The Stevie® Awards, organizer of the world’s premier business awards programs, have issued the call for entries for The 2022 (20th Annual) American Business Awards®, the top business awards competition in the U.S.A. Entry details are available at http://www.stevieawards.com/aba.

The entry deadline is Wednesday, February 9. Late entries will be accepted through March 9 with payment of a late fee.

Each year the ABAs attracts more than 3,500 nominations from organizations nationwide. All organizations operating in the U.S.A. – large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit - are eligible to submit nominations to the ABAs, in a wide range of categories honoring achievement in every aspect of work life, from customer service and management to public relations and product development.

The 2022 awards will honor outstanding work since the beginning of 2020.

More than 250 professionals nationwide will participate in the judging process beginning in February, through mid-April. The Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie® Award winners will be announced on April 28 and celebrated during a gala event in New York City on June 13.

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

• Management Awards
• Achievement Awards
• Company / Organization Awards
• Entrepreneur Awards
• Customer Service Awards
• Human Resources Awards
• Information Technology Awards
• Marketing Awards
• New Product & Product Management Awards
• Public Relations Awards
• App, Event, Publication, Video, and Web Site Awards
• COVID-19 Response

New category groups for 2022 include:

• Social Media Awards
• Thought Leadership Awards

Every new product or service nominated in The 2022 American Business Awards will automatically be included in voting for the People's Choice Stevie Awards for Favorite New Products, an annual feature of the ABAs in which the general public votes for their favorite new products. Voting will open on April 29.

• New Heights Educational Group offers a range of emotional support services for children and adults
• NHEG has expanded its outreach by over 90,000 people during the pandemic in 2020 and has continued to grow globally
• All of NHEG’s volunteers are dedicated to the cause and are committed to providing the highest quality educational services for children and adults with differing abilities 

About New Heights Educational Group

New Heights Educational Group (NHEG) promotes literacy for children and adults by offering a range of educational support services, including assisting families in the selection of schools; organization of educational activities; and acquisition of materials. NHEG promotes a healthy learning environment and enrichment programs for families of preschool and school-age children, including children with special needs.

NHEG was founded in 2006 by Pamela Clark. Pamela discovered that families need to cooperate in educating children with learning difficulties such as ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, and neurological disorders. 

New Heights Educational Group has grown its online reach during 2020 by over 90,000 people. Pamela Clark leads a team of over 90 volunteers that research advancements, provide training to teachers for different learning styles, and is experienced in successful online learning. The organization replaced its $45 per week cost for tutoring services to $45 per month during the pandemic. NHEG’s online courses, informational services, and tutoring now reach more than 350,000 students across the nation.

NHEG’s largest following is for the free courses. They have expanded an online reading ambassador program where athletes read stories to students online. This past year, many new courses were added, including a Chinese and Music course, as well as a low-cost Chemistry course. Everyone that works with NHEG is a volunteer and works hard to create real change and bring resources and educational opportunities to all individuals. 

Volunteer Spotlight

Julia Landy began volunteering with NHEG in July 2020. She has worked as a graphic designer, video editor, and new media creator. At only 16 years old, her talents outshine her age, and she has created media and advertisements for NHEG’s newest reading programs, updated course logos, annual cards, and more - totaling over 40 assignments. Julia’s work is essential to NHEG’s continued growth.

Marina Klimi began volunteering with NHEG in August 2013. She creates the bimonthly NHEG EDGuide, which is packed with information in educational topics. Marina creates the covers for each magazine and organizes massive amounts of information to share with the public while also being a team leader. Marina works hard to inform and educate the public on the happenings and opportunities that New Heights Educational Group offers on a regular basis. Her dedication and skills help NHEG expand around the world and has benefited the American nonprofit.  

