2019 Excellence in Economic Development Awards
About Entry Packets Categories Sponsors Previous Winners Contact
Awards Category Descriptions
Promotional Awards
Judging Criteria for Categories 1-10
Promotional awards will be judged by the following criteria:
- Effectiveness of the promotion
- Clarity of message
- Innovation/Creativity
- Quality and Completeness of Information
- Contribution to the economic development profession
1. Print Brochure
A print brochure serves either a general purpose or special purpose in communicating facts about a geographical/market area to prospects (industrial, commercial, retail or general development and investment). Print brochures may also promote specific programs, services, initiatives or events offered by your organization.
2. General Purpose Print Promotion
A promotional piece (other than a brochure), series of promotional pieces or a promotional campaign including but not limited to a folder, poster, print ad, direct mail campaign or other campaign.
3. Video/Multimedia Promotion
A promotional piece, series of promotional pieces or promotional campaign that contains non-printed elements. This can include videos or mailed promotional items.
4. Annual Report
A report summarizing an economic development organization’s annual activities and/or fiscal highlights.
5. Paid Advertising Campaign
One or a series of two or more paid black-and-white or color advertisements with a common economic development theme published on the web or in a print medium such as a newspaper or magazine.
6. Magazine and Newsletter
A publication that is published periodically in which its content addresses economic development issues or informs readers of the economic development activities of your organization.
7. Special Event
A meeting, seminar, marketing tour, event, or trip designed to develop prospects and promote economic development.
8. Innovation in Economic Development Week (Special Deadline: May 31, 2018)
Promotional campaign completed during and in conjunction with 2019 Economic Development Week (May 6-11). Types of promotion include, but are not limited to, an event, seminar, marketing tour, web or print projects, video and social and digital media campaigns.
Innovation in Economic Development Week awards will be judged by the following criteria:
- Goal/Mission
- Innovation/Creativity
- Effectiveness of EDW promotion
- Community or other EDO involvement (local, regional or state level)
- Use and quality of promotion utilizing social media
Internet and New Media Awards
Judging Criteria (Categories 11-13)
Internet and New Media awards will be judged by the following criteria:
- Goal/Mission
- Quantifiable Results related to goal
- Data Type & Quality
- Effectiveness of message
- Interactivity
- Timeliness/relevance of Information
- Quality of Content
- Organization, Visual Appeal and Navigability
- Accessibility
- Overall value for economic development efforts
9. General Purpose Website
Websites designed to promote city, state, or regional economic development organizations. This category will honor communities and organizations that are using the World Wide Web as an effective marketing tool to promote services and offer information to clients
10. Special Purpose Website
A specialized website designed for a specific purpose such as promoting community data/demographics, sites and buildings, tourism or other specific types of marketing related to economic development. The website must be for a single specific purpose and have a unique URL to demonstrate it is separate from a primary website.
11. Digital Media
This award recognizes the innovative use of digital media technologies in economic development. (All types of digital media initiatives are eligible such as marketing, BRE, entrepreneurship development, or talent attraction).
Program Awards
Judging Criteria (Categories 14-21)
Program Awards will be judged by the following criteria:
- Extent of the economic impact on its community, such as an increase in the overall tax base, the creation of new jobs, or criteria relevant to the goals of the program
- Achievement of its stated objective with measurable results
- Development of strong relationships with relevant players and widespread support in the community
- Innovation, originality, and cost effectiveness
- Relevance and transferability of elements to other communities
- Program must have been active for at least 3 years
12. Multi-Year Economic Development Program
A program, initiative, or creation of business improvement districts, special improvement districts, workforce investment boards, redevelopment agencies, local economic development corporations that fosters economic development. Applicants should be able to demonstrate results over a minimum period of three years of operation in a manner that has been documented.
13. Business Retention and Expansion (BRE) Initiatives
This award honors economic development initiatives that focus on retaining and growing existing businesses within communities and regions. Applicants should demonstrate extensive cross-community collaboration and the ability to adapt and respond quickly to unforeseen events. This award recognizes effective, innovative BRE programs or initiatives.
• This award recognizes both single events and multi-year programs with three (3) or more years of establishment in which a community successfully mobilized to retain and/or expand an existing business.
