Catherine Varmazis
The initial screening for Cabling Product News` Readers` Choice IQ Awards was completed at the June 1998 bicsi Summer Conference in Toronto. Cabling Product News, a quarterly supplement to Cabling Installation & Maintenance, rounds out the product coverage provided in the monthly magazine with more in-depth articles about new-product developments.
Cabling Product News inaugurated the Readers` Choice IQ Awards as a means of recognizing outstanding new products in the industry. Forty-six manufacturers participated in this first annual competition, and 25 finalists were selected from the more than 80 product entries. The criteria for selection were the products` innovation, impact, importance, and quality (hence, "IQ"). The judging panel, chaired by group editorial director Arlyn Powell, comprised installers, designers, engineers, consultants, educators, manufacturing executives, and business owners from the campus and premises-cabling industry. To avoid any conflict of interest, judges were barred from voting on their own companies` products.
"Credibility and objectivity were essential in choosing from among so many products in such a highly competitive and innovative industry," says executive managing editor Ron Karjian, who is project manager of the IQ Awards program. "We were fortunate to have assembled some of the best, most respected minds in the cabling business for our IQ Awards judging panel. These judges examined the features of each product during an all-day meeting to ensure that the products selected as finalists met all the IQ criteria. Now it will be up to our readers to decide the best of the best."
After the readers` votes are tabulated, the finalists will be announced in the December 1998 issue of Cabling Product News and will be presented with plaques at next January`s bicsi Winter Conference in Orlando, FL.
A detailed description of the 25 finalists and why they were selected by the judging panel begins on page 20 of the September 1998 edition of Cabling Product News, which accompanies this issue of the magazine. Also, don`t forget to mark the IQ Awards ballot on page 21. For additional ballots, call Gladys Haberman at (603) 891-9239.