The John Russell Award Prizes
Please note this competition is now closed. Winners will be announced shortly.
Win a full year tenancy with Colbea for just £1 per month!* The lucky winner will have use of one our Colbea offices for just £1 per month* for an entire YEAR. This prize also includes business support from one of our award winning advisors. Colbea workspaces come with a range of benefits such as meeting room usage, training room discounts and 24/7 access. *The winner of this prize will be required to complete our workspace tenancy application process with further tenancy terms and conditions to apply. The winner will be responsible for supplementary costs such as IT and utilities. Tenancy will be based at the Colchester Business Centre, 1 George Williams Way, CO1 2JS.
Our second place winner will receive a free virtual tenancy with Colbea! A virtual tenancy allows you to have a professional address for your business and helps protect your privacy. Virtual tenancy with Colbea features other benefits such as 5 hours of inclusive meeting room usage each month, business advice sessions and post handling. This prize requires the winner to complete the Colbea virtual tenancy application process, terms and conditions apply.
Third place winners will receive eight hours worth of meeting room usage, worth up to £144! These eight hours can be used in any combination that the winner chooses but must be used by the end of the 31 March 2024. Meeting rooms are available for use between the hours of 9am to 5pm, at either the Central Colchester Business Centre (CO1 2JS), or the North Colchester Business Centre (CO4 9AD). Terms and conditions apply and bookings must be made through the Colbea booking system.
Introducing the John Russell Awards!
In recognition of his many years of dedication to the agency, Colbea has launched the John Russell Award in his name, where one young business will win office space in Colbea’s Colchester City business centre for a year. Runner up prizes will include a 12-month Colchester virtual office package and a free meeting room hire.
How do I enter?
To enter please complete the form here. Please note eligible businesses must meet the following criteria. Businesses must be located within Essex, and the business must be between 1 and 3 years old.
About John Russell
Colbea was founded in 1982 with support from Colchester Borough Council, the Chamber of Commerce, and local businesses. In the last 40 years, the enterprise agency has provided more than 40,000 independent business support sessions to an estimated 20,000 businesses, earning national recognition for its work.
John Russell became a Colbea director in 1987, was Chairman for 11 years and President from 2012 until 2022. Over the years, John has been a huge support for Colbea, even working as an CEO for nine months and seeing the opening of the brand new £1.3m business centre in George Williams Way in 2001.
Frequently Asked Questions
The award winners will be announced in early September 2023. Winners will then be contacted individually for further discussions about their prize.
Businesses should apply themselves, if you know of a business that may be interested please feel free to encourage them to apply directly.
Winners will be contacted via the information they provided during the application process. The successful applicant will be contacted in September to claim their prize. If we are unable to successfully contact the prize winner within two weeks, the prize will be reallocated to another nomination.
Business are limited to one nomination each, to ensure that the winners chosen are fair across the board. Duplicate nominations will not be counted. There is no benefit to multiple nominations.
Yes! Applying for the John Russell Awards are completely free and you do not incur any charges. Terms apply.
The John Russell Awards are open until 5pm 31st August 2023. Winner will then be announced early September 2023. Upon success of the awards, Colbea will confirm at a later date if the awards will return again in the future.