TONIGHT (Thursday) is the big night, as the 2009 Hertfordshire Business Awards are held in Knebworth.

Businesses from across the county will descend upon Knebworth Barns conference centre at Knebworth House for a glitzy awards ceremony, hoping it’s their name called out as the winners are announced.

Now in its 13th year, the Hertfordshire Business Awards, organised by the WHT’s parent company Archant, acknowledges businesses large and small for their various achievements in the past 12 months.

Some of the finalists from Times Territory this year include NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) company ANLP International from South Mimms and school activity providers Sports Xtra from WGC, who are battling it out in the in the Small Business category.

Darren Smith, managing director of WGC ventilation firm DS Ducts is up for Business Person of the Year, while SoccerTastic, a football academy in Potters Bar, is shortlisted for the New Business award.

The award for Innovation features mental health recovery enterprise Recovery In–Sight Centre, based at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield, while John O’Conner Grounds Maintenance from Welwyn and Saks Hair and Beauty from the Howard Centre in WGC are both up for the Training and Development gong. In a separate award, Gemma Newcombe from Saks is among five nominees for the Young Business Person of the year, a list that includes Nathan Ghann from the University of Hertfordshire Entrepreneurs.

Potters Bar cleaning company the GOL Group and the Galleria in Hatfield are both shortlisted in the Medium Business award, while Ingrid Marson of WGC-based charity PR firm Acorn PR has been nominated for the Hertfordshire Woman of the Year.

Keep visiting www,whtimes24.co.uk tomorrow (Friday), to find out the winners on the night.