Best Innovation

Nominate a Business

The Best Innovation Award recognizes a business that develops advanced or innovative technologies to meet the needs of industry in B.C. This business contributes to making the province a strong and rapidly growing innovation economy, and is creating a positive impact in their industry and community.

Our judges will look for three main qualities:

Innovation: The winning business supports research and development to create advanced and innovative concepts, products, methods and services
Adoption: The adoption of their innovation has positively impacted the way organizations or industries are doing business. This impact is demonstrated through elements such as increases in efficiency, revenue and economic development
Collaboration: This business works with partners and organizations to promote the commercialization of innovation in BC

To win our Best Innovation Award, nominees will be assessed on three qualities:

Innovation

The winning business supports Research and Development to create advanced and innovative technology concepts, products, methods and services.

Adoption

The business demonstrates how the adoption of their technology has positively impacted the way organizations or industries are doing business. This impact is apparent through elements such as increases in efficiency, revenue and economic development.

Collaboration

This business works with partners and organizations to promote the commercialization of advanced and innovative technology in BC.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Best Innovation Award, nominees must have been in operation for a minimum of 12 months in BC. All nominees must have less than 50 employees.

Criteria

Items Our Judges Will Assess:

Our judges will consider the following when deciding the winner:

An executive summary that identifies the product or service, customer profile, market and competitive analysis, marketing strategy, innovation strategy and a summary of financial projections.
A description of how the company’s product or service is innovative, and how the company is leading innovation in the industry.
Identify the problem the company sets out to solve and how their technology is redefining the industry by addressing it.
Explain how Research and Development practices are supported in the company, including: practices to inspire staff and consider their ideas, and dedicated Research and Development staff to test and analyze feasibility, scalability and economics of opportunities.
Provide proof of effective adoption of innovative technologies by organizations or industries. Explain how these associated customers experience the positive impacts of the adoption process in areas such as increases in efficiency, revenue and economic development.
Describe how the company has engaged with external resources such as mentorship, entrepreneurial and/or training programs in order to better adopt innovative practices and proprietary ideas. Detail how this has impacted the process of developing the product or service offered by the company, and assisted in determining market or product fit within the applicable target industries.

Preparing Your Nomination

We understand taking part in competitions like ours requires a time commitment. That’s why we want you to maximize the impact you receive from entering. Here are five tips to consider when submitting your nomination for a Small Business BC Award.

Establish Your Objectives

A great place to start is to decide upon your goals for entering the Small Business BC Awards. Maybe you want to help boost your staff recruitment, raise your profile within your industry, or improve your marketing? Our Awards program can be a powerful tool to achieve your goals. You just need to clearly define what those goals are before you begin.

Designate an ‘Awards Champion’

Throughout the years, we’ve seen businesses pass the task of administering their awards application from one staff member to the next. This results in inconsistent entries where no one person took ownership and drove the task forward. Instead, we recommend designating yourself, or a staff member, as an ‘Awards Champion’ with responsibility for handling the nomination from start to finish.

Match Your Content to the Criteria

Each of our award categories has detailed criteria you can refer to when submitting a nomination. Our judges will refer to the criteria when assessing which businesses will proceed to the next phase of the competition. It’s crucial to understand the criteria for your category and deliver an application that meets the criteria. These simple instructions provide the recipe for success. Don’t ignore them!

Speak to Previous Nominees

Each year, over 600 businesses are nominated in the Small Business BC Awards. Across the several month process, these businesses learn so much about the process, developing invaluable takeaways, experience and knowledge. Why not consider asking their advice? They’ll be able to share some of the benefits of taking part, how to prepare to present to our judges, and how to approach your community to gather votes.

Get Your Entry Proofread

Before you submit your nomination, task a friend or family member to read over it and provide their feedback. Try to find someone who will provide impartial feedback. They may notice an important element you’ve forgot to mention, or typos that have slipped under the radar. Your entry will sparkle if it’s error-free and provides a compelling case as to why you should win.