Deadlines Extended to Provide More Time to Submit Nominations Amid COVID-19 Slowdown

The Stevie® Awards, organizers of The International Business Awards®, announced today that the remaining schedule for the 2020 (17^th annual) edition of the awards has been revised because of the  COVID-19 pandemic.

The International Business Awards are widely considered to be the world's premier business awards competition.  In 2019 the competition attracted more than 4,000 nominations from organizations in more than 70 nations.

“We assessed that it’s necessary to push the entry deadlines out a bit to provide more time to prepare and submit nominations to organizations that are effected by the pandemic,” said Stevie Awards president Maggie Gallagher.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE

Changes to the 2020 IBA calendar are as follows:

• The entry deadline, originally scheduled for 13 May, is rescheduled to 24 June
• The late entry deadline, through which nominations are accepted with payment of a late fee, is pushed to 28 July from 17 June
• Judging by the juries of more than 250 professionals around the world now will begin in late June and continue through 31 August
• The announcement of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners, originally slated for 11 August, will now be made on 9 September.

The 17^th IBA awards gala, at which the Stevie winners will be celebrated, is still scheduled to be held in Paris, France on 24 October.

The 2020 IBAs will recognize achievements since the beginning of 2019 of organizations, teams, and individuals in a wide variety of categories.  Entry details are available at www.StevieAwards.com/IBA.

Gallagher emphasized that the IBAs feature more than 40 categories that don’t require the payment of entry fees, including all 35 of the Company/Organization of the Year categories, and that there are many new and revised features of the IBAs for 2020, including:

• Nine new categories to recognize singular business achievements in areas such as business turnaround, finance, revenue generation, and science and technology, among others.
• The simplification of submission requirements in the Company/Organization, Corporate Communications & Public Relations, Marketing, and New Product & Product Management category groups.

Stevie-winner KÖNIGSKLASSE#1 is a video production team that travels to their clients' locations to produce corporate videos in order to make business leaders more comfortable and confident in front of the camera.

Video marketing is a vital tool in your brand promotion toolbox, and it’s becoming more essential to ROI every day. In 2019, it is no longer sustainable to avoid video content because you’re scared of the medium or you don’t think you have the resources to create something watchable. Success means hopping on board and understanding why video is one of the most profitable and versatile digital marketing tools around.

Videos Increase Conversions

According to Forrester’s research into digital marketing, if you add a product video to your landing page, it is possible to double your conversion rate. Similarly, if you embed an informational video about your service, you are more likely to see sales of that service. 

Hiring a great video production team is an investment worth making, as they can help you create an engaging video that showcases your company. Although it is possible to create a corporate video with online tools, poorly produced content can turn off customers. To ensure your video is giving you the best possible return on investment, focus on top-quality content presented in a slick way.

Know, Like, and Trust

Many businesspeople use the “know, like, and trust” mantra, but building trust truly helps your audience engage with your company. If you’re using video to provide potential customers with useful, interesting information, you are creating a valuable relationship. Whether you’re using your video content on your company website or getting it in front of your audience via your social media channels, you need to concentrate on trust, not just traffic. 

As Martin Grosse of KÖNIGSKLASSE#1 notes, “the corporate video market will shift within the process of digital transformation … to revolutionize the thinking of how a corporate video should look and how it should be consumed.”

Stevie-winner KÖNIGSKLASSE#1, which is located in Munich, Germany, makes a point of traveling to a company’s location in order to make business-to-business (B2B) corporate videos. This allows the C-suite of the business to be comfortable in front of the camera, which lets them shine.

Engagement with Content

LinkedIn is the social media channel of choice for engaging CEOs and decision-makers. Video is an integral part of getting in front of your audience and capturing their attention, and video plays automatically in your LinkedIn feed, which also helps to increase engagement. Additionally, LinkedIn is the perfect platform to showcase your company’s authenticity, allowing your C-suite to demonstrate the human side of the business. 

