• Data Gumbo strives to be the largest smart contract network globally and to change the way the world does business 
• Amid the pandemic and oil price crash, Data Gumbo achieved numerous milestones as a recognized leader, including a robust sales pipeline and customer base, doubling the size of the company, and adding several partnerships
• Data Gumbo’s blockchain network, GumboNet, automates the execution of smart contracts for industrial enterprises, resulting in increased speed, accuracy, transparency, visibility, security, massive cost-savings, the removal of inefficiencies, and trust

About Data Gumbo 

Data Gumbo started out as a data platform that connected to collected and standardized operational data to enable machine learning, AI, and condition-based maintenance systems. The company transitioned to utilizing blockchain after spotting an opportunity to eliminate a sizable cost inefficiency between an oil supermajor and one of its suppliers. With integrated real-time capabilities, GumboNet reduces contract leakage, frees up working capital, enables real-time cash and financial management, and delivers provenance unprecedented speed, accuracy, visibility, and transparency, as well as automated and accurate ESG standards measurement and reporting.

Data Gumbo was founded by entrepreneur and energy executive Andrew Bruce in 2016 and set out to build a solution to unify operational field data with automated smart contracts, resulting in GumboNet, the massively interconnected industrial smart contract network powered by blockchain that delivers transactional certainty in commercial relationships. 

Since 2020, Data Gumbo has experienced a rocket-like trajectory as adoption and business use cases have become evident to the most critical of global heavy-asset industries - especially as they navigate the crises of the past year. Data Gumbo is a broadly recognized innovator, as noted in the Forbes 2020 Energy Awards as the “Disruptive Innovator” and in being named to CB Insights Blockchain 50. 

Amid the pandemic and oil price crash, Data Gumbo achieved numerous milestones as a recognized leader, including a robust sales pipeline and customer base, doubling the size of the company, and adding several partnerships. Now Data Gumbo is being adopted at a fast clip - one indicator of recognition that its innovation is not only disruptive but critical to enable monetary and operational survival for coming out of crisis. 

GumboNet

The antithesis of token-hyped, public blockchains, Data Gumbo offers a purpose-built, private and permissioned blockchain network called GumboNet that enables and automates the execution of smart contracts for industrial enterprises. By transforming existing natural language contracts to “smart” digital contracts, the network creates validated, auditable, and immutable records delivering trust and value to counterparties. 

Available as a subscription, GumboNet frees users from excessive IT spend and the hefty administrative burdens required to build their own solution. Business outcomes include speed, accuracy, transparency, visibility, security, massive cost-savings, the removal of inefficiencies, and finally, trust. For example, service providers get paid for exactly what is delivered, and buyers pay only for what is measurably delivered; payment automation takes a typical 90-day invoice process down to as little as two days. 

GumboNet’s key differentiators include the capability for subscribers to create, configure, negotiate, and manage smart contracts that work in tandem with natural language contracts. The network is a purpose-built private, permissioned blockchain with no cryptocurrency, tokens, or mining. It operates as a single network of ledgers rather than non-interoperable point solutions, can restore massive data sets for complete visibility and audibility, integrate with existing legacy or IoT data sources, and guarantees interoperability with other subscribers. 

Blockchain delivers the ability to know and lower a subscriber’s cost, and GumboNet offers a path to navigate previously convoluted and resource-intensive issues around trust, accuracy, and the ability to verify data in the field. 

Data Gumbo won two Gold Stevie Awards for Company / Organization Categories - Most Innovative Company of the Year - Up to 100 Employees and for New Product & Service Categories - Business Technology - Blockchain Solution in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2022 American Business Awards? Request the entry kit. 

• Rockstar Capital’s marketing numbers skyrocket with award-winning team
• Creative branding generates multi-million impressions and thousands of leads for the property management company
• Rockstar Capital’s innovation allows them to get ahead of competitors in a notoriously slow industry

About Rockstar Capital 

Rockstar Capital is an industry-leading property management company that owns and operates affordable, well-maintained apartment homes throughout Texas, in cities such as Houston, Humble, Baytown, Rosenberg, Alvin, Angleton, Pasadena, Ingleside, and Kingsville. Their current operations include 21 communities with a total of 3,762 units, and they expect to grow to 10,000 units by 2023.

