ENTREPRENEURS from across the county will gather tomorrow for the 2018 Oxfordshire Business Awards.

Finalists were announced in May and hundreds of people will attend a black tie dinner for the 24th annual competition.

Presentations will take place at Oxford Brookes University’s award-winning John Henry Brookes Building.

There are 13 individual award categories and all category winners have the chance to win The Hawkins Business of the Year award.

OXBA chairman Paul Lowe said earlier: “I’m delighted that judges have selected such a wide and diverse range of businesses from different parts of the county.

I’m pleased to see some of our past winners and previous finalists taking part, mixed in with a large number of exciting new entries.”

He added that staff at the university were very enthusiastic about hosting the event.

Last year the awards were held at the King’s Centre in Osney mead.

It was a hat-trick of wins last year for Banbury-based construction firm Hawkins Group.

The firm won the NatWest Large Business Award, and group managing director Mike Hawkins was named the Shaw Gibbs Young Business Person of the Year, before the company won the Darke & Taylor Business of the Year Award at the end of the night.

A new hi-tech category has been created this year to bring in new entries.

The technology award has been backed by IT solutions company CIS.

The Oxford Times sponsors the Charity and Community Award and this year’s finalists are Donnington Doorstep, Restore, and Play2Give.