Syeda Amna Nasir Jamal knows things could have ended up very differently. Faced with the untimely death of her father, a young Jamal suddenly held the reins of the family textile business in Pakistan. Though she had started to work for him at age 13, it wasn’t exactly a role for which she was prepared.

“After the death of my father, there were difficult challenges in our lives,” Jamal says. “We had plenty of setbacks and disappointments.”

Instead of losing hope, she pushed forward. Jamal would have a hand in virtually every aspect of the business, from marketing to human resources, providing the steadying force it needed.

“I overcame obstacles by being shrewd,” she concedes. In time, she would create her own agricultural and textile trading firm, the Karachi-based SAN Enterprises.

Despite her successes, Jamal wanted to do more. She found herself wanting to help the next generation of Pakistanis in overcoming their own obstacles ‒ be it poverty, a lack of education or gender biases ‒ to achieve success in life.

With that goal in mind, she set up a free school for underprivileged children on the SAN premises. Rather than being a distraction, she says the project had an overwhelmingly positive impact on the business. Jamal contends that it’s been a way to attract the sort of employees she values ‒ those wanting to make a positive change in the world.

“Initiatives for social good are one of the ways that you can show a job candidate what it is like to work at your company,” says Jamal. “Candidates want to know they work for a company whose values are aligned with their own.”

Eventually, Jamal created an NGO called the Tavuun Welfare Association so that she could make an even bigger impact within the city and nationwide. Through Tavuun, she’s helped set up a second school in the high-crime Lyari district of Karachi, which promotes academic achievement and civic engagement among women.

“Pakistani society has traditionally been patriarchal, where a female child is often regarded as an ‘unwanted’ being,” Jamal says. “Due to cultural and religious practices, gender discrimination and socioeconomic disparities are very visible.”

As the organization has developed, it’s taken on numerous other projects as well. Among them: a free clinic where low-income residents can receive medical care and a program that provides blankets and other necessities to disaster victims.

Changing hearts and minds

Alongside her work on the ground, Jamal is hoping to bring broader awareness to these issues in Pakistan. She’s created a policy and research organization that shines a light on the downtrodden in Pakistan and often writes for local news outlets on education, health and gender-related topics.

“Unfortunately, human rights is a concept that is still trivialized in the sub-continent,” she explains. “That’s why the current generation of young people has grown up without developing a sense of collective responsibility for social change.”

Changing those ingrained attitudes is a significant task, to be sure. For inspiration, Jamal says she turns to the ancient proverb: “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

What she has done so far is nothing short of extraordinary. For her tireless efforts, Jamal won Silver for “Female Innovator of the Year” at the Stevie® Awards for Women in Business in November, 2017. Her NGO, Tavuun Welfare Association, earned the Bronze Stevie for “Organization of the Year.”

Jamal says the recognitions will only help bring more attention to the organization and the causes that she’s trying to remedy. She’s also confident it will boost the morale of her staff and help make it easier to recruit and retain workers.

“Confidence begins with faith, self-determination and dedication to success,” she says. “Winning is an amazing feeling because it says that I am capable of bringing something special to the table.”

“Complacency” is not a word in Renee Tocco’s vocabulary.

Whether it is using her skills to encourage people to live healthier or supporting any number of philanthropic causes ‒ from helping low-income children to protecting rainforests ‒  the energetic Aussie is keen to make a difference wherever she can.

It is no surprise when it comes to her main career as a business executive, Tocco does not settle for the status quo. A former sales and business accounts manager for Telstra, Australia’s largest telecom company, she started her own commercial finance brokerage, Loanezi, in 2014. In the process, she is bringing a fresh approach to an industry that is not necessarily known for innovation.

In three years, her company has become one of the fastest-growing players in the country’s asset finance industry. “Loanezi is my greatest achievement so far,” the entrepreneur says, proud of the success her venture has earned.

For as long as she can remember, dreaming big has been one of her character traits. “I always believed that I will one day build up an empire or disrupt an industry with a revolutionary invention,” concedes Tocco, who lives on The Gold Coast, a metropolitan area on Australia’s eastern shore.

Loanezi is the marriage of that enterprising spirit with the industry knowledge she acquired at Telstra. It was there Tocco realized the impact information and communication technology could have on businesses ‒ particularly smaller ones. For clients, new equipment was often the difference between growing or falling behind the competition.