Beginning humbly in 2011 by holding signs outside of their apartment communities, Rockstar Capital’s marketing team has grown to six members who have brought in a lot of their previously outsourced work. With more manpower, they have been able to focus more work on the big picture and run more targeted and strategized campaigns. Rockstar Capital has successfully established its Apartment Rockstar branding for investors, as well as the Rockstar Capital brand for their residents.

Influencer-Style Branding

With more than 1,400 YouTube subscribers, 64,000 Instagram followers, and 1,400 Facebook page likes as of August 2020, the Apartment Rockstar branding has helped the company team up with celebrities like Tarek El Moussa, from HGTV’s Flip or Flop. They have also established owner Robert Martinez as a recognizable face in the Houston Multifamily industry.

Apartment Rockstar strives to take both investors and residents on a journey behind the scenes of Multifamily, something their competitors rarely do. Martinez was recognized as the owner of a National Apartment Association (NAA) Property of the Year in 2019 and has earned NAA’s Independent Owner of the Year award for the second time in 2019, becoming the only NAA member ever to do so. Along with awards, Robert has been featured in articles by Forbes, Money, CNBC, Make It, Entrepreneur, and Business Insider.

Cost-wise, 2019 was a great year for Rockstar Capital’s marketing numbers. Rockstar’s team was able to bring in 34 million impressions, 4.7 million company website views, 51,000 potential resident leads, and 2,800 net leases portfolio-wide. While generating record-breaking numbers, the team reduced marketing costs by bringing everything in-house instead of relying on apartment websites or marketing companies. Rockstar Capital’s ability to innovate and to stay on top of current marketing trends enables them to get ahead of its competitors in an industry that is notoriously slow on keeping up with modern marketing.

As a marketing department, they have been running an immense conglomerate of campaigns to fully establish their brands in the Multifamily industry. For four consecutive years, Rockstar’s properties have been recognized as the top in the nation—five of their properties rank in the Online Reputation Assessment (ORA) Top Rated Elite 1% among 116,000 other properties nationwide.

Rockstar Capital won the Bronze Stevie for Marketing Department of the Year in The 2020 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2022 American Business Awards? 

• DJO Healthcare Solutions provides quality orthopedic products, software solutions, and services. 
• MotionMD, the company’s technology platform, has become a market leader and a winner of numerous awards.
• The Customer Success Team has helped bolster the company’s customer retention rate by providing expertise and knowledge.

About DJO Global

DJO Global’s business unit DJO Healthcare Solutions is a provider of quality orthopedic products, software solutions, and services. DJO believes activity is key to supporting patients’ return to a healthier lifestyle, better treatment outcomes, and improved healthcare economics for all. DJO delivers a complete orthopedic continuum of care from performance and mobility to surgical intervention and postoperative rehabilitation. 

DJO Healthcare Solutions’ technology platform, MotionMD has become the market leader in its space, winning an Edison award for innovation, earning HITRUST Security recognition for four years in a row, and doubling Software as a Service (SaaS) revenue over the last year and currently at 3.5 million patient agreements, across 28 thousand providers at over two thousand locations. The Customer Success Team is considered a core driver of growth and a key competitive advantage. 

MotionMD’s Customer Success Team

The Customer Success Team was created over the past two years to support the DJO Healthcare Solutions team with MotionMD from SaaS to invoicing to cash collection, as well as other customer success feedback metrics. 

Staffed by industry-experienced DJO employees, this Customer Success team offers coast-to-coast support for the most effective knowledge-sharing, analytics and data, and response time. Instant feedback and early alerts allow the team to work hand in hand with product managers, implementation leads, and developers to provide seamless customer service. 

In addition to the financial and operational contributions this team has made over the last year, DJO has also received numerous emails from customers who are absolutely thrilled with the experience and responsiveness. DJO’s customer retention rate is currently 99%+ since this time last year.

DJO Global won a Silver Stevie for Customer Service Awards Success Categories - Customer Service Success - Technology Industries in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service®. 

Interested in entering the 2022 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service?

