In the 2020 competition, 255 individuals, businesses, and organizations, many from West Hartford, have been named finalists.

Submitted

Now, it’s the public’s turn to vote, as a total of 255 individuals, businesses and organizations are finalists – following a record-setting 404 nominations – for the 2020 Connecticut Entrepreneur Awards. 

The awards – to be presented at Connecticut’s largest and most comprehensive entrepreneurial awards event – identify, recognize, and celebrate Connecticut’s leading entrepreneurs and ventures, and the ecosystem elements that support them. 

Online voting will close on March 8, 2020, in 10 community-favorite categories, highlighting a range of entrepreneurial endeavors. Votes can be cast in each of the categories at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com. The most popular category, Entrepreneur, includes 92 finalists from throughout the state, the most of any category in the four years of the CT Entrepreneur Awards. 

The 10 categories now open for community online voting are: Entrepreneur, Venture, Community Builder, Space, Corporate/Institutional, Education, Funding, Economic Development, Event, and Program. There will be winners and honorable mention recipients in each category, based on the community voting totals.  

A special event announcing and celebrating the 2020 winners will be held on Monday, April 20, at the Pratt & Whitney Hanger Museum in East Hartford. Ticket information for the event is available at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com

In addition to the 10 community categories, there are category winners to be determined by panels of more than two dozen expert judges from outside Connecticut, who will be evaluating the finalists. The specific categories that will be awarded based on the decision of the judges are in addition to the community voting award categories. The judges’ categories are:

• Entrepreneur
  • Scaling (>$1MM revenue)
  • Scalable
  • Main Street
  • Social good
  • Student (<25 years old)
• Venture
  • Revenue
  • Pre-revenue
• Community Builder

2020 CT Entrepreneur Awards sponsors include: The Entrepreneurship Foundation, Entrepreneurs’ Organization Connecticut, Keating Agency Insurance, ImageWorks, Litchfield Distillery, Murtha Cullina, Pratt & Whitney, Sound Web, UHY Advisors, Universal Connectivity, and Webster Bank.

“The quality and quantity of the finalists this year reflects the incredible growth of the entrepreneurial community across Connecticut,” said founder Bill Kenney. “We look forward to robust voting during the coming weeks, as people throughout the state take a look at the remarkable, innovative work being done by scores of finalists, individually and collectively, in many different disciplines. Together, they all have a strong impact on our state and its communities, and that’s good news for Connecticut.” 

The CT Entrepreneur Awards are a product of the CT Entrepreneur Event Organizers consortium, an all-volunteer cooperative effort of people and organizations that host and facilitate entrepreneur-facing events in Connecticut. (See list of affiliated organizations at ctentrepreneurawards.com.) The CT Entrepreneur Awards have been held annually since 2017, coordinated by the growing group of volunteers and led by founder Bill Kenney.

In the community voting, individuals can only vote once for any particular finalist but can vote for more than one finalist in each category. Finalists can also share the link to their nomination on the CT Entrepreneur Awards nomination website with individuals in their own networks, to spread the word about their nomination and the upcoming awards ceremony. 

A special feature of the 2020 awards ceremony will be last year’s judges’ award winners presenting the winning trophy to this year’s winners. A number of winners from previous years are currently being featured on the CT Entrepreneur Awards website, sharing updates on the progress they’ve made since being selected.  The updates can be seen at http://ctentrepreneurawards.com/News.

Nominations for the 2020 awards closed last month, resulting in a record-setting total of 404 nominations.  After being nominated, nominees were reviewed to ensure they met criteria for the awards, and remaining nominees were then asked to provide information that would give community voters and judges more information about their endeavors. Those submissions, as provided, appear on the website.

For more information about the event, including how to get involved or become a sponsor, contact Bill Kenney at [email protected].

Like what you see here? Click here to subscribe to We-Ha’s newsletter so you’ll always be in the know about what’s happening in West Hartford!