Tocco vividly remembers her first client, a woman who was starting her own real estate practice. “Without a new phone system and printer, this new little real estate business literally would not have been able to successfully function,” Tocco told her hometown newspaper, The Gold Coast Bulletin.

Three years later, the company’s trajectory has been nothing short of remarkable. In early 2016, Loanezi was already generating enough revenue to pay back all borrowed capital, becoming 100% self-funded. During the 2016-2017 financial year, Loanezi generated 450 commercial loans, outpacing its own ambitious sales goals.

What makes Loanezi different from the competition? Tocco says it is, in part, the novel use of technology, something that is transforming what had long been a “staid” finance broking sector.

The company also offers a large panel of vendors, enabling it to serve customers with a wide range of needs, including new businesses that sometimes have trouble getting financial support.

Despite the success the firm is enjoying, Tocco makes it clear the company is not pulling off the accelerator pedal. “My goal is to become the largest commercial asset finance broker in Australia within the next three years, a humongous goal that I am focused on achieving.”

In August, Tocco and her team found out they won the Silver Stevie® Award in the “Startup of the Year – Business Services Industries” category of The 14th Annual International Business Awards.

“These awards have a great impact when building a brand and trying to stand out from the crowd,” says Tocco. “The day we added the Silver Stevie seal to the website was such a fun moment, as we appreciate the impact this has in building my profile and that of Loanezi.”

Thinking Big

For Tocco, one of the biggest benefits to the company’s success is the opportunity to give back. The business has partnered with the business giving initiative known as Buy1Give1 (B1G1), providing donations for every corporate loan it settles.

Among the results of its B1G1 gifts so far: 175 days of shelter and 225 days of education for children in need, as well as the protection of 45 square meters of rainforest and 2,000 meals for orphaned children.

“My desire is to change as many lives as possible, directly or indirectly,” she says. “The bigger Loanezi grows, the more impact we can have.”

Tocco is also using her experiences to help other female entrepreneurs achieve a similar level of success. “Through my blogs in the finance industry, I am already mentoring several females and believe that will foster into perpetuity the gift of shared knowledge.”

In that same spirit, she is hoping to offer traineeships to help students achieve their business goals and tackle important challenges around the world.

“I believe young people, offered the novelty of mentorship, will thrive in whatever industry they choose as their end goal,” says Tocco. “I hope my company will be the launching pad of future leaders with a global conscious mindset.”

Swimming next to crocodiles? Traversing giant rock formations? Boogie-boarding on whitewater rapids?

It’s all part of the job for Peter “Spida” Everett, a longtime star in the Australian Football League, and his wife, Sheree. As hosts of the hit TV and radio show “The Great Australian Doorstep,” the couple explores the country’s unique destinations and take on whatever adventure they find along the way.

Past destinations have included Australia’s natural wonders like the Great Barrier Reef and Ayers Rock, as well as many of the charming small towns that dot the countryside. Wherever they go, the couple travel by car or RV, soaking up the land’s distinct character and meeting locals along the way.

From one episode to the next, the couple could be hiking Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory or exploring the wild and majestic Kimberley region in Western Australia. In recent years, they’ve ventured beyond the Great Down Under, filming episodes in New Zealand, China, Canada and the state of Alaska in the U.S.

Now in its tenth season, the show’s unique mix of cultural exploration and thrill-seeking has clearly struck a chord with audiences. The program is a staple on the television station 7TWO and on more than 40 radio stations across Australia. The show recently broke into the Chinese market, where they’ve inked a five-year deal with China Central Television, and have become the first Australian travel show to be picked up by iTunes.

Those remarkable achievements earned the admiration of jurors for The 14th Annual International Business Awards, which featured nearly 4,000 nominees. “The Great Australian Doorstep” came away with the Bronze Stevie in the Travel and Tourism Video Awards category.

“With his steely determination, Spida has taken on some of Australia’s biggest travel media outlets and come out on top,” says Sheree, deflecting her own sizeable contribution to the show’s success.

Overcoming Obstacles

Everett’s 16-year football career, in which he played for the St. Kilda Saints, Hawthorn Hawks and Sydney Swans, provided the kind of fame that certainly helps when you’re pitching a new media venture.