New Heights Educational Group won the Gold Stevie Award for COVID-19 Response Categories - Educational Hero of the Year, as well as three Bronze Stevie Awards for Support Staffer of the Year; Marketer of the Year; and Product Developer of the Year in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

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

• Kelley Higney founded Bug Bite Thing when her family suffered from constant mosquito bites in South Florida
• The company was pitched on ABC’s show Shark Tank, and has since seen exponential success

About Bug Bite Thing 

Bug Bite Thing is dedicated to offering people a chemical-free and eco-friendly solution that alleviates the discomfort, stinging, itching, and swelling caused by bug bites and bee/wasp stings. The reusable suction tool removes insect saliva/venom from under the skin and is reusable, chemical-free, and safe to use on children of all ages, as well as adults. It is Amazon’s #1 selling product for insect bite relief.

Bug Bite Thing’s History

Kelley Higney is the founder and CEO of Bug Bite Thing. Kelley grew up in San Diego, California, and worked with her mother, Ellen McAlister, on the family’s international export and distribution business for 15 years before starting Bug Bite Thing. Kelley and her family relocated to South Florida and were unprepared for how mosquitos would impact their quality of life. The family was suffering from constant mosquito bites, and after many failed attempts using creams and trying home remedies, Kelley discovered a little-known tool that uses suction to help remove insect
saliva/venom from under the skin. Kelley was amazed to
find that the product worked well and offered instant relief. 

In 2017, Kelley Higney was selling Bug Bite Thing at local farmers’ markets and bake sales. Then one day, there was a conversation about Bug Bite Thing in a local South Florida Mom Group on social media. The local news picked up on that conversation and contacted Kelley for an interview, resulting in thousands of units of inventory being sold out in just one week. 

In 2019, Kelley Higney and her mother, Ellen, appeared on ABC’s hit show Shark Tank and pitched the Sharks to invest in their company. They had all the Sharks biting with offers and accepted inventor and entrepreneur Lori Greiner’s “Golden Ticket” as an expression of her strong interest in the company. Since appearing on Shark Tank, the company’s sales increased overnight. 

Today, Bug Bite Thing is sold by major retail chains including Walmart, FSA Store, Home Depot, REI, Bed Bath & Beyond, True Value Hardware, The Grommet, BattlBox, and other independent retailers. 

Bug Bite Thing won the Gold Stevie Award for Management Categories - Woman of the Year - Consumer Products and a Bronze Stevie Award for Achievement Categories - Achievement in Growth in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

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

• Turnitin is dedicated to ensuring the integrity of education and research with products used by students and educators
• The company’s Feedback Studio with Draft Coach allows students to directly improve their research and writing skills in real-time while drafting essays 
• Turnitin’s comprehensive database helps students do proper research, cite sources effectively, and deliver high-quality academic writing 

About Turnitin

Turnitin is a global company dedicated to ensuring the integrity of education and research and meaningfully improving learning outcomes. Turnitin partners with educational institutions to promote honesty, consistency, and fairness across all subject areas and assessment types. Turnitin’s products are used by students and professionals to do their best, original work.

Turnitin is well known as a company that upholds academic integrity, streamlines assessment, and encourages students to do their own work. Turnitin’s most recent offering, Turnitin Feedback Studio with Draft Coach, gives students the power to directly improve their original thinking skills while drafting assignments. Students learn by making mistakes, but learning is much more effective when those mistakes are made - and able to be corrected - before they turn in an assignment. When students can write, iterate, and revise their work, tremendous gains are made in their writing ability. Feedback Studio with Draft Coach is exactly the product to allow that interactive process to occur in Google Docs, where most students are composing essays for their courses. 

