Entrepreneurs / Small Business  May 31, 2019

BizWest seeks nominations for IQ Awards honoring innovation

BOULDER — Nominations are open for BizWest’s IQ Awards, which honor the “innovation quotient” among companies in the Boulder Valley — including Boulder and Broomfield counties and the Denver-Boulder corridor.

The event will be in October 2019.

The IQ Awards honor products and services that have demonstrated a high degree of innovation, with strong market potential. Up to 10 honorees will be named for innovative products or services, broken down into industry categories.

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.

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 to the market since Jan. 1, 2018, or at least be 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.

Submit nominations for the IQ Awards here.

Ken Amundson
Ken Amundson is managing editor of BizWest. He has lived in Loveland and reported on issues in the region since 1987. Prior to Colorado, he reported and edited for news organizations in Minnesota and Iowa. He's a parent of two and grandparent of four, all of whom make their homes on the Front Range. A news junkie at heart, he also enjoys competitive sports, especially the Rapids.
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