But Sheree insists his high profile could also be an obstacle at times, especially when the pair would try to garner seed money. “People would often say, ‘Oh, he has millions. We don’t need to support him,’” she says. But after a costly divorce, she says, that wasn’t the case.

As a result, the couple had to take on considerable financial risk to make their venture work. “When he retired, we put our entire life savings and have worked tirelessly, often with little support from the industry,” she says.

It’s fitting then, that the show caters to audience members who are looking to travel on a budget. Rather than flying from place to place and booking luxury hotels, the Everetts opt for the modest confines of an RV park and favor unpretentious local establishments. That stripped-down approach has also made the program more fun they say, allowing them to interact with everyday people and experience the countryside up close.

The attention the show is receiving is just icing on the cake, they insist. The Stevie® Award, in particular, plays a major role in helping to boost the program’s profile, says Sheree.

“It has given us higher global exposure as well as huge applause from media and travel industry personnel here in Australia,” she explains.

And its proof, she insists, of what can happen when you believe in your ideas and are willing to work through the struggles. “It’s about focus, vision, hard work and never losing sight of the big goal,” Everett says.

RAK SME was established in 2007 by Amiri Decree in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates to support young entrepreneurs with start-up projects. They provide small and medium enterprises with everything from quick and easy steps to simplify their procedures, to market entry resources. Their efforts have enabled the youth in their communities to establish and develop projects to enhance sustainable development in the Emirates. This work led them to win the Bronze Stevie Award for Company of the Year in the Small, Nonprofit or Government Organizations category of The 2017 International Business Awards.

Achieving Sustainable Development

In order to provide an attractive environment for Emirati youth entrepreneurs, RAK SME supports a mission to strengthen the national economy through the Saud Bin Saqr Foundation for the Development of Youth Projects. RAK SME is also an initiative of Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry by incorporating a wide range of services to the members of their corporation. Rashed Sawaqed is the Business Development Consultant for RAK SME, specifically focusing on Feasibility Studies and Business Development Consultancy which aims to support and develop SME's in Ras Al Khaimah.

“From facilities and exemptions to commercial license fees, industrial and sustainable development, RAK SME makes annual goals for clear and distinctive imprints during the process of promoting and supporting youth enterprises. In addition to encouraging nationals to lead businesses, diversify the economy, and achieve sustainable development.”

RAK SME services provided for its’ members include exemptions from the payment of commercial license fees, economic and legal consultancy, business incubators and business admin services, training and development programs, workshops, discounts on various services (including participation in local and external exhibitions) and free industrial and commercial plots for development.

Playing a Major Role

Saud Bin Saqr Foundation for the Development of Youth Projects is one of the initiatives of the Ras Al Khaimah Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The Foundation aims at developing the business sector and contributing to the government's policy in the development of youth projects in the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, where small and medium enterprises play a major role in the development of the national economy. Sawaqed comments on how winning a Stevie® has made a positive impact on achieving their goals.

“Winning the Stevie Award was an enormous achievement for our organization and continues to prove beneficial to our operations. The awards raised our customers’ confidence in our business and our capabilities.”

Shining a spotlight on women executives, entrepreneurs and organizations run by women, winners in the 2017 Stevie® Awards for Women in Business  were announced on Friday, November 17.

See the full list of winners here.

The Stevie Awards for Women in Business is an international competition produced by the creators of the prestigious International Business Awards and American Business Awards. The Stevie is widely considered to be the world’s premier business award.

With more than 500 businesswomen and their guests in attendance, the awards were announced at a gala dinner at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York City. Nations represented at the event include Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Germany, Iceland, India, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, U.S.A., and the United Kingdom.

The presentations were broadcast live worldwide.

More than 1,500 nominations from organizations and individuals in 25 nations were submitted to the awards this year for consideration in categories including Entrepreneur of the Year, Executive of the Year, Most Innovative Company of the Year, and Startup of the Year, among others. More than 170 professionals around the world participated in the judging process to determine the Finalists and then the Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award placements.