14. Entrepreneurship
This award recognizes programs, policies, or initiatives that nurture and support individuals or emerging small businesses to develop their ideas, products, and/or services into viable, competitive businesses. This can include, but is not limited to, providing access to finances, services, experts, networks, mentors, technology transfer, management resources, and fast learning environments.
15. Neighborhood and Retail Development
This award recognizes innovative programs that stimulate economic and retail development on a neighborhood scale. It includes the range of strategies, initiatives and investments that seek to facilitate the revitalization or redevelopment of distressed or devastated neighborhoods including retail oriented, business-oriented, people-oriented, place oriented, and community-building efforts.
16. Talent Development and Retention
This award distinguishes economic development efforts that develop strategic approaches and programs to meet one or more of following objectives: 1) strengthening the skills of the local workforce; 2) enhancing the skill sets of low-skilled and other disadvantaged workers; 3) increasing employment opportunities and experiential learning opportunities for emerging and disadvantaged workers (youth, aging workers, low skilled); 4) retraining programs for the workforce; 5) developing the pool of knowledge workers, including youth in the pipeline; 6) creating initiatives to retain and relocate local workers; 7) developing strategic marketing initiatives to attract talent including social media channels; and 8) better integrating and aligning economic and workforce development activities through systematic attempts at building a workforce system.
17. Real Estate Redevelopment & Reuse
This award recognizes innovative real estate redevelopment or reuse projects purpose-built or adaptively reused for the creation of jobs or for increasing the tax base. By demonstrating a measurable and quantitative impact on employment and the tax base, winning projects will also serve as catalysts for economic development in the area or region and will demonstrate innovative partnership approaches including public and private sectors
18. Economic Equity & Inclusion
This award recognizes programs dedicated to improving the quality of life within a community through focused, innovative, and inclusive initiatives that incorporate the unique experiences and knowledge of underserved members of the community. These programs promote economic equity and inclusion and/or provide increased access to government and community resources to an underserved populace
• The three year program requirement is reduced to one year for this category.
19. Resiliency, Recovery and Mitigation
This award includes submissions for programs, activities, and projects that represent a successful recovery initiative from natural and man-made disasters, as well as submissions that represent replicable measures undertaken to promote long term resiliency and/or sustainability from future disasters.
20. Creative Financing
This category recognizes partnership with non-traditional financing resources and/or use of non-traditional methods of financing for economic and business development projects, activities, and programs. Examples include New Market Tax Credits and non-traditional revolving loan funds through the USDA, EDA, and HUD CDBG.
21. Innovation Programs and Initiatives
IEDC is always interested in new and creative approached to economic development. If you have an outstanding project that does not seem to fit in the other award categories, nominate it here. Does the project, program or initiative offer an innovative or unique approach to an organizational management or development challenge? Is it something never before utilized (as far as you know) or is a unique approach to a common issue? Does the submission present a solution other organizations could modify for their own circumstances?
Partnership Awards
22. Public-Private Partnerships
This award recognizes outstanding and innovative development projects that have significantly enhanced revitalizations of communities, states, or regions. Winners represent efforts in which larger private contributions have been added to smaller, vital public commitments. Nominees should demonstrate:
- The extent to which public and private sector participants have formed a true partnership or joint venture in planning, development and financing the project
Direct economic benefit to the community (such as jobs and tax base)
Spin-off impact of the project
Creativity or innovation in packaging the project (e.g., land acquisition, joint venture aspects and financing)
23. Partnerships with Educations Institutions
This award recognizes excellence in economic development through meaningful linkages with postsecondary education. This includes, but is not limited to, collaboration in areas of real estate development, community-related research or technical assistance, economic strategy, workforce development, technology transfer, talent attraction and retention, entrepreneurship, and other relevant efforts. The focus will be on the nature and character of the partnership as well as the programmatic outcomes. Nominees should demonstrate:
- The extent to which the participants have formed a true partnership or joint venture in planning, development and financing the project
- Direct economic benefit to the community, such as creating jobs, increasing the tax base, or other results related to the partnership's goal
- Spin-off impact of the partnership
- Creativity or innovation in organizing and/or governing the partnership
24. Regionalism and Cross-border Collaboration
This award focuses on innovative approaches to regionalism and other forms of cross-border cooperation (across city, county, state, province or international borders). The efforts can focus on any area(s) of economic development (e.g. business retention and expansion, marketing, trade, tourism, etc…). Applicants should demonstrate innovative approaches to fostering, governing, and sustaining regional and cross-border collaboration, including:
- Governance mechanisms (e.g. board selection, membership, stakeholder participation)
- Financing (e.g. revenue sharing arrangements)
- Management (e.g. conflict resolution strategies, project management)
- Success measures relevant to the objectives of the partnership
Leadership Awards
1. New Economic Development Professional of the Year
This award recognizes outstanding achievement by a young, emerging leader in the economic development profession. Applicants must self-nominate and should detail their significant career achievements to date and the impact of those achievements on their economic development organization and the community as a whole, and also explain how they see these achievements contribute to the advancement of economic development as a profession. Each self nomination should be accompanied by a minimum of one, and not more than three, letters of endorsement on behalf of the applicant, from their supervisor, board chair, or other significant leader in the community who is actively involved with the applicant’s organization (e.g., a mayor or other senior elected official, a key business leader). Nominations must not exceed five typed double spaced pages; letters of endorsement should be no more than two pages and must be submitted in conjunction with the application. Applicants must be no more than 35 years of age on the deadline submission date set by IEDC for that year’s awards competition in order to be eligible for this award and must note their date of birth on their application.