• Megaphone Marketing helps businesses grow in competitive markets
• Though the industry is male-dominated, Megaphone Marketing has 70% women representation in leadership roles
• CEO Lauren Oakes works closely with members of the company to promote wellbeing

About Megaphone Marketing 

Megaphone Marketing is an award-winning agency implementing proven digital marketing solutions to help businesses accelerate growth and gain a competitive advantage in rapidly evolving markets. Founded in 2013 and led by a female CEO, Megaphone Marketing has 45 employees based in Australia, and soon Los Angeles. They are known for their authentic client relationships, expert team, and fun workplace culture.

About Lauren Oakes 

Lauren Oakes started as an Account Manager at Megaphone Marketing, and through innovative ideas and initiative, she was quickly promoted to Head of Accounts. After just eight months in this senior leadership role, she was appointed CEO in 2018. Lauren has accelerated client growth, set up a mentorship program to develop candidates with potential into the best talent in the industry, and has grown Megaphone from just four people into the full-service agency it is today. 

Lauren’s clear processes, innovative strategies, and close work with teams to increase productivity while promoting well-being has strengthened the company’s base in Melbourne, resulting in recent interstate and international growth. She implemented a twelve-week internship training program to help bridge the gap between university and working life and has hired four permanent team members through this program. 

Megaphone Marketing has achieved 70% female representation in leadership roles in an often male-dominated industry through its focus on training, equity, and support. The team had the opportunity to give back as part of a manageable workload and empower four not-for-profit organizations this year through pro bono marketing services.

Megaphone Marketing won a Silver Stevie for Company/Organization Awards Categories - Women-Run Workplace of the Year - More than 10 Employees in The 2020 Stevie Awards for Women in Business®.

Interested in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

• Software company used by millions of people worldwide is an industry leader in sensitive data privacy and proactive protection
• Spirion helps organizations shrink their sensitive data footprint 
• The Sensitive Data Manager identifies core data, its location, its accessibility, and its usage timeline, thus preventing cyberattacks against organizations in all industries globally

About Spirion

Spirion is a software company that is an industry pioneer designing the critical first step of data security and privacy through its data discovery, persistent classification, and behavior software and services. Since 2006, thousands of organizations worldwide have reduced their sensitive data footprint and minimized the risks, costs, and reputational damage of successful cyberattacks and regulatory violations. 

Protecting Sensitive Data

Managing massive amounts of organizational data is a standard, necessary part of doing business today. Using and owning sensitive data of this size brings great responsibility and moral obligation to protect it. In response to numerous cybersecurity incidents, organizations must now focus on both cyber and privacy risk - the intersection at which true data privacy management now lies. 

Spirion sits squarely at this crossroads and has created a solution where many least expect it: before the firewall. Bringing a different way of thinking, Spirion protects what matters most - the personal data privacy and security of colleagues, customers, and the community. They build and deliver accurate data discovery and classification solutions. 

What Sets Spirion Apart

Spirion protects the identity of over 50 million people across all industries around the world. With an accuracy rate of 98% and the lowest false-positive and negative rates in the industry, Spirion finds all structured and unstructured data on networks, clouds, remote file servers, and all endpoints. 

Sensitive Data Footprint Reduction: Performs fast and accurate searches of structured and unstructured data in locations where many other solutions cannot, including data mining within images, email servers, databases, SharePoint, and the cloud. 

Persistent Classification: Ensures that no matter how many times data gets moved, copied, or shared, it is categorized and tagged automatically. 

Rules-based automation: Accurately examines, identifies, and tags data sensitivity, helping organizations reduce friction to business operations. 

Data Policy Enforcement: Continuously monitors for new data; when a file is created, copied, edited, detached from an email, extracted from an archive, retrieved from the cloud or from enterprise storage, or modified, it is discovered, automatically classified, and reported. 

Secure Disposal of Private Information: Secures unprotected data from creation to retirement with mechanisms in place for the proper remediation of all sensitive data-file shredding, redaction, quarantine, reduction of access rights, third-party controls and more. 