Grand Stevie Award trophies were presented to the five organizations that submitted the best body of entries to the competition, in their own names or in the names of one or more clients. Winners were determined by the number of Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Awards won in the competition. The Grand Stevie Award winners are:

•         FIS, Jacksonville, FL USA (#1)
•         Pink Elephant, Burlington, ON Canada (#2)
•         Jeunesse Global, Lake Mary, FL USA (#3)
•         Clariti Group, Brisbane, QLD Australia (#4 tie)
•         Accenture, Chicago, IL and New York, NY USA (#4 tie)

Notable Gold Stevie Award winners from this year’s competition include:

• Therese Tucker, Founder & CEO of BlackLine, Woodland Hills, CA USA - Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Services
• Martha Herrera, Corporate Director of Social Responsibility of CEMEX, Mexico City, Mexico - Most Innovative Woman of the Year – Industry
• Chargeback Gurus, McKinney, TX USA - Company of the Year – Business Products – More Than 10 Employees
• Good Food Enterprise Co., Ltd, Taipei, Taiwan - Startup of the Year - Consumer Services Industries 
• Huda Ali Al-Husaini, Head of Training and Studies for Jordan Engineers Association, Amman, Jordan - Employee of the Year - Government or Non-Profit
• Little Medical School, St. Louis, MO, USA – Best New Product or Service of the Year - Consumer Services
• Nissan North America, Franklin, TN USA - Communications or PR Campaign of the Year - Marketing - Consumer Products
• Inga Hlín Pálsdóttir, Director of Creative Industries for Promote Iceland, Reykjavik, Iceland - Female Innovator of the Year – Government or Non-Profit –11 to 2,500 Employees
• Allison Grafton, President and Partner of Rockwood Custom Homes, Calgary, AB Canada - Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada
• Sarah Lance, Founder of Sari Bari Private Limited, Kolkata, India - Female Entrepreneur of the Year in Asia, Australia or New Zealand
• Katlin Smith, CEO of Simple Mills, Chicago, IL USA - Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Consumer Products –11 to 2,500 Employees
• Michelle Visco Bauyon, CEO of The Alpha Enterprise, Cabuyao, Laguna, Philippines - Female Entrepreneur of the Year – Business Products –10 or Less Employees
• Jess Tomlin, President and CEO of The MATCH International Women's Fund, Ottawa, ON Canada - Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Government or Non-Profit

The 2017 Gold, Silver and Bronze Stevie Award winners reflect a diverse group of large and small organizations from around the globe. Organizations that won more than one Gold Stevie Award include Accenture, BioSafe Technologies, Inc., Clariti Group, Envolve, Inc., FIS, Foundation for the National Institutes of Health, GingerMay PR, Jeunesse Global, Pink Elephant, Sari Bari Private Limited, Science Exchange, and The Author Incubator.

For a complete list of Stevie Award winners and more information, visit http://www.StevieAwards.com/Women.

Entries for the 2018 edition of the awards will open in May.

With more than 1.2 million titles available on Apple and Android devices, the problem video gamers face today isn’t the lack of choice ‒ it’s having more than they can handle.

Enter ANDi. The one-and-a-half-year-old UK firm that recently launched a “personal mobile gaming assistant” Gameway that helps users find new games based on their preferences and provides a single, convenient platform from which to launch them.

The London-based company says it takes the typical player anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour to find a new game. And after all that effort, 72% of the games get deleted after two uses. 

By leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning, ANDi is hoping that its Gameway app will lead to better matches, in a fraction of the time it usually takes to find a game.

“Data is collected from the games our users swipe, install and play,” says Benjamin Woolf, ANDi’s co-founder and CEO. “Machine learning algorithms process the data and display the right games to the right people at the appropriate times.” The company calls the feature “Tinder-For-Games,” a nod to the popular dating app.

Woolf, a graduate of Leeds Business University, says the the software can recommend games in under a minute, and with greater success. When using ANDi, people keep games for 25% longer, on average, than competitors.

An untapped market

The direction the company took was, its founders admit, somewhat accidental.

When Woolf and friend Sam Koch, who has a computer science background, volunteered together at a 2015 TechCrunch convention, they talked about the idea of creating a new mobile game together.

But when they visited the Google Play store to see what was already on the market, they found themselves swimming in a sea of choices. With that amount of selection, zeroing in on a particular type of game was virtually impossible. What people needed, they believed, was a more efficient way to find what they were looking for.

