The second edition of Maldives Business Awards, one of the most anticipated business events of the year, will have its Gala event on December 2019.

The awarding ceremonys 2019 edition was announced earlier on 09 September 2019 by the Maldives Minister of Economic Development Mr Fayyaz Ismail, who officiated the event.

The entry for the event was extended on 15 October 2019 following issues to the official website of Maldives Business Awards which resulted in several potential candidates forwarding their request to submit applications.

On 20 October 2019, the organizer of the event Blazon Inc. had signed on with the media partners who will be associated with the awarding event.

Held at the premises of Television Maldives (TVM) on 20 Octobers afternoon, Blazon Inc. signed with several prominent media outlets.

Public Service Media (PSM) signed on as the Broadcasting Partner, popular online news Avas Online signed as the Online Media Partner. The Exclusive Official Travel Tabloid Partner of Maldives Business Awards 2019 is The islandchief.

Other media partners included Maldives Business Review (MBR) as the Business Magazine Partner, Maldives Business Standard as the Business News Partner, Maldives Insider as the Official Digital Media Partner and images.mv as the Official Photography Partner.

The Maldives Business Awards was introduced by Blazon Inc to create a platform to support, encourage, acknowledge and celebrate victories of corporate entities and individuals. The awarding ceremony is among the few wholly inclusive awarding events that does not aim for any specific segment or hierarchy of the business class or corporate society.

Among the main objectives of the Maldives Business Awards include;

•           To recognize excellence and create healthy competition among businesses
•          To promote innovation and business intelligence
•           To showcase outstanding achievements by the business community
•           To recognize the progress by individuals and businesses excelled in their respective sectors

The business awards first edition attracted a total of 185 entrants, while the judging panel included 09 highly qualified and credible professionals.

The evaluation and judging of the entrants plus finalists covered over 100 hours of judging while 56 finalists were announced. A total of 44 presentations of the finalists were showcased.

The Maldives Business Awards first edition attracted 20 sponsors and partners with another 20 endorsements. The event had 03 main events, while at the Gala a total of 23 winners were awarded.

The judging panel of the previous Maldives Business Awards included;

•           His Excellence Hamdun Abdulla Hameed former Ambassador to Singapore
•           Dr Aishath Muneeza Associate Professor (ICEIF)
•           Dr Mariyam Waseema Managing Director, Life Support
•           Dr Azmiralda Zahir Partner, Litica Law Associates
•           Mr Ibrahim Athif Shakoor Managing Director, United Foods
•           Usthaz Ashraf Rasheed Founder, The Law House
•           Mr Abdulla Giyas Former President, MATATO
•           Ms Fathimath Shaanaa Farooq Director General, Housing Ministry
•           Mr Ahmed Mazin Chairman, CMDA

The categories under which Maldives Business Awards recognizes corporate and individual milestones include;

•           Industry Excellence
•           Enterprise Excellence
•           Individual Excellence
•           Elite Awards

This years edition, the Maldives Business Awards 2019 will have a completely new addition to the events awards categories. According to the events organizer the newest category of Maldives Business Awards is the Peoples Choice Awards, which as the name suggests will involve voter contribution.

The awards under the Peoples Choice Awards include;

•           Best Marketing Campaign of the Year
•           Best CSR Program of the Year

While the entry window for Maldives Business Awards 2019 officially closed on 24 October 2019, Thursday, the organizer confirms over 150 applications were received for the event.

The initial judging for this years MBA is expected to commence sometime in the next week while finalists of the second edition will be notified of their selection by the end of the next week as well.

Presentations of the curated list of finalists have been scheduled for the first two weeks of the coming month of November while judging process of finalists will proceed simultaneously.

Maldives Business Awards will be signing with the events sponsors in the coming weeks though the dates have not been disclosed yet.