1.) Identify a product or project worth bragging about.
Our judging panel will review entries based on the extent to which they are innovative beyond previous products, technologies, systems, or approaches. We offer the following characteristics as suggestions. Use your entry as a way to explain how your submission innovates in any of the following ways (or in an interesting way we haven’t listed):
- Innovative approach to project, application or product design and implementation
- Value to the user, measured by qualities such as ROI, loss prevention, business-efficiency gains, or other qualities
- Sustainability, characterized by overall eco-friendliness, long-term value, lifecycle cost-effectiveness, or other measures
- Meeting a defined need as a well-conceived, well-executed initiative that fully meets specific user requirements
- Collaboration, which can include communication and cooperation throughout the value chain through which the product or system is procured or deployed
- Impact, which can be identified by describing the difference the project, application or product made on the professionals involved, on the productivity of its ultimate users, and/or on society as a whole
- Any other characteristic you can specify. The program exists to honor the innovations and beyond-the-norm thinking of professionals like you
2.) Block time out on your calendar.
Map out some time on your schedule so you can focus on your entry.
3.) Download a preview of the entry form and compile your answers before completing the online entry.
Once you’ve compiled your data, review your draft and confirm it clearly demonstrates one of the following criteria: innovation, value to the user, sustainability, meeting a defined need, collaboration, impact.
4.) Include supporting documentation.
Whether it’s photos, video, specification sheets, technical descriptions or any documentation you can make available, our judging panel will review all material from each submission. Testimonials from users and other professionals involved—whether they go on the record or prefer to remain anonymous—are valuable and encouraged. Take the opportunity to “show and tell” by providing as much supporting documentation as you can to let us know what separates your entry from the crowd.
5.) Use specific, quantitative and instantly credible language.
Avoid the urge to just copy and paste the text from your marketing collateral or website.
6.) Be sure to answer the following questions about the product/application/project:
- How does the product/application/project being nominated stand out as an innovative application of a cabling or communications product or system?
- How does it reduce operational expenses and/or develop new revenue sources?
- What are the unique features of this product as it compares to competing solutions?
- What makes it innovative?
7.) Get input from the technical/engineering team.
Provide specific examples of how the development impacts the structured cabling community.
8.) Celebrate your customers and partners.
When describing your product or project, use the entry as an opportunity to recognize your customers and your installation partners who deliver your products and systems to the market. Your customers can gain recognition as forward-thinking, problem-solving organizations that employ innovative technologies to optimize their business performance. And including your installation partners in the story emphasizes your company’s commitment to deploying systems with high-quality workmanship and top-notch expertise.
9.) Call or email if we can help you.
Our chief editor Patrick McLaughlin is managing the program, and is available to discuss anything that can help you complete an entry. He can be reached by email at [email protected] or by phone at 603-891-9222.
