About 400 guests will be flocking to the premier event on the county's business calendar on Friday The Oxfordshire Business Awards will be celebrating the success stories of the local economy at a gala dinner held at the Four Pillars Hotel, Sandford on Thames.

The event sold out weeks ago and organisers are confident it will once again prove to be a major success.

Awards chairman Stephen Dexter said: "As usual we have had a fantastic response from the local business community both in entering and celebrating these awards.

"I am confident everyone will enjoy meeting and celebrating with some of the driving forces in the Oxfordshire economy."

There have been about 230 entries this year with entrants ranging from large companies employing hundreds of people to such as services provider Amey and Blackwell Publishing to start-up firms.

The categories are environmental, innovation, tourism, charity and community, creative, tourism, small business, property and construction, growing business, customer and staff care, young business person of the year, business person of the year and business of the year.