In a matter of just a few months, the pair was able to cultivate a team and put out the first prototype. Woolf says the community user base has grown by more than 15% month-over-month since being released.

Fostering collaboration 

The company’s speed-to-market is the result of a “work hard, play hard” approach. Product development centers on intense two-week “sprints,” in which the team discusses a new feature, designs it and then carries out a test so it can analyze results afterward.

The founders also carve out time for team-building. Employees regularly get together for team lunches where they can air out their concerns. Once a month, staff members will huddle around a video game console and hold friendly competitions.

“All this builds collaboration and fearless positivity, which allows all members individually to want to give their all,” suggests Woolf.

Already, ANDi’s gaming assistant is shaking up the industry, he says. “The larger game studios, publishers and other media sites are concerned how this could equalize the market for the small niche game developers and medium-sized companies who are not able to gain the same face-time due to financial restrictions,” he explains.

Thanks to its innovative solution, the company has recently earned multiple high-level honors. Among them: “Most Innovative Mobile Gaming Application 2017” by Softech and “Best Free Gaming App” at the TMT Global Excellence Awards 2017.

ANDi adds to its trophy case with the Bronze Stevie® Award received for “Startup of the Year - Consumer Products Industries” at this year’s International Business Awards.

“Winning an award as prestigious as the Stevies was a huge inspiration to our team,” says Woolf. “To be recognized by others in the global business community for our hard work is something we very much appreciate.”

Helping leading global companies turn strategy into results takes careful consideration and extensive experience. However, making that process fun, powerful, and lasting, to make an impact on the people and their careers can be one of the most challenging hurdles to overcome. BTS is a global professional services firm headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with 500 professionals in 33 offices on six continents, inspiring new ways of thinking, building critical capabilities, and unleashing business success. Jessica Parisi, President & CEO of BTS USA, has been named the winner of a Bronze Stevie Award The 2017 International Business Awards for the Woman of the Year category.

The Industry Gold Standard

As a management consulting company, BTS always strives to focus on working with leaders at all levels to help them make better decisions, convert those decisions to actions, and deliver results. Hannah Reeve, the Associate Marketing Manager at BTS, comments on the recent attention BTS has received due to their history of success.

“BTS has had a record year, with tremendous growth and significant improvements to the bottom-line, and continues to set the industry gold standard in terms of innovative, scalable, impactful client work. This expertise and impact is widely recognized, with BTS USA being named both a 2017 Top 20 Leadership Training Company and a 2017 Top 20 Sales Training Company for the first time ever, and our Changr and Pulse digital tools winning Gold and Silver Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, respectively.”

Some of the services BTS offers include:

• Assessment centers for talent selection and development
• Strategy alignment and execution
• Business acumen, leadership and sales training programs
• On-the-job business simulations and application tools.

They partner with nearly 450 organizations, including over 30 of the world’s 100 largest global corporations. Some of their major clients include: Microsoft, SAP, Chevron, Coca-Cola, Volvo Group, Citigroup, Salesforce, Tencent and Novartis.

The Best Work of Their Lives

BTS winning a Stevie Award has been a symbol of international recognition of Jessica Parisi's powerful influence and positive impact on BTS and their client organizations globally. Hannah Reeve believes it is, “an honor that does nothing but bolster the reputation of both BTS and Jessica in the public eye, and has been incredibly beneficial in getting increased attention to Jessica's achievements as a leader and insightful point of view.”

Jessica Parisi has since been interviewed by magazines such as Entrepreneur..

As a woman CEO in a male-dominated industry, Jessica Parisi has demonstrated remarkable growth, achievement, and passion for her work. Throughout her 18-year career at BTS, Parisi has pioneered turning strategy into action through the use of customized business simulations and other experiential learning techniques for leading Fortune 500 clients.

Jessica also evolved BTS USA from a female to male consultant ratio of 18% to 82% and 44% to 56%. Engaging with every individual throughout the organization on a personal level, Jessica embodies the “Multiplier” leader and sets the direction for the organization as she strives to provide all employees the opportunity to “do the best work of their lives and have fun while doing it.”

