”

The North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, developed and organised by Women Into the Network (WIN) of Durham Business School, sponsored by One NorthEast & South Tyneside Council and compered by Julia Hankin of BBC Radio Newcastle, saw over 700 people attend the glittering ceremony to hear the results and help to celebrate the achievements of the North East’s women entrepreneurs.  

The nine categories on offer were sponsored by a host of organisations across the region – The Journal, South Tyneside Council, Thompson Building Centres, North East Social Enterprise Partnership (NESEP), Arts Council England, Northumberland County Council, University of Teesside, Solutions Recruitment and The Susan Dobson Memorial Fund.

Lisa Vickers, WIN's Events and Communications Manager said: "The Awards are a perfect platform for us and our sponsors to bring recognition to the phenomenal amount of talented women running businesses here in the North East.  Over the years our winners have grown their businesses substantially, gone on to win national awards and, most importantly, acted as role models for the many other women running businesses or thinking of starting an enterprise.  I have no doubt that this year’s winners will follow in their footsteps, continuing to grow and help encourage more women into self-employment”.

Attending the Awards was Margaret Fay, Chairman of the Regional Development Agency, One NorthEast, a long-time supporter of WIN and the Awards.

Margaret said, "The continuing development of women's enterprise offers our region enormous untapped potential and is a key areas of focus for One NorthEast”.

A full list of winners and runners up can be seen on the website – www.womenintothenetwork.co.uk