IQ Award nominations accepted through Aug. 31

LONGMONT — Two weeks remain to submit nominations for BizWest’s expanded 2016 IQ Awards, which honor the “innovation quotient” among companies along the northern Front Range.

Formerly an event limited to Boulder Valley companies, this year’s event has been enlarged to include Northern Colorado. The event will be held Oct. 5 at the Plaza Convention Center, 1850 Industrial Circle in Longmont, and nominations are being accepted through Aug. 31. Nominations can be submitted at www.iqawards.com.

Categories won’t be finalized until nominations are submitted and vetted, but the event typically draws nominations in the aerospace, bioscience, business products, clean-tech, computer hardware, computer software, consumer products, Internet, mobile apps, nonprofits, and sports and outdoors categories.

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Besides the larger area covered, the IQ event itself has grown. A pitch-slam session will occur in the early afternoon at the same time panels of experts are discussing the latest trends at a mini Innovation Summit. A reception at the end of the day will be followed by the awards presentation, including audience selection of the overall Innovation of the Year.

The award categories and criteria include:

Innovator(s) of the Year honors an individual entrepreneur or researcher. An entrepreneur will be considered for fostering a culture of innovation within his or her company, while a researcher or team will be considered for a major discovery or innovation.

Innovative Company of the Year recognizes a company for promoting a culture of innovation in the region. Last year’s winner was InDevR, which creates analytical technologies for the life-sciences industry that enable the accelerated development and manufacturing of life-saving products that enhance diagnostics, vaccines and other biotherapeutics.

Incubator/Accelerator of the Year honors an incubator or accelerator that has had a major impact promoting innovation in the Boulder Valley or Northern Colorado.

IQ Awards for Innovative Products or Services honors products and services that have demonstrated a high degree of innovation, with strong market potential. Up to seven honorees will be named for innovative products or services, broken down into categories.

Judges will be looking for products or services that are truly “innovative” — entries that stand out from the crowd, ideas that are very creative and perhaps even unique. Innovations from both new companies and those already successfully doing business will be judged. The idea should be one that can lead to a “sustainable” successful business — not just a design on a napkin but a product or service that has the best potential to help build or grow a successful company.

The product or service should have been introduced during the past 18 months in the marketplace, or at least in a testing or beta situation where actual or potential customers already are using it. It doesn’t have to have made money, but it must show a potential for profitability and survival of the business.

Priority will be given to ideas that are clever, unique and creative; not on “slickness” of marketing materials. A company that has won a previous IQ Award can win again for an entirely new product or service.