Draft Coach’s features and benefits include: 

• Students run a similarity check directly within Google Docs to ensure proper research and understand where to revise their writing prior to final submission
• Students give credit where credit is due by using Draft Coach to find any missing references and citations 
• In-app guidance helps students think critically about their similarities and citation checks
• Students tend to spend more time writing and revising before submitting their final essay, meaning that they are learning more with each iteration and also turning in better essays 
• Teachers save time because students can apply the formative feedback to correct errors and submit their own best and original work 

Turnitin Feedback Studio with Draft Coach helps students improve their academic writing and research skills by providing access to Similarity Reports and citation feedback as they draft in Google Docs. Draft Coach serves as an integrity coach that lives where students work and supports them in doing proper research, citing sources effectively, and delivering high-quality academic writing. By providing students with formative feedback on citations and matches with Turnitin’s comprehensive database of internet, student papers, and academic content, Draft Coach helps educators cultivate more independent learners and confident writers. 

Turnitin won the Gold Stevie Award for New Product & Service Categories - Education - Learning Capacity-Building Solution in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

Interested in entering The 2022 American Business Awards? 

In March 2020, Kurt Smith faced a major challenge. As Senior Director, Strategic Events Knowledge Program at ServiceNow, Smith was responsible for spearheading the strategy and execution of Knowledge, ServiceNow’s annual customer conference. But with COVID-19 gripping the world, in-person events were on pause everywhere, and Smith and the team knew that if Knowledge 2020 was going to happen in May, ServiceNow would have to rethink it from the ground up. With that constraint, ServiceNow quickly got to work, pivoting the event into a completely digital conference within six weeks. 

In 2021, Smith and the team had the advantage of building Knowledge 2021 as a digital event from the ground up, developing an event that offered a fresh, captivating spin on the B2B conference experience via 145 hours of live and pre-recorded content premiering over two weeks.  

One of the most notable hallmarks of ServiceNow’s new approach was the event’s cinematic opening keynote, which inspired viewers by detailing stories of how ServiceNow’s workflow solutions were helping customers build a better world. Instead of the traditional live event “Broadway stage” experience, the team decided to go “Hollywood”—putting a new cinematic focus on the delivery of the keynote.

The Opening Keynote’s “Workflow your world” story was brought to life at the stunning California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The concept of workflowing was visually demonstrated as host Veronica De La Cruz “flowed through” the museum, engaging with several ServiceNow executive visionaries. Captivating customer story videos were interspersed throughout the 30-minute keynote to show how powerful workflows impact daily life.

This new approach was core to the strategy of the event, said Smith. The team wanted Knowledge 2021 to focus less on the company’s product roadmap and more on ServiceNow’s real-world impact. “We didn’t want to spend all of our time talking about our products” Smith explained. “We wanted to talk about the meaningful ways our customers’ solutions are changing people’s lives.” 

Another major enhancement was the team’s approach to programming. While many businesses have simply ported the in-person conference experience online by producing the same hour-long keynotes and product demonstrations, ServiceNow produced programming that was short and compelling. Doing so was vital for combating “Zoom fatigue” and keeping viewers engaged. Demo sessions were limited to seven minutes and were filmed with dynamic, slowly panning camera shots that drew viewers in.   

While this approach to short segments did force a fundamental change in messaging for executives used to longer sessions, Smith knew that doing so was important to creating a captivating, watchable experience for viewers. This approach also gave the clips a longer shelf life, since ServiceNow was able to re-cut the segments for distribution across various channels.  

“Feedback was positive across the board because what we were doing was so different,” said Smith. “Everyone just loved the concise stories and sessions, and the beauty of what we produced.”  

To view the Knowledge 2021 Opening Keynote, go to https://knowledge.servicenow.com/.

ServiceNow won four Stevie Awards in The 2021 American Business Awards. They won two Stevie Awards in the category Corporate & Community - B2B Event and two Stevie Awards in Corporate & Community - Employee Engagement Event. 

Interested in The 2022 American Business Awards?

• The American Dental Association has been driving dentistry forward by supporting dental professionals with services and resources 
• ADA’s focus focused on pandemic relief in 2020 and advocated for dental legislation to ensure dentists and patients could remain safe
• The American Dental Association’s goal is to ensure optimal health conditions for all people and addresses equity including community water fluoridation, health literacy, Medicaid advocacy, and more 

About American Dental Association 

The American Dental Association (ADA) powers the profession of dentistry to advance the overall oral health of the public. With 163,000+ members, ADA has been driving dentistry forward for 160 years. The American Dental Association promotes the art and science of dentistry by supporting dental professionals with services and resources and advocates for public health.