One pitfall of video content marketing is that B2B corporate videos can look very similar. That’s why you need to present your content in a way that keeps people watching. In addition to showing your brand’s accessibility, keep in mind how your audience is likely to be viewing your video. According to Insivia, mobile views are on the rise as more and more people check their social media platforms on the go. Google reveals that people who use smartphones are 1.4 times more likely to feel a sense of personal connection to video content they watch on a mobile device.

The key to a successful video marketing campaign is creating entertaining content that people are likely to share. To do this, it’s important to demonstrate value to your audience and keep them engaged in your message. 

In recognition of its innovative approach to video marketing commitment, KÖNIGSKLASSE#1 earned a Silver Stevie® Award in the Company of the Year - Advertising, Marketing, & Public Relations - Small category at The 2019 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The International Business Awards?

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of The American Business Awards®, announced today that the final entry deadline for the 18^th annual ABA competition has been further extended to May 5. The organizers said it is apparent that the original final deadline extension to April 14 will not be enough time for American organizations impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to submit their nominations of achievement.

No additional late fees will be charged, and nominations submitted through May 5 will not be penalized in any way in the judging process. Organizers still hope to be able to stage the 18^th ABA awards banquet at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City on Friday, June 12.

The American Business Awards are widely considered to be the premier business awards program in the U.S.A. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. are eligible to submit nominations— public and private, for-profit and non-profit, large, and small. The 2020 awards will honor achievements since the beginning of 2019. Entry details are available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/ABA.

With the announcement of the deadline extension organizers said they have waived all fees for nominations to the Startup of the Year and Tech Startup of the Year categories, for organizations that began operations since the beginning of 2018.

The further extension of the final entry deadline has prompted the organizers to change several other dates in the 2020 ABA calendar:

• May 10: Revised end of judging
• May 15: Revised winners notification and announcement
• May 15 - June 5: Revised window for public voting in the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products

The American Business Awards recognize achievement in every facet of the workplace. Categories include:

• Entrepreneur Awards
• Management Awards
• Company of the Year Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• Website Awards, Smartphone and Tablet Apps, and other Media Awards
• …and more

More than 200 executives on 13 juries will rate nominations to determine the Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award winners.

The list of past Stevie Award winners in The American Business Awards reads like a who’s who of innovation and business success in the U.S.A. Explore the list of last year’s winners.

Winners in the 14th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service, recognized as the world's top customer service awards and sales awards, were unveiled on Friday night at a gala ceremony in Las Vegas, Nevada USA, attended by more than 570 executives from around the world.

The complete list of Stevie Winners by category is available at http://www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

IBM, with 52 Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Award wins, was the most honored organization this year, earning the top Grand Stevie Award trophy. Other Grand Stevie Award winners, in descending order, include DP DHL, HomeServe USA, Sales Partnerships, Inc, Delta Vacations, Cinch Home Services, Dell Technologies, DenizBank Financial Service Group, WNS (Holdings) Limited, and Allianz Global Assistance.

IBM won 17 Gold Stevie Awards, the most in the 2020 competition. Other winners of three or more Stevie Awards include: American Airlines, Autosoft, Inc., BlueCat Networks, Inc., BNY Mellon’s Albridge, Buildium, Bounteous, Carbonite, Inc., Chorus.ai, Clarabridge, Concentrix, ConnectiCare, Constant Contact, CoverMyMeds, Covestic, Cvent, Inc., Druva, Enterprise Fleet Management, GoDaddy, Guidebook, Inc., HCL America, Inc., Industrial Security Integrators, Intuit, John Hancock Financial Services, Korea Representative, Lexmark, Loopio, Inc., Mailchimp, Merrill Corporation, Michael Kors, Mobile Labs, MRO Corp, NCR, Nextiva, Nuance Communications, Inc., OneWest Bank, Optima Tax Relief, LLC, Pushpay, QNB Finansbank, RAIN Group, Rimini Street, SAP, SoftPro, SolarWinds, Spinnaker Support, StarHub Ltd, Sun Basket, Tani, The Audacious Agency, The Brooks Group, Tivity Health, Travelzoo, TTEC, Türkiye Vakıflar Bankası T.A.O., UPMC Health Plan, ValueSelling Associates, Veeam, Verimatrix, VIZIO, Inc., VODAFONE TURKEY, VXI Global Solutions, Wells Fargo Treasury Management, Wheels, Inc., Willis Towers Watson, and xneelo.