No Fear Needed to Disrupt an Industry

The learning and development space is changing tremendously, with increased emphasis on virtual learning formats, digital technology, and equipping people with the skills and mindset needed to lead through transformation.

“Clients across industries are all combating enormous change and shifts in their spaces” says Reeves, “More and more are turning to programs that will help their people learn the leadership skills, innovation capabilities, and strategic agility required to be successful moving forward.”

At their core, BTS believes people learn best by doing. For 30 years, they’ve inspired new ways of thinking, building critical capabilities and unleashing business success.

Jessica Parisi wants people to know that, "it's not scary to do something different and new – it's exciting. BTS has a history of being disruptive, and I want us to continue that. It’s so much more fun when we are the disruptor.”

It is two minutes and fifty-three seconds of simple, but remarkably effective storytelling.

A silver-haired man, dressed in a dark sport coat, walks through the streets of Norman, an unpretentious American town in the heart of Oklahoma. As he slowly meanders down the city streets, he recites a poem in his measured, slightly raspy voice.

The first verse describes a frazzled gentleman who, upon visiting a friend, begins to open up about his latest difficulties. If not for its business slant, like worries over “negative cash flow,” it would be easy to confuse the nuanced lines for those of Robert Frost.

Eventually, the friend he’s come to see changes his fortunes. Now, he has systems “designed with vision and purpose” that provide better insight into his operations. He and his wife start doing more travelling, thanks to generous dividend checks.

Watch McMahon's video here.

So it is that McMahon Marketing helped its client, a local business coach, address one of its biggest challenges: a lot of prospects simply don’t know what these coaches do, or why they need one.

“Small business owners feel isolated and stressed and believe others are thriving while they’re failing,” says CEO Korey McMahon, whose U.S.-based agency produced the video ad. 

McMahon says the spot’s success shows that there’s a viable way to address those challenges. “The message is: Others have done it. You can too, and here’s how.”

The resulting work, entitled “The Owner & The Coach,” earned McMahon’s agency a Gold Stevie Award for best Service Sales Video in The 2017 American Business Awards.

A compelling message

A big part of the ad’s appeal is its stripped-down, authentic vibe. It stars the client himself, Martin Holland, who intones a poem he originally wrote while taking his dog for a walk.

In it, Holland, who works for Las Vegas, America-based ActionCOACH, finds a way to demystify his industry, turning the business owner-coach relationship into a uniquely personal interaction.

“The thing about coaching is people don’t know what it is,” Holland told his hometown newspaper, The Norman Transcript. “Or if they do, they have misbegotten ideas about what it is. We were trying to show before and after of the stresses small business owners go through and how their lives change.” 

McMahon saw Holland’s rhyming verse as the perfect way to get his client’s message across. With a budget of just $1,000, he enlisted a local film director, Cooper Williams, to turn it into an ad.

“We created something that we felt like was top quality, that we were really proud of,” McMahon told the newspaper. “We took a shot, not really expecting to win anything because of the nature of the competition and the quality in the Stevie awards. It was very exciting for our team and all of the hard work that they do.”

Making an impact

Already, the video has been having a big effect. Holland says he recently spoke with two business owners in northeast Oklahoma who are perfect examples. The husband saw the need for a coach to help revitalize the company, but his wife was hesitant.

Upon seeing the video, that immediately changed. “She said, ‘I get it now. I’m all in.’”

The spot is also a huge shot in the arm for McMahon Marketing, a five-year-old inbound marketing agency with a staff of just seven full-time employees. Despite their lean budget, they were proud to win the Gold with several multinational firms with billions of dollars in revenue as their competition.

“It’s so important for not only our credibility, but also the talent we recruit,” says McMahon. “I feel we have the most talented team around, and this is just validation that we are creating nationally recognized videos and marketing services,” he said.

Marc Wileman might be known for making slime and firing rockets before crowds of excited children. But for “Mad” Marc, as his young audience members like to call him, it’s not just about creating a spectacle. The real goal is changing the way school kids feel about science.

Since founding Sublime Science nine years ago, his Leicester-based company has become one of the most popular birthday party and event companies in England, reaching more than a million youths.

The shows are part exhibition—think smoke ring blowers and lightning experiments—and part hands-on laboratory for the kids. Participants may find themselves turning everyday ingredients into a sweet confection or learning about physics through a wild “tornado race.”

