The Okotoks Chamber of Commerce is rolling out the red carpet for local businesses at the Business Excellence Awards on Thursday night.

There are eight different categories including Business of the Year, New Business of the Year, Business Person of the Year Award, Outstanding Customer Service Award, Employee Relations Award, Social Profit Award, and the Environmental Responsibility Award.

Chamber CEO Cheryl Actemichuk says there's been a positive change with nominees this year.

"Typically what we have seen before and people have said is that it's always the same people, and this year I'm really happy to say that the nominations are entirely different from anything we've seen before. It's so exciting to see so many businesses in town that have never been recognized are getting recognized, both new and long term."

This year over 100 nominations were made for the awards.

Actemichuk says non-partisan judges were selected and given criteria sheets to help chose the award winners.

"This year our judges were Steven Muth, who's the chamber president in High River, Sean Ballard, who's the chair for the Alberta Chamber of Commerce, and Tanya Thorn, our town councillor, so it's a really good mix of chambers and the Town working together to come to who they thought was best suited based on the criteria that we have for the awards."

The Business Excellence Awards take place at the Foothills Centennial Centre Thursday night starting at 5:30.

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