The presentations were broadcast live via Livestream and are available to watch online.

The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes eight of the world’s leading business award shows including the prestigious International Business Awards® and American Business Awards®.

More than 2,600 nominations from organizations in 48 nations were evaluated in this year’s competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 180 professionals worldwide in seven specialized judging committees. Entries were considered in 106 categories for customer service and contact center achievements, including Contact Center of the Year, Award for Innovation in Customer Service, and Customer Service Department of the Year; 72 categories for sales and business development achievements, ranging from Senior Sales Executive of the Year to Sales Training or Business Development Executive of the Year to Sales Department of the Year; and categories to recognize new products and services and solution providers.

Entries for the 2021 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service will open this coming July. The entry kit may be requested at www.StevieAwards.com/Sales.

Professionals in IT operations often resolve issues by automating scripting or coding.

Why use automation?

Throughout the past two decades, technological innovations and information delivery systems have spurred unprecedented growth. The continued evolution of tech, as well as human ingenuity, present organizations across the retail, manufacturing, telecom, banking, and financial services sectors with an array of ever-expanding scenarios and challenges. As just a few examples, being connected continues to become cheaper, and device ownership is skyrocketing.

Data volumes are soaring, and billions of new connected data sources are anticipated within a few years. We are quickly approaching exabyte volumes and are surging toward zettabytes, and the growth of mobile connectivity continues to surpass fixed lines. Security is, as always, a major issue, along with regulatory complexity.

These automations, however, often only work within a monolithic and extremely predictive environment. If one thing changes in that environment, it typically results in the automation failing within the system. Once this happens, an IT professional must begin the troubleshooting process, which might take anywhere from five to thirty minutes to complete. This increases a company’s internal costs and bogs down IT resources.

Are Humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Destined to Work Together?

IT has revolutionized businesses across global industries. The way IT operates in most enterprises, however, is still very people-centric, which means the industry is prime for robotic or runbook automation initiatives. Having a fairly straightforward goal of achieving direct cost savings, these automations can reduce the manual effort spent on repetitive activities.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is great for a predictive environment, but it’s not necessarily designed for an ever-changing landscape. It lacks, therefore, the agility to successfully handle many scenarios. To see better results, the automation efforts need to be cognitive and intelligent.

While script-based automation yields quick, small wins, most organizations soon realize the accelerating pace of business-related changes, the increasing complexity of technology and operations, and rising technology-based operational risks far outmatch traditional automation capabilities. There is a critical need, therefore, for an intelligent system that can keep up with technology churn, understand business processes, and be customized to an industry domain and business model.

Many companies praise automation like it’s already the backbone of their business platforms, but human intervention within that automation is still largely necessary. Companies like Digitate try to be aware of this (currently) inescapable reality by working with top brands in virtually every industry. By continuing to improve their product capabilities, service delivery, and customer support, they can build a community of dedicated users who are excited about sharing their stories with them.

Digitate™ leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to manage IT and business operations. Their product, ignio™, enables better decision-making and ultimately solves IT operations challenges.

Other companies that also leverage machine learning and AI to manage IT and business operations are still working on developing an overarching process that can understand system needs across dynamic situations from different sectors. This is a daunting task, though, and something no one has been able to achieve—yet.

Digitate recently won a Silver Stevie® Award in the Software Defined Infrastructure category at the 2019 International Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The International Business Awards this year? They open for entries on February 4, 2020. 

