Dear BIIA Members

BIIA invites you to enter the Annual