Managing Sensitive Data

The Sensitive Data Manager discovers the location of sensitive data across an enterprise and classifies it according to business rules and industry regulations. Once identified, the Sensitive Data Manager helps organizations automatically identify their core data, where it is stored, who has access, and when it was last used. It automatically finds sensitive data and prevents unauthorized distribution, helping organizations to implement appropriate controls, strengthen their security position, and comply with growing data privacy regulations. It also helps them to effectively label and shrink their sensitive data footprint and keep track of their data in all forms and locations, on-premise or in the cloud.

It is essential for organizations to understand sensitive data within the context of their business in order to take proper actions to protect it, set their broader security strategy, and incorporate additional controls to further strengthen their data defense and ensure ongoing compliance. This allows companies to get the bigger picture of how data flows through their organization and gain real command and control over that data to comply with the laws and regulations built to protect personal data privacy. 

Spirion’s COVID-19 Response

As a data protection software provider, Spirion is actively focused on the risk associated with massive amounts of data created each day under the new wave of privacy laws. Their mission to protect what matters most - paired with the forced changes caused by millions of people working from home - allowed them to quickly develop a no-charge data-discovery agent to minimize the risks associated with personal data exposure. 

Spirion won a Gold Stevie for International Data Protection Solution, a Gold Stevie for Postsecondary Enterprise Solution, and a Silver Stevie for Governance, Risk, & Compliance Solution in The 2020 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2022 American Business Awards?

• FORDATA is a secure file-sharing solution that provides Virtual Data Room systems to Central and Eastern European economies 
• The company responded to COVID by providing free services to companies in need and fundraising thousands of dollars  

About FORDATA

FORDATA’s History

In 2009, three college friends decided to import a business idea from London and change the digitally belated Polish mergers and acquisitions market by introducing the first Virtual Data Room to Polish customers. The shift involved providing assistance to million-dollar transactions, securing best-kept corporate secrets online, and comforting investors who were used to making their decisions to buy by looking through thousands of files stored in a locked room - not online. As a result of the massive change,
FORDATA shifted the way Polish M&A businesses operated. 

In just a few years, FORDATA had become a standard of dealmaking in Poland, trusted by Deloitte, KPMG, PwC, Dentons, and the biggest Polish state and private companies - and is developing a presence abroad as well.

In 2019, FORDATA had been long-trusted by international investment advisors, insurance companies, and the Treasury of Poland and other countries. Currently, FORDATA is CSR-conscious and aligned with the strictest regulations of the EU and international markets.

FORDATA’s COVID-19 Response

When news of the coronavirus broke, FORDATA faced incredible pressure to continue helping others. The company provided free service to companies in crises and fundraised over $15,000. Companies in need were provided with services to restructure, run audits, find financing and new partners, or simply survive the transition to a remote work environment, which became the new normal to banks, advisors, and auditors. Everyone needed a virtual tool to stay safe and cut costs while also saving time and working efficiently. 

Today, FORDATA continues growing and providing critical services to the economy. 

FORDATA won a Bronze Stevie for COVID-19 Response Categories - Most Valuable Response by a Business Development Team in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service®. 

Interested in entering the 2022 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service?

• AIP Consulting collects valuable data and turns it into better customer experiences for businesses around the globe
• AIP created innovative technology pre-pandemic that gave them a head start over competitors who were struggling to adapt to the COVID crisis

About AIP Consulting 

AIP Consulting is a market research agency that helps organizations collect valuable data and turns it into better experiences for customers. AIP Consulting also offers customer experience technology solutions, adding value to businesses by effectively tracking and analyzing customer feedback. Founded in 2016, the company operates in Cyprus, Greece, Romania, and Ukraine. AIP’s services include mystery shopping, digital contacts, focus groups, face-to-face surveys, feedback collection tools, and data analysis.

Beginning in 2019, AIP Consulting started connecting with startups from around the globe in order to develop the company’s services and instill a culture of diversity within the organization. AIP created a suite of technologies around CX in an era that coincided with low ability to use traditional services due to social distancing guidelines in order to improve customer service and collect valuable feedback that was vital to brands, especially during the pandemic. These services gave AIP a head start over competitors who were trying to adjust and catch up during COVID. 

AIP Consulting increased its revenue by over 180% in 2020 in the midst of the COVID crisis due to prepping with a pre-pandemic operational model that outshone competitors during the crisis. AIP is projected to increase revenue by another 200% in 2021 by helping develop the brand as a strong, all-encompassing agency in all things CX. 