IBM Corporation, Toyota Turkey, and the Advisor Group Among Top Winners

Winners in the 2019 Stevie® Awards for Great Employers, an international competition, were announced on Friday, September 20 during a gala event in New York City. The awards recognize the world’s best employers and the human resources professionals, teams, achievements and HR-related products and suppliers who help to create and drive great places to work. A complete list of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners by category is available at www.StevieAwards.com/HR. 

A diverse group of organizations and individuals around the world are among those recognized. The organization that won the Grand Stevie Award for Most Honored Organization of the Year is IBM Corporation worldwide with nine Gold, seven Silver, and seven Bronze Stevie Awards wins totaling 51.5 points.  Organization of the Year goes to the organization with the most award points, with each Gold Stevie win counting for three points, each Silver Stevie win for two points, and each Bronze Stevie for one-and-a-half points.

The Grand Stevie Award for the Highest-Rated Nomination of the Year goes to Toyota Turkey Marketing and Sales Inc.

Leading winners of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevies include the Advisor Group of Phoenix, AZ USA with 10 Gold, five Silver, and one Bronze Stevie in a variety of categories. ej4 of St. Louis, MO USA won five Gold, two Silver, and five Bronze Stevies.

More than 600 nominations from organizations from 24 nations were evaluated in this year’s competition. Winners were determined by the average scores of more than 60 professionals worldwide, acting as judges. Stevie Award winners in the 35 Employer of the Year categories were determined by a unique blending of the ratings of professionals and the votes of the general public.

The Stevie Awards for Great Employers recognize achievement in many facets of the workplace. Categories include:

• Employer of the Year
• HR Achievements
• HR Individual Awards
• HR Team Categories
• Solution Provider Awards
• More than 60 New Product & Service Categories

The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes eight of the world’s leading business awards shows including the prestigious International Business Awards® and American Business Awards®, and the new Middle East Stevie Awards.

Entries for the 2019 Stevie Awards for Great Employers will open in March. The entry kit will be available then at www.StevieAwards.com/HR.

Interested in receiving a Stevie Award in 2020?

Full program for two-day November conference in New York announced

The second annual Women|Future Conference is a two-day event for professional women that will address the most pressing business issues of tomorrow. From robotics and cybersecurity, to the future of work and artificial intelligence, the conference will provide information on these topics from the perspectives of women in those fields on how they will affect professional women in all industries – their careers and businesses.

The conference will be presented by the Stevie® Awards in conjunction with the 16^th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business on November 14-15, 2019 at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. 

See the full agenda and list of speakers at www.WomenFutureConference.com.

Sheryl Connelly, corporate futurist with the Ford Motor Company, will open the first day of the conference with her keynote entitled “Confessions of a Corporate Futurist: Coming Trends That Will Revolutionize Your Business.” Connelly has been a featured speaker at TED Global, appeared on CBS This Morning , CNBC’s Fast Money, and NPR’s All Things Considered with Robert Siegel.

Special early-bird registration rates are available now through September 13. The first 100 paid registrants will be eligible for a drawing from which 20 will be selected at random for an exclusive private breakfast with Sheryl Connelly before her Thursday-morning keynote.

Selena Rezvani of Be Leaderly will present the Friday-morning keynote, called “The Future of Work is Female.” Selena addresses thousands of professional women each year and has been featured in The LA Times, Oprah.com, Todayshow.com, and NPR. She wrote an award-winning column for The Washington Post, and today serves as a popular columnist on women and the workplace for Forbes.

Morning keynote addresses will be followed by panel discussions and breakout sessions on workplace and industry topics, structured networking based on topics of interest, and case studies presented by Stevie Awards for Women in Business finalists.  Each attendee’s experience at the Women|Future Conference will be unique.

There are 12 breakout sessions to select from, looking at how to grow your business online and off, the power of influence, international trade, and more.

Panel sessions featuring 20 industry experts over the two days will explore how artificial intelligence is transforming industries, how to navigate careers through challenging times, diversity and inclusion, and more.

The structured networking sessions are designed to group attendees at tables of like-minded women to discuss issues on the front burner of today – and tomorrow. Attendees will select their topics of interest during the registration process to be paired with a networking leader.