According to Wileman, a safety-first mentality in the U.K. has gone a step too far, in many cases keeping younger students from having a more personal encounter with science.

“Children today aren't even allowed to do their own science experiments and wind up thinking science is just theory,” says the entrepreneur, whose firm recently earned the Gold Stevie® Award in The 2017 International Business Awards for Company of the Year in the Consumer Services segment.

Humble beginnings

If anyone can appreciate the importance of an early love for science, it’s Wileman. His passion started when he read the novel George’s Marvellous Medicine by Roald Dahl in primary school. By age eight, he was performing experiments on his own.

Years later, he went on to study science at the University of Toronto and later at the University of Nottingham in the U.K., where he earned a First Class Master’s Degree in physics. Upon graduation, he found himself working for an Australian education organization, teaching kids all over New South Wales about physics from the back of a pickup truck.

Soon the recent grad, then just 22 years old, was thinking about building a similar program in his native England. However, despite his passion for science and education, he admits being short on business experience—and money.

“I founded Sublime Science on personal credit cards and a £1,750 loan from the Prince's Trust,” he says. “I had to move back to my parents' house and run the entire company, as well as storage and sleeping, out of one room.”

Those challenges aside, it became clear early on that Wileman had a winning formula. “Thankfully, the children loved the experiments and word-of-mouth began to spread,” he recalls.

In time, he obtained the capital his fledgling business needed, thanks in no small part to a pitch on the BBC show, Dragons’ Den. Through the appearance, he garnered an investment from two of the “dragons,” enabling Wileman to take the company to a new level.

A successful formula

Since then, he has put on countless birthday parties and school workshops throughout the U.K. and has grown his staff to eight employees.

“We create unforgettable experiences and sneak in the learning when the children are having too much fun to notice,” he says.

Wileman has even written a book, Don’t Eat Your Slime, that shows kids how to conduct their own experiments at home, like how to make bubbling volcanoes and create a musical instrument.

As a result of his efforts, Sublime Science has amassed a litany of plaudits, including the Queen's Award for Enterprise and a Great British Entrepreneur Award for Best Service Business. The firm even received a congratulatory letter from 10 Downing Street, home of Britain’s prime minister.

In October, the organization added the Gold Stevie Award, presented during a gala in Barcelona, Spain, to that illustrious list.

“It’s been an awesome boost for the team and a great way to spread the word about managing to reach one million kids,” Wileman says.

The Stevie® Awards has issued a call for entries for the 2018 (fifth annual) Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards, the only business awards program to recognize innovation in business throughout the entire Asia-Pacific region. 

The early-bird entry deadline is November 29. The final entry deadline is February 7, 2017, but late entries will be accepted through March 14 with the payment of a late fee. Complete entry details are available at http://Asia.StevieAwards.com.

The Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards are open to all organizations in the 22 nations of the Asia-Pacific region: Large and small, for-profit and non-profit, public and private. The awards focus on recognizing innovation in all its forms, wherever it is achieved in the workplace. Entries are accepted in seven languages.

• Annual Report Awards & Other Publication Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Company/Organization Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Management Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product Awards
• Corporate Communications, IR, and PR Awards
• Website Awards and Smartphone and Tablet App Awards
  …and more

REVIEW THE ENTRY KIT HERE.

New awards categories introduced for 2018 include Award for Innovative Management in Government, Award for Innovative Management in Non-Profit Organization or NGOs and Award for Innovative Management in Public Enterprises.

Asia-Pacific Stevie Award winners will be announced on April 18. Winners will be celebrated and presented their awards during a gala banquet on June 1 in Hong Kong.

Scores of professionals from throughout the region will participate in the judging process to determine the Stevie winners.

Some of the Asia-Pacific region’s most innovative organizations have won Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards in the past four years including ABS-CBN Corporation, Bangkok Health Research Center, Delta Air Lines, Freelancer.com, GE Indonesia, Globe Telecom, Hong Kong Tourism Board, Huawei, Maras Group, MetLife Asia Ltd., MSLGROUP China, Ooredoo, PT Petrokimia Gresik, Samsung, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Singapore Power, Sony, Telkom Indonesia, Xiaomi, and more.