Pictured above: Rosemary Conley

Health, fitness and diet guru, Rosemary Conley will be using her wealth of business experience to help decide the winners of the 2010 East Midlands Women of Worth Awards.

The awards, which are sponsored by East Midlands Development Agency (emda), will be presented at the Women in Business Conference being held at Pride Park in March.

Rosemary Conley became a household name when she launched her Hip and Thigh diet, followed by millions of sales of copies of her books and fitness videos. She now also runs one of the most successful franchises in the UK - Rosemary Conley Diet and Fitness Clubs.

The closing date for the awards is Friday January 15th and Rosemary is urging people to enter. She said:  "There are lots of women in the East Midlands who are running very successful businesses, creating new jobs and bringing wealth to the region. The aim of these awards is to recognise the great work that these entrepreneurial, forward thinking women are doing and also hopefully to inspire other women to consider starting up in business.

"I am sure that most people know at least one entrepreneurial woman who is doing a great job in business and I would encourage them to take a few minutes to nominate that person for one of these awards."

Last year's winner of Business Woman of the Year was Leicestershire's Hilary Devey, founder of Pall-Ex.

Hilary set up Pall-Ex in 1996, when she realised that the palletised freight sector offered a poor, costly service to customers that needed to distribute small consignments.

Hilary's idea was to unite haulage companies in a co-operative way by forming the Pall-Ex network. She now leads a distribution network which has a turnover in excess of £100m and serves many thousands of customers. Pall-Ex operates from its purpose built £12m headquarters in Ellistown, Leicestershire, employing over 200 people and operating a scheduled service to 38 European destinations.

Speaking about her award, Hilary said: "Being nominated for an award is always wonderful - it's a reflection of real success. I would like to think that I can inspire other women who are thinking of starting a business. My advice would be 'go for it, believe in yourself, never falter' - and you will make it!"

The award categories are:

Small Business of the Year: The company must employ 10 people or less, be sustainable and made giant strides in the quest to achieve its goals.

Most Innovative Business: For the business that can demonstrate entrepreneurial flair, capitalising on an original and attractive product/service.

Business Woman of the Year: For a woman who has achieved outstanding success with her business and is an inspiration to up-and-coming businesswomen.

The closing date for entries is Friday 15th January and application forms and the full criteria for entry can be found on the emda website at www.emda.org.uk/wie.

The winners will be presented at the Women in Business Conference on Thursday 4th March 2009 at Pride Park Stadium in Derby.