Confirmed conference speakers include, among others:

• Ashley Brundage, Vice President, Diversity & Inclusion, PNC
• Alessia Falsarone, Managing Director, SASB FSA,PineBridge Investments
• Catherine Gacad, SVP, Partnerships, Wells Fargo
• Jagathi Gururajan, Global Technology Executive
• Heather Kernahan, President, North America, Hotwire
• Gwen Murphy, Executive Director, Business Technology Services,KPMG 
• Kris Pugsley,Director Global Communications, ON Semiconductor
• Ajeta Sinha, Senior Vice President, Sales and Services, Net2Source
• Michelle Strier, Chief Strategy Officer, Spectrum

See the full list of speakers here, and the full conference agenda here.

Enterprising Women is the Media Sponsor of the Women|Future Conference. Enterprising Women magazine is the voice of women entrepreneurs---reaching more than one million readers in 185 countries.  Published quarterly, the print magazine is available by subscription at www.enterprisingwomen.com or download the digital edition in the Apple Store or at Google Play free. 

Generous employee benefits can be very attractive to sought-after talent, and these benefits can also keep employees happy and satisfied at work. For smaller businesses, though, providing them is easier said than done.

This challenge often forces entrepreneurs, freelancers, and gig workers to avoid businesses that aren’t able to take on those responsibilities. However, there’s something many of those companies don’t know: They can afford benefits that rival those offered by Fortune 500 companies; they can become RewardJet members.

RewardJet was the dream of two partners who wanted to help hardworking entrepreneurs. As entrepreneurs themselves, they saw a huge, underserved market and an opportunity to truly make a difference in the lives of millions.

Look and You Shall Find

The future looks quite bright for RewardJet as new partnerships will see them expanding globally over the next two years. From two men with a dream to a multinational platform, RewardJet is poised to change the world of company benefits.

“One founder’s wife works for a Fortune 500 company,” says cofounder Kevin Dory, “and the perks she gets through her company are often not nearly as good as the ones we offer through RewardJet.”

The founder and his wife realized how good these offers were when they planned a weekend getaway to Miami and were able to save hundreds of dollars on their hotel room, which wasn’t bad for a short trip.

RewardJet is not, however, just another perks site offering discounts. They want small businesses and independent workers to feel as if they have the power of thousands of people in their corners, even if they’re only a team of two.

“RewardJet advocates for the millions of people who drive our economy yet still don't have health care, retirement plans, or any of the other perks and benefits large companies offer.”

Trying to Fulfill All Kinds of Needs

Employees and employers are increasingly searching for personalized perks and benefits, but millennials and Gen X customers don’t always look for the same thing. These kinds of changes in workforce demographics require employees to adapt and to adjust their benefit offerings constantly.

“What we are really passionate about is the ability to provide access to health care for a huge number of people who otherwise would not have health insurance,” says Dory. “This is life changing, and this is why we exist.”

The company offers a wide range of health services, which start at $10 per month for a single person and go to less than $90 per month for fully ACA-compliant health insurance. Depending on the plan selected, the individual will have access to over 900,000 providers and will get a real prescription drug plan (not a discount card), with only a $10 co-pay for generics and huge discounts on brand-name drugs.

RewardJet also recently teamed up with Goldman Sachs to make it easy for members to save for retirement.

Small businesses across the United States can now make the decision to offer benefits and, most importantly, can choose the offerings that are desirable for potential new hires.

Sara Wolkwitz, Vice President of Partnerships at RewardJet, recently won the Bronze Stevie® Award for Female Executive of the Year in the Business Services category of the Stevie Awards for Women in Business.

Interested in winning a Stevie Award for Women in Business?

For a lot of consumers, owning a home is the ultimate symbol of freedom, affording you the opportunity to customize to your heart’s content.

When it’s time to sell, though, real estate ownership can start to feel like the exact opposite of freedom. Suddenly, many find themselves preparing for countless showings while waiting for offers and potentially making last-minute renovations to lure buyers.

