Technology October 13, 2021 5:53:25 pm

BizWest IQ award deadline extended

By BizWest Staff

BOULDER — The nomination deadline for the BizWest’s IQ Awards, which honor the “innovation quotient” among companies in the Boulder Valley and Northern Colorado, has been extended. The awards recognize innovations among companies in Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer and Weld counties, plus the Denver-Boulder corridor.

The new deadline for nominations is Oct. 29, and can be accomplished here. The event will be conducted Dec. 1, 2021, at the Boulder JCC.

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.

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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, 2020, 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.