Awards Dinner

The presentation of the 2009 awards took place on Thursday 14th May 2009 at St Mellion International Hotel, Golf & Country Club.

The awards and the winners were introduced by Daphne Skinnard of BBC Radio Cornwall.

Gerald Ratner was the celebrity speaker and shared his bounce back secrets. The tycoon who almost ruined the world's biggest jeweller by publicly dismissing one of his own products as "total crap" had a very favourable reaction when he spoke at this year's Cornwall Business Awards. It is almost 18 years since Gerald Ratner's infamous speech to the Institute of Directors caused a global sensation, and forced him to step down from the family business he had grown into a billion-pound plc. Successful once again with an online diamond retailer, "Sultan of Bling" Gerald Ratner let Cornwall's leading companies in on some of the lessons learned as he made - and then bounced back from - one of the biggest business gaffes of all time.