Offerpad is among a crop of U.S. companies trying to fundamentally change that process. The firm, which is based in Chandler, Arizona, USA, allows home sellers to upload information about their properties, including optional photos. Home sellers then get their purchase offers within 24 hours. The company bases its pricing on a custom algorithm, which compares the home against similar properties that recently changed hands in the area.

After the customer signs the necessary documents online and Offerpad conducts a home inspection, the seller is ready to set a closing date. According to the company, it can close in as little as 10 days or as many as 90 days. Clients don’t have to worry about showings or open houses, and they don’t have to make any headache-inducing concessions to buyers.

“Traditionally, selling or buying real estate is wrapped up in so much hassle that people often avoid it altogether,” says Offerpad spokesperson David Stephan. “By making it easy, Offerpad hopes to eliminate the stress from people’s milestone moves.”

Support from Venture Capital

Offerpad, which real estate veterans Brian Bair and Jerry Coleman started in 2015, is part of a growing group of companies trying to use technology to reshape the market. So-called “iBuyers,” such as Opendoor and Zillow, are using proprietary pricing algorithms to purchase and to resell homes, and the national brokerage firm Keller Williams is set to launch its own home-buying operative in May.

In the case of Offerpad, Stephan says the company is trying to appeal to people who are disillusioned with the more conventional home-selling approach.

“Real estate doesn’t need to be the frustrating, messy ordeal it’s been for decades,” says Stephan. “With our service, home sellers and buyers now have the better option of closing and moving at their convenience, without the hassle.”

Unlike older companies that paid cut-rate prices for mostly dilapidated housing, iBuyers serve a more mainstream client base. There is a flip side to the convenience they offer their customers, though. With Offerpad, for example, home sellers pay a service fee between 6 and 10 percent, which is higher than what traditional agents charge. However, once the home is sold, the company pays for any concessions to the buyer, as well as maintenance and other associated fees.

To date, iBuyers represent a small part of the residential real estate industry. Opendoor purchased just over 11,000 homes in 2018, and MarketWatch estimates Offerpad bought roughly 3,600 properties last year. The firm hasn’t officially confirmed that number, but whatever the actual amount, it could soar soon, especially with an influx of cash from venture capital and other funding sources. As of March, Offerpad, which garnered five Stevie® Awards this year for customer service and sales, brought in a staggering $975 million in equity and debt financing. The company doubled its home purchases in each of the past two years and is looking to expand on the 12 cities it currently serves.

For Stephan, the sky’s the limit when it comes to algorithm-based home purchasing.

“The world of real estate is rapidly changing,” he says. “Offerpad is at the forefront of its transformation, defining the modern approach to buying and selling a home. In the future, we’ll likely see this approach adapted in markets throughout the world.”

The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the Stevie Awards for Great Employers, announced today that the public voting in the Employer of the Year categories for the fourth annual competition is now open through August 12. The Stevie Awards for Great Employers honors the world’s best companies to work for and the HR teams and professionals, HR achievements, new products and services and suppliers that help to create and drive great workplaces.

The final entry deadline has been extended through Wednesday, August 7. There are no extra fees for entering through the extended deadline.

Stevie Award winners in the 35 Employer of the Year categories will be determined by a unique blending of the ratings of professionals and the votes of the general public, and the scores of industry experts.  Nominees in these categories may encourage their employees, customers, fans and followers to vote for them.

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

The public may vote for the nominees in these categories on the Stevie Awards website.

Categories to be voted on include:

• Employer of the Year – Accounting
• Employer of the Year – Advertising, Marketing, and Public Relations
• Employer of the Year – Aerospace & Defense
• Employer of the Year – Automotive & Transport
• Employer of the Year – Banking
• Employer of the Year – Business Services
• …and many more

More than 100 professionals worldwide, working on several juries, will determine the Stevie Award winners. Finalists will be announced on August 15. Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners will be announced at a gala event in New York City on September 20.