AIP Consulting won the Silver Stevie for Business Development Achievement of the Year - Services Industries in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service®. 

Interested in entering the 2022 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service?

• Klareco’s blended approach to complex communication provides consistently positive media appearances 
• Nearly 70 years after the first historic global trek, the Last Overland was successfully completed with guidance from Klareco Communications
• Klareco’s strategies helped the Last Overland reach over 350 million people worldwide via various media outlets in 26 countries and 14 languages

About Klareco Communications

Klareco is a public relations and corporate communications agency. Their team of strategic advisors uses an integrated communications approach, blending the skillsets of a range of specialists. Their areas of expertise include corporate and financial communications, investor relations, capital market transactions, crisis, and emergency advisory and activation, regulatory and stakeholder engagement, and government communications. These specialists combine their skills to help bring clarity to complex situations. 

The Last Overland

The Last Overland is a 16,000-km journey from Singapore to London in “Oxford” the Land Rover, a re-creation of the historic First Overland expedition of 1955. One of the original team member’s grandsons, Nat George, would be flying the flag for his grandfather Tim Slessor on the journey, driving in his grandfather’s tire tracks. Klareco Communications helped to build a compelling story around the re-creation of the journey, leveraging the family’s personal experience and extraordinary determination, as well as the magnetic appeal of such a historic car. This allowed them to capture both mainstream and motoring audiences through special interest, mainstream, and social media, as well as regional, national, and global media publications. 

Members of the Klareco team provided on-the-round PR support while using the back of “Oxford”, the Land Rover, as their official office on the road through Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Myanmar. Not only was this a brilliant opportunity to be fully immersed in the experience, but it also gave the team firsthand insight into what was actually happening and how to communicate it with the right tone, messaging, and proof points. Along the way, the agency provided strategic communications advice, media relations and event support, coordination and liaison with sponsors and partners, and acted as a point of contact for Southeast Asia and international media. The support continued remotely once the Southeast Asia leg was complete and the agency team headed home. 

By the time Oxford arrived in London in mid-December 2019, the campaign had achieved unprecedented results: at least 250 pieces of coverage across more than 197 media platforms, including local news dailies, motoring publications, radio, Land Rover interest magazines, blogs, and interest group pages. Coverage included 14 languages across 26 countries and regions including Singapore, Southeast Asia, China, UK, U.S., European countries, Eastern Europe, and India, in both print and digital media. The expedition organizers estimate that the reach of this news coverage totals at least 365 million people around the world.

It is not every day that an agency has the opportunity to turn a concept into a pan-Southeast Asia campaign that captures imagination across the world. But this is exactly what Klareco did with the Last Overland. The organizers estimate a social media reach of three million and an audience of more than 350 million globally: not bad for a campaign fueled not by money, but by shared values, enthusiasm, and a spirit of adventure.

Klareco Communications won the Silver Stevie for Innovation in Public Affairs Communications in the 2020 Asia-Pacific Awards®. 

Interested in entering the 2021 Asia-Pacific Awards? 

• Kids Code Jeunesse is a charity organization that offers Canadian kids the opportunity to learn digital skills
• They aim to educate 1 million children in coding, digital citizenship, and creativity by 2030

About Kids Code Jeunesse

Kids Code Jeunesse is a bilingual Canadian charity determined to give every Canadian child access to digital skills education, with a focus on girls and underserved communities. KCJ teaches kids and their educators about artificial intelligence, code, digital citizenship, and how these integrate with the Global Goals so that children have the confidence and creative tools they need to build a better future.

KCJ delivers education through four pillars of service virtually and in-person:

• Code Create Teach includes teacher training and in-class workshops
• Code Create Celebrate hosts international events that relate to STEM, including Hour of Code and Astro Pi
• Code Create Play has extracurricular workshops that focus on kids’ hobbies like arts and sports
• Code Club Canada is a national network of over 1,000 clubs where kids can learn to code in small groups outside of school hours

After much discussion with international researchers, in 2019, KCJ launched #kids2030, a long-term initiative that brings together artificial intelligence, algorithm literacy, digital citizenship, and sustainable development goals to all of its programs and to the forefront of children’s education. It aims to educate 1 million kids and 50,000 educators by 2030. 

