You may be asking yourself, how will I know if my business is an Innovator? We are glad you asked because in our eyes, “innovations" can be almost anything. It could be a cutting-edge product that solved a business need. Or maybe it is your cool new reward and recognition program to improve employee morale. Or it could be anything in between! We welcome the ingeniously simple as well as the staggeringly complex. The answer is we’re looking for any and all innovations that have made a positive business impact.
Application Video
You have 1 minute to tell us what your innovation is and why it should be celebrated. Don’t forget to include your CEO’s spot (required), and answer the following (if applicable):
- How does your innovation / innovative practice impact your company or the greater business marketplace?
- Does your innovation have disruptive potential?
- Are you disrupting an existing process or industry?
- Are you creatively competing with yourself?
- Do you have a culture of innovation or a corporate strategy of innovation?
- Do you have an R&D budget, a Chief Innovation Officer, or other demonstrable way of showing your innovation strategy?
- Is your CEO at the forefront of your industry or sector? How?
- Do you have a culture of continual improvement?
- How do you "sharpen the saw" / seek continuous improvement?
- How else are you innovative?
- The CEO of your company must be included / appear in your submission video in some capacity.
- NOVA Chamber membership is not required to apply or win.
It goes without saying that you will want to be at this event, but to make sure your company won’t miss a moment of the fun, at least one representative of your company must attend the Innovation Showcase and the Mid-Atlantic Innovation Celebration.
Event Partners
Premier Partners
Elite Partners
Business Partners
To help us name the Mid-Atlantic Innovator of the year, we're enlisting the help of a business dream team. Each will bring his or her own expertise and more importantly an innovator's mindset to our judging panel.
Applying businesses will meet our judges at our Innovation Showcase and then watch them work (along with everyone else) when they judge the finalists during our Innovation Celebration.
Melissa Bradley
1863 Ventures
Allie Burns
Village Capital
Don Conley
Fundable Teams
Lawrence Greenberg
Motley Fool Ventures
Anita Gupta
KiwiTech
David Heyman
Smart City Works Venture Labs
Laura Hill
EquiFi
Erika Chan Killian
Leidos
Neil Kleinberg
DiliVer
Stacey LaMontagne
Cherry Bekaert
Esther Lee
Refraction
Sarah Leners
Bull City Venture Partners
Steve McKnight
Virginia Tech
Jen O'Daniel
CIT GAP Funds
Carrie Rich
The Global Good Fund
Danya Sherman
KnoNap
Rosemarie Truman
The Center For Advancing Innovation
Mark Walsh
Ruxton Ventures
Tien Wong
Opus8
Once all applications have been received, the real fun begins with not one, but TWO madcap celebrations (more details to come):
Innovation Showcase, April 1st
Innovation Celebration, May 6th
Join us on May 6th for the party of all parties, the Mid-Atlantic Celebration. We’ll gather to watch the finalist videos together and applaud their work before we announce, at long last, the 2021 Mid-Atlantic Innovator.
Open to the public, this event has an emphasis on fun. We encourage entrants to wear costumes. Bonus points for outfitting your entire team thematically!
Don’t forget to buy your tickets early as we’re expecting this Celebration to sell out.
How can you submit a Mid-Atlantic Innovation application?
Step 1: Create an account. Click on this link to be directed to our application portal.
(Note: This is different from your Chamber membership account.) Membership in the Chamber is not required to apply for (or win) an award.
Step 2: Submit your application. Use the guidelines mentioned on this page and below to create your application video:
All you have to do is submit a 1-minute video showcasing your innovation. Don’t worry, video production quality will not be a judging criterion—use your phone if that’s easiest. Finalist videos will be played for everyone’s enjoyment at our Mid-Atlantic Innovation Celebration.