With the outbreak of the coronavirus, the ADA met the immediate challenge and excelled in providing its 163,000+ members with useful, up-to-date information and tangible support throughout the pandemic. Acting as a support system for dental teams and a trusted driver of evidence-based information for the public was ADA’s top priority. There were countless unknowns early in the pandemic, and the ADA stepped up by issuing guidance based on the science available at the time, toolkits, and resources to keep dental teams and their patients safe as they navigated dental care, an essential health service, during COVID. 

Team members jumped into overdrive to develop the ADA Coronavirus (COVID-19) Center for Dentists, which served as a digital dashboard for all COVID-19 resources and content. The ADA shared its resources on social media, with media outlets, through email blasts, digital events (such as clinical and economic impact webinars), and on ADA publications, ensuring that all dentists had access to critical information.

Efforts also included rigorous legislative advocacy. More than 150,000 dentists engaged in government outreach, and nearly 600,000 emails were sent to Capitol Hill during deliberations on COVID-19 relief packages.  As a result of ADA’s advocacy, key provisions benefitting dental practices and patients were included COVID-19 relief legislation such as the CARES Act. Dentistry was elevated to #4 on FEMA’s list of priority recipients of PPE, and the ADA distributed more than 4.1 million N95 masks and 833,000+ gowns to more than 64,000 dentists across the country. 

The Association also positioned itself as a leader during the public health crisis, providing the dental perspective to agencies such as FEMA, HHS, and the CDC and educating consumers via MouthHealthy.org. Market data have indicated that the ADA is second only to the CDC as the most trusted voice for patients seeking assurance about the safety of dental visits during COVID-19.

As the pandemic has evolved, so has the ADA, which has now deployed a three-pillar vaccine strategy. The work continues, but to date, the ADA's COVID-19 response has seen unprecedented success. 

American Dental Association won a Silver Stevie Award for COVID-19 Response Categories - Most Valuable Non-Profit Response in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

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

• Discuss.io is a smart video platform that connects brands to consumers and provides insights into conversations 
• Leading global companies use Discuss.io to capture and share insights in real-time
• The company’s products saw a surge in use as a result of COVID and provides tools to fill the gap in the video conferencing market 

About Discuss.io

Discuss.io is an enterprise-level smart video platform helping businesses make better-informed decisions by using experience and innovation to set up, capture, analyze and share consumer conversations to generate aha-moments and insights at scale. Leading global companies and their partners trust Discuss.io to enable deep, purposeful connections with their key audiences and to securely capture and share insights across their organizations in real-time.

Traditional enterprise video conferencing technology is generic and built for broad use. Discuss.io is purpose-built to enable meeting rooms of the future that allow companies to get more out of their video conversations. Brands connect with customers anywhere around the world and easily and securely record, categorize, transcribe, share and store insights, allowing companies to make better informed, strategic business decisions, whether big or small, based on their own direct experiences with consumers, rather than assumptions based on historical, behavioral, and third-party data. 

The company’s mission has always been focused on helping customers get insights from having more conversations with more consumers through innovations in video and workflow. While Discuss.io has developed several new products to combat the challenges brought on by COVID specifically, the company has worked to develop products that allow brands to adapt to changing and more agile environments since its founding by looking to the future of video conferencing. In 2019, Discuss.io launched its Pulse program, which enables live video conversations directly between consumers and marketers globally, enabling all marketers within an organization to build and strengthen consumer empathy. In 2020, the company refined and developed several products to enable businesses to better adapt to their new virtual settings, including private and enhanced chat features, new options for message editing and deleting, and personal meeting rooms that have also been built to provide users with the efficiency benefits of the platform, like interactive whiteboards, and integrated discussion guides. 