As of 2019, KCJ was the first national organization to offer free AI education in the classroom. Its services are frequently in demand from schools, caregivers, and communities. Between September and December of 2019, over 1,000 classroom workshops were booked. The BC Ministry of Education invited KCJ to consult on their curriculum, the Ontario Ministry of Education had KCJ advise on their math curriculum, and KCJ’s Chief Knowledge Officer was a senior advisor on the Pan-Canadian Computer Science Framework. 

In March of 2020, KCJ launched the Algorithm Literacy Project, a collaboration with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, which is supported by the Canadian Council of the Arts, Microsoft, and RBC. The project teaches kids how algorithms work and provides materials to facilitate conversations about the role algorithms play in our world. 

In the first month of the COVID-19 emergency, KCJ reached out to over 1,000 educators, parents, and children through virtual workshops and resources. It was the first CanCode-funded organization to adapt in-person services to completely virtual offerings. Within days of school closures, KCJ was running virtual Code Club sessions that coached kids through coding projects, and within 2 weeks, it was offering virtual Code Create Play workshops on topics including space, nature, art, and sports. 

KCJ’s Foundation for the Future

Kids Code Jeunesse focuses on creating quality and inclusive educational experiences that support the needs of communities. It teaches concepts of collaboration, computational thinking, creativity, and digital citizenship. This approach is pedagogically driven, more similar to the humanistic approach of Renaissance learning than the post-industrial model that focuses on vocation. 

KCJ is a charity that operates like a startup: it is agile, striving to learn, and fostering a nurturing culture that encourages team members to innovate. Its big-picture thinking enables KCJ to offer influential change on an international scale. It is committed to serving underserved communities by focusing on public schools and co-ed classes. 

As KCJ continues to adapt to the changing world, it is focusing on leaving a meaningful impact. It doesn’t just teach kids how to code; kids are armed with the curiosity, creativity, and collaborative skills they need to apply knowledge to a digitally-driven and evolving world. KCJ’s work isn’t about preparing the next cohort of programmers; it’s equipping a generation with the ability to solve major global issues and the confidence to thrive in an unpredictable future. 

Kids Code Jeunesse won a Gold Stevie for Company/Organization Awards Categories - Organization of the Year - Government or Non-Profit - More Than 10 Employees in the 2020 Stevie Awards for Women in Business®. 

Interested in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Women in Business?

• SYKES Australia’s global clients rely on the company for digital marketing, customer service, and technical support
• The company has grown exponentially with a team of committed partners who are dedicated to providing the best support possible
• In the wake of COVID-19, SYKES Australia implemented new strategies to keep people’s well-being prioritized 

About SYKES Australia 

SYKES Australia is a digital marketing, customer service, and technical support provider to brands around the world. SYKES is a global leader in providing support, comprised of a diverse, fun-loving, and energetic team within a vibrant workplace. 

SYKES Australia opened its first contact center in George Street with only 125 employees. Focused heavily on outbound telemarketing, the company spent its first years helping a global client enter the Australian market. 

Seeing progress and growth, SYKES Australia began to scale, exploring more services and fostering new partnerships locally and worldwide. Today, the company has created its own mark in the field, continuously providing support for big global companies and leading Australian brands. Operations also expanded across New South Wales and Queensland. 

SYKES Australia’s COVID-19 Response

After recuperating from the relentless bushfires, SYKES Australia faced the coronavirus crisis with resilience and strength. The employee-centric company put its people’s mental health and well being above all, implementing a work-at-home (WAH) solution for its biggest client in just days. To support this transition to WAH and employees through COVID, SYKES developed new communications channels, tools, and support packs to assist both staff and leaders in the new normal. 

SYKES provided consistent support to its clients in the face of adversity and fear. This was made possible with the culture SYKES has established and the talented team whose character shone like a bright light of hope, confidence, and strength in trying times. 

SYKES Australia won a Bronze Stevie for COVID-19 Response Categories - Most Valuable Response by a Customer Service Team in the 2021 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service®. 

Interested in entering the 2022 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service?