Finland hosts the European Quality Award celebrations in the beginning of October in Helsinki. The theme of the three-day EFQM Forum 2003 conference will be 'Inspired People Drive Success'. The aim is to emphasize the importance of personnel as a critical resource and basis of success.

The announcement of the winners of the European Quality Award competition, the celebrations that go with it and the international conference will bring together a high-level group of participants in Finland. About one thousand corporate leaders, management specialists and people in charge of research from various parts of Europe are expected at Helsinki Fair Centre.

The standard of the competition, which is being organized for the twelfth time by the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM), is the highest ever: the points obtained from external, independent judges by organizations that have enrolled in the competition are the highest of all time. Participants will be coming from further afield than ever. The countries taking part are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Spain, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Turkey, the Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The European Quality Award is a prestigious prize. Winning it requires years of resolute development work. The competition aims at recognizing and assessing excellent performance. Evaluations followed the EFQM excellence model, which is widely used as a development tool in Europe.

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