The Employee Ownership Awards were announced during the Celebration Dinner, which recognise those who have contributed to strengthening EO in their businesses and shines a light on best practice examples within the EO community.

I am thrilled to announce that Wise walked away from the ceremony with a trophy, having been awarded ‘EO Transition of the Year 2023.’ The award was open to organisations who became employee owned on or after 1 July 2022, aimed at highlighting successful transitions to EO and great practice regarding leadership, governance, communication, and engagement with employees.

We are proud to share the judges’ comments, who congratulated Wise for “demonstrating early engagement with employees and illustrating a textbook example of how to engage during a transition, that the EOA will encourage others to follow!”

In my remarks when accepting the award on behalf of the company, I thanked David Wise (Founder) and highlighted that his decision to bring us all into the conversation about Employee Ownership before we started the transition was pivotal and created opportunities for all employees to ask questions and build a deeper understanding of what being EO would mean for us individually, and for Wise as a company.

I also took the opportunity to thank the wonderful Co-Owners of Wise Productions. Our successful transition recognised by the judges is ultimately down to the high levels of engagement they graciously demonstrated throughout the process, the brilliant questions they asked, and the unwavering enthusiasm they continue to show.

The EOA Annual Conference is an opportunity for Wise to learn from other businesses and create connections within the EO sector. The Wise team that attended are collating their notes and key learnings and look forward to sharing ideas and initiatives with fellow Co-Owners for us to discuss together as our first year of employee ownership comes to a close.

We are tremendously proud of the progress we have made on our EO journey so far, and the feedback we have received from various parties only fuels our commitment to excellence and passion to drive further growth and success. As we enter our second year of EO, we are excited to continue making a meaningful impact in the industry (and beyond!) as a group of friends and Co-Owners who all have a direct influence on the future success of Wise.