2. Leadership Award for Public Service
This award recognizes an elected official who has served as a committed advocate for economic development for at least 10 years in the public sector. Nominees must have demonstrated sustained and effective efforts to mobilize community groups and industry leaders in the development of programs and projects, played a key role in the planning and designing of new economic development activities, and displayed dedication and commitment to his/her constituency as a leader and advocate for economic development.
3. Citizen Leadership Award
This award recognizes a community or business leader, or an individual who is not an economic development practitioner, but who plays a key leadership role. Nominees for the award should have shown support for or been involved in a broad range of activities for at least 10 years and have been involved in economic development, primarily in the private sector, for the last 5 years. Nominees must have demonstrated sustained and effective efforts to mobilize leadership in the development of programs and projects, played a key role in the planning and designing of new and creative economic development activities and be deeply committed as a leader and advocate for economic development.
4. Institutional Leadership Award
This award recognizes a leader of a community institution (university, community college, hospital, local foundation or other community institution) who has made significant contributions to the community in support of economic development through their leadership, financial support, local investments, hiring, training or related activities. Nominees, though not economic developers themselves, should demonstrate a sustained effort in the promotion and support of local economic development program.
5. Jeffery A. Finkle Organizational Leadership Award
This award recognizes an individual who has continuously led the same public or non-profit economic development organization with integrity, tenacity, and a philanthropic spirit for at least 15 years. Nominees should demonstrate a vast knowledge of the intricacies of the economic development profession and play a pivotal role in the continued success of their organization. They have not only exhibited exemplary leadership but have also worked tirelessly to develop the leaders around them and have a history of active participation with IEDC.
6. Federal Leadership in Economic Development Programs Award (Entry fee waived)
This award recognizes an individual federal program director who has gone above and beyond in administering a federal economic development program.
7. Congressional Leadership in Economic Development Award (Entry fee waived)
This award recognizes a member of Congress who has made significant contributions in the area of economic development. The award is given to a leader for his/her continuous support for economic development, and/or for intense work on a single piece of legislation.
Honorary Awards
Entry Fee Waived. Nominations will be considered for the following honorary designations for long-standing active IEDC members.
1. Fellow Member (FM)
Fellow Member (FM) status is conferred upon active IEDC members who have attained unusual stature in the field of economic development and closely related disciplines. Unusual stature is defined as significant contributions to the profession through service to the Council and/or academic endeavors directly related to the practice of economic development.
2. Honorary Life Member (HLM)
Honorary Lifetime Member (HLM) status is conferred upon active or former members of IEDC who have furthered the profession of economic development and have been a teacher or inspiration on the part of the profession to others in many communities.
One individual will be recognized for lifelong commitment to excellence in economic development.
3. Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Economic Development
One individual will be recognized for lifelong commitment to excellence in economic development and demonstrated work that has made a significant impact on the profession at the national or international level. Recipients of this award embody best practices and have helped to set the standard for exemplary economic development beyond their own community.
The winner of this award will automatically become an Honorary Life Member (HLM) of IEDC.