More recently, the platform launched its Respondent Management tool, an industry-first DIY hub feature that allows agencies and brands with their own panels and databases to connect and manage their respondents in one place, eliminating the need for multiple tools and systems, thus reducing friction in the consumer insights process.

While video conferencing has seen an uptick in light of the pandemic due to the need to connect virtually, many video platforms weren't developed with the intention of being used for important business conversations and lack a number of features that can be beneficial for a professional setting. The products that Discuss.io has developed as immediate solutions for COVID-19 also speak to a current gap in the video conferencing market, specifically, by providing a number of integrated tools that can aid all aspects of internal and external business communications across multiple industries.

Discuss.io helps enterprise market researchers, UX researchers, product managers, sales professionals, brand managers, and CX departments ramp consumer conversations and streamline the workflow. 

Discuss.io won the Silver Stevie Award for Company / Organization Categories - Most Innovative Company of the Year - Up to 100 Employees in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

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

• Wabtec provides integrated solutions and digitization for the freight and transit rail sectors
• The company is committed to reducing emissions and has created the first 100% battery-powered locomotive 

About Wabtec

Wabtec is a leading global provider of equipment, systems, digital solutions, and value-added services for the freight and transit rail sectors. Drawing on over 150 years of experience, Wabtec is leading the way in safety, efficiency, reliability, innovation, and productivity.

Wabtec is an integrated solutions provider delivering lifecycle products and services for the transportation industry by improving interoperability, efficiency, and competitiveness for customers. With more than 23,000 locomotives in Wabtec’s global installed base, and components on many of the locomotives, freight cars, and transit cars around the world, Wabtec is developing tomorrow’s logistics and transit solutions. 

The company’s digital solutions, combined with Positive Train Control (PTC) and electronics capabilities, unlock significant productivity components - saving billions of dollars for rail customers and operators, all while creating pathways to advanced automated operations. These digital tech solutions improve safety and efficiency for the transportation industry, helping address the growing demand for improved rail performance. 

Wabtec has made great strides in the past two years. It started with the merger with GE Transportation in 2019; this accomplishment brought together industry leaders with complementary and unique technologies to create a leading rail technology company. It also established Wabtec as a Fortune 300 and S&P 500 company. Since the merger, Wabtec has introduced innovations that enable customers to succeed in transforming the rail industry. Some major accomplishments include: 

• Designed, built, and shipped the world’s first 100% battery-electric locomotive
• Won the NYC Transit order to extend battery technology to passenger transit
• Completed over 500 million auto miles and has saved customers 400 million gallons of fuel with the Trip Optimizer System
• Helped 70 railroad customers meet the first US-mandated PTC deadline
• Tested, introduced, and sold zero-to-zero train operations (starting a train from 0mph and stopping the train automatically using various controls integrated with PTC)
• Introduced and began testing the new, innovative Green Friction braking solution for transit rail to reduce friction particle emissions on metro trains by up to 90%
• Launched Wabtec’s first sustainability strategy and report as a new company 

Wabtec’s Commitment to Cleaner Transportation

Trends show that freight and passenger activity will more than double by 2050, and with it, demand for cleaner, more energy-efficient transportation solutions. The rail industry is on the cusp of technological advancements required to power locomotive fleets with alternative green energy sources. Wabtec is leading this environmental shift with the FLXdrive Battery Locomotive - the industry’s first and only heavy-haul, 100% battery-powered locomotive operating in revenue service with BNSF Railways. This technology will provide up to 30% in fuel savings for the complete locomotive consist. Pairing the alternative power solutions with automation and digitization is an essential driver for the modernization of the entire transportation system, making it seamless, more efficient, and key to driving increased levels of safety, security, reliability, and reduced emissions. Wabtec’s dominant market share in Positive Train Control (PTC) systems, which span 70,000 miles of track, is the foundation for a more autonomous network. 

