The Hive business network has announced they will be postponing the Hive Blackburn with Darwen business awards in light of the Coronavirus pandemic.

The awards were to be held on the 25th June at King Georges Hall, but the event has been postponed until the autumn, with the ceremony to now be held on the 15th October.

Ian Brown, chair of Hive said: “In the light of the Coronavirus pandemic, and in consultation with Blackburn with Darwen council, we felt, as a large scale event in the region, that it would be advisable to postpone the award ceremony for a few months, until, hopefully we have passed the peak of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“I’d personally like to thank everyone who has entered and is supporting the awards, and apologise for any inconvenience. In particular I’d also like to thank our sponsors for their patience and understanding at this time, but we hope it will be business as usual come autumn, when we’ll hold the awards ceremony.

“Whilst our members will be disappointed, these measures are balanced in the light of how the virus is developing and is the right action to ensure the continuity of this event.”

Organisers will still take entries for the Hive awards, however the event itself and the judging process of the awards have been delayed.

There is now an extended deadline to enter the awards, rather than applications needing to be submitted by the 27th March, the deadline is now Friday the 24th July.

The awards are free to enter, and applications can be submitted via the awards website https://awards.business-hive.co.uk/

Ian also added that the regular Hive socials will be cancelled for the time being. He said: “With advice to avoid unnecessary social interaction we have also decided to cancel Hive Social events for the foreseeable future. The steering group are considering how we can support our members during this period and we will share information about this in our member newsletters. If there is anything our members require, that they feel we can help them with, we would ask them to contact us by e-mail atinfo@business-hive.co.uk”

The awards are one of the biggest events Hive puts on each year and are designed to both raise the profile of local companies and really celebrate what businesses are doing both in terms of their own growth and success but also in how they are improving Blackburn with Darwen as a place to invest, work and live in.