The awards, now in their seventh year, are held on the second night of the Retail Solutions exhibition at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. Europe's best-known retailers and their IT solutions providers will come together at a gala dinner and awards ceremony, hosted by Retail Solutions. The awards are the highest accolade in the retail technology industry and last year attracted over 750 senior retail executives and vendors from around Europe.  This year, competition has been tougher than ever with a huge increase in the number of entrants as both vendors and retailers look to broadcast their technology successes.

This year's shortlist is as follows:

Best Use of Technology for Employee Development
Mothercare with BT Expedite for Personal Learning Room
Whitbread Group for Whitbread E-Learning Programme
Working Links for Virtual Shop Middlesbrough

Best Use of Technology in an Emerging Business
Digital Stores with Hybris for Hybris E-Commerce Platform
Postcode Anywhere

Most Innovative Use of In-Store Technology
Apple Stores with Smart Technology Solutions for Fujitsu B-Pad
Tesco with Irisys for its 'One-in-Front' campaign
Vodafone with Fujitsu Services for Q-MATIC

Best Use of E-Commerce in a Retail Environment
Lakeland with Snow Valley
Reevoo for ReevooMark
Rubicon Retail with Merret and Fresca for Web Home Shopping
Virgin Mobile with Conchango for its E-Commerce redesign

Supply Chain Excellence Award
Boots with JDA Software for JDA Intactix
Palmer & Harvey with VoiteQ for VoiceMan
Rosebys with 3M Supply Chain Solutions for Warehouse Advantage

EPoS Initiative of the Year
Celebrations Group with Itim and TOSHIBA for its EPoS implementation
Harvey Nichols with Premier Tax Free for Premier Integrated
The Thresher Group with Fujitsu Services for its EPoS implementation

Back Office Implementation Award
Mothercare with Triangle for In.Site
ONE STOP with Itim for Didos
Paul Smith with Cognos and BI Inform for business intelligence reporting
TJ Hughes with Vodat International for Retail Back Office

Payment Solution Award
Colruyt Arrivero Pizza with Atos Worldline, formally Banksys, for Pay2me
Costa Coffee with Givex for Costa Card
Card Commerce and euroConex for PayPlus OnDemand

Best Use of Technology in a Hospitality and Leisure Environment
Café Nero with Torex Retail for XN Checkout EPoS
Manchester United with Triangle for its integrated hospitality and foodservice system
Premier Travel Inn with Atos Worldline and Redsky IT for its integrated solutions for business travellers

Project Implementation of the Year
Celebrations Group with Toshiba and Itim for its EPoS implementation
Home Retail Group with DHL Exel Supply Chain for PkMS Warehouse Management System
Specsavers Optical Group for SOCRATES 7
Woolworths with TAG Company for its tagging roll-out

Free registration and further information is available online at www.retailsolutions2007.com or call the ticket hotline on 0870 429 4362

About Retail Solutions 2007

Now in its 27th year, Retail Solutions is the leading exhibition for the UK's retail technology market where representatives from the top 500 retailers come to learn about the latest technology, source suppliers and compare vendors.  In addition to over 250 of the biggest and most innovative solutions providers, Retail Solutions offers a free, three day programme of case study led seminars taken by experienced retailers.  Also, the European Retail Solutions Awards showcases the best and most innovative retail technology applications.