Public voting is underway through March 6 for the Connecticut’s largest and most comprehensive entrepreneur awards event.

Submitted

Now, it’s the public’s turn to vote, as a total of 90 individuals, businesses and organizations from throughout Connecticut are finalists in the 2022 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.

Finalists with West Hartford connections include Ali Lazowski, founder of Bare Life, and Annisa Teich, of the Small Business Collective and West Hartford Coworking (which is also nominated in the Space category) in the Entrepreneur category, and Nutmeg + Honey and Chill Out Creamery in the Venture category

Online voting will is now open and will close on March 6, 2022 in 10 community-favorite categories, highlighting a range of entrepreneurial endeavors that are just starting up, or already up and running and contributing to Connecticut’s entrepreneurial vibrancy. Votes can be cast in each of the categories at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com. The most popular category, Entrepreneur, includes 32 finalists from communities across the state.

The ten 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.

An in-person event announcing and celebrating the 2022 winners will be held on Friday, April 1, 5-8 p.m., at Paier College of Art in Bridgeport. Tickets are now on sale at https://2022cea.eventbrite.com. Additional information about the awards program is at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com. Pre-program workshops are planned for 3-5 p.m. on the same day.

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*
• Space
• Program
• Economic Development
• Event
• Education
• Funding
• Corporate/Institutional

“The quality and quantity of the finalists this year reflects the incredible growth of the entrepreneurial community across Connecticut,” said Mike Roer, coordinator of the CT Entrepreneur Awards program. “We look forward to robust voting again this year, 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 for this year, and years to come.”

Program sponsors for 2022 include: Imageworks, Murtha Cullina, Entrepreneurship Foundation, Valuation & Transition Strategies, Community Economic Development Fund (Meriden), and Keating Agency Insurance. Additional sponsorships are available.

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.

The 6th Annual 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. (A list of affiliated organizations can been seen at www.ctentrepreneurawards.com.) The CT Entrepreneur Awards have been held annually since 2017, coordinated by volunteers and led during the first five years by founder Bill Kenney.

Proceeds from the CT Entrepreneur Awards fund entrepreneurship programs through the Entrepreneurship Foundation, our non-profit partner http://www.entrepreneurshipfoundation.org.

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 Mike Roer at [email protected]  203 520-8051 or Fred Welk at CEDF [email protected] 860 918-5878.

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