The Asian Awards 2011

Tuesday 18th October will see some of the world’s most successful Asian stars in business, philanthropy, music, sport, the arts, science and cinema gather at the Asian Awards in partnership with Lebara in London to celebrate the greatest achievers across all walks of life.

The Asian Awards will take place at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London on 18th October 2011.

The Awards will be hosted by Lord Sebastian Coe and promises to be a spectacular event, with stars in attendance including Jay Sean, Anoushka Shankar, Russell Peters, Freddie Mercury’s family – Jer Balsura, Roger and Kashmira Cooke, Brian May, Meera Syal, Boris Johnson, KP Singh, Anand Mahindra, James Caan, Asha Bhosle, Muttiah Muralitharan, Nihal Arthanayake and many more.

Commenting on why the Asian Awards stand out from other awards programmes Sonny Takhar, Head of Marketing at SYCO Entertainment and Sony award-winning DJ and broadcaster Nihal Athanayake, said:

“There aren’t enough opportunities to celebrate Asian talent at this level in this country in such a mainstream way,” said Takhar, who praising the Asian Awards as a major platform for showcasing talent to a wider audience.”

“To be respected as an accolade you need outstanding people to receive it – and the Asian Awards have done that better than any other,” added Nihal.

“These awards are about recognising the massive contribution made by the Asian community to this country, and the world, but they’re also about integration – because these nominees are citizens of countries outside Asia.”

As a celebration of excellence among the global Asian community, The Asian Awards were launched in 2010 to recognise and reward the outstanding achievements of individuals born in or with direct family origin from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan or Bangladesh across all disciplines of life – from business to the arts, culture, sport and public service.

The Asian Awards were an ambitious idea conceived by Paul Sagoo, Entrepreneur and Founder of Lemon Group, and realised by co-founder Caroline Jackson Levy, Managing Director of UBM Awards. “Our goal was to celebrate the highest calibre of individuals from the Asian community across all spheres of activity,” said Sagoo. “Last year’s inaugural event was spectacular, and set the bar high for 2011. This year, we will take it a notch higher,” added Jackson Levy.

DESIblitz met up with Paul Sagoo, co-founder of The Asian Awards and Kamel Hothi from the sponsor, Lloyds Banking Group to find out more about these auspicious awards. See what they told us in our exclusive interview:

The Asian Awards sponsors and partners include: Lebara, Lloyds Banking Group, Jaguar, PwC, Kingfisher Airlines, Save the Children, The Times, Quintessentially, Pernod Ricard and PR Newswire.

Kamel Hothi of Lloyds Banking Group said: “This is just one way of really show casing that Lloyds is keen to actually go out and support the community.”

There are 15 Award categories in total:

• The Lebara People’s Choice Award
• Outstanding Achievement in Sport
• Outstanding Achievement in Science & Technology
• Social Entrepreneur of the Year
• Public Servant of the Year
• Outstanding Achievement in Television
• Outstanding Achievement in Music
• The Lloyds Banking Group Business Leader of the Year
• The PwC Entrepreneur of the Year
• The Lloyds Banking Group Philanthropist of the Year
• Lifetime Achievement of the Year
• Outstanding Achievement in The Arts
• Outstanding Achievement in Cinema
• The Fellowship Award
• The Founders Award

Over 1000 of the most influential and important leaders from the Asian diaspora around the world will attend the Asian Awards 2011, 18th October, Grosvenor House, London.

Tickets are now available for sale at www.theasianawards.com or call +44 (0)20 7234 8717.