Wabtec won the Gold Stevie Award for Company / Organization Categories - Company of the Year - Automotive & Transport Equipment in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

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

• Jade Global is an IT systems and solutions company with a diverse portfolio if technological innovations
• Jade Global has scaled up exponentially since 2003
• The company’s innovations make Jade Global a highly reputable company with lasting partnerships

About Jade Global 

Jade Global is a global information technology systems and solutions company. Jade Global provides enterprise business application implementations, integrations, software product engineering, cloud services, technology advisory, testing, and managed services across diverse industries.

Clients rely on Jade Global’s trustworthy advice to derive value from software investments and gain business efficiencies. The company is well-positioned to be a strategic IT services partner for enterprise business applications and software product engineering. Jade’s workforce is made up of over 1,000 people operating from offices across the US, India, Canada, and Austria. Jade Global has earned a reputation for delivering on time and on budget, quality work, and personalized, transparent services. Being the right size gives Jade Global the flexibility to pass on cost benefits to clients. 

In less than two decades, Jade Global has scaled up to great heights and formed lasting partnerships that are built on quality and trust. Jade Labs, the company’s in-house innovation nucleus, is responsible for enhancing partner offerings by creating cutting edge technology. Jade Global’s AI, Kanverse, is a great example of originality that is seamlessly offered along with the company’s other services. Kanverse is a cognitive automation platform that can support various use cases across the enterprise to remove bottlenecks, streamline business operations, and minimize manual touch points across workflows. Kanverse’s system of intelligence provides a decision and analytics engine, conversational and programmable interface, and out of the box connectors for interfacing with users, as well as a system of records to maintain enterprise data. 

Jade Global was ranked #3484 on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list with an impressive growth rate of 107.2%

Jade Global won the Bronze Stevie Award for Fastest Growing Company of the Year - Up to 2,500 Employees in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

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

• Stevie-winner SingleCare is a prescription savings service that provides low prices to improve access and adherence to medication 
• The company saves millions of consumers up to 80% on medications 
• SingleCare rolled out COVID-safe initiatives to help vulnerable populations get medications at an affordable price 

About SingleCare

SingleCare is a free prescription savings service for consumers that provides consistently low prices to improve access and adherence to medication. Its convenient access to low prices saves consumers up to 80% on medications at pharmacies nationwide through its website, app, and discount cards. SingleCare handles hundreds of thousands of prescriptions per day, helping millions save money on their prescriptions. 

Drug costs are rising 5x faster than inflation and the onset of COVID-19 lead to more than 5.4 million Americans being newly uninsured and facing financial pressures. SingleCare responded by rolling out a series of new products and services to help drive down the cost of prescriptions and expand pharmacy partners to improve access for people to get the medications they need. 

To help provide consumers with financial relief during the pandemic, the company launched SingleCare Member Savings, a free program designed to lower the cost of prescription prices to deliver more affordable medications. With Member Savings, nearly every prescription filled earns SingleCare customers $1 to apply towards their next prescription, discounting their medications even further. There is no fee and customers can start earning immediately. 

SingleCare also recognized the challenges for customers to access care, whether impacted by social distance and sheltering guidelines, or delays in the USPS. The company expanded its pharmacy partners to include new home delivery services so that customers could order prescriptions from the comfort and safety of their own homes. SingleCare’s new home delivery service partners with GeniusRx to provide convenient access along with market-leading prices on hundreds of the most commonly filled drugs. 

During the pandemic, the company also dedicated its customer support hotline to help people set up prescription delivery from their own local pharmacies. For many users, these resources have been a lifeline as social distancing and quarantining have limited their options for obtaining prescriptions. SingleCare is committed to providing more affordable prescriptions and helping people across the USA with access and adherence to needed medications. 

SingleCare won a Silver Stevie Award in the COVID-19 Response Award Categories - Most Valuable Corporate Response in The 2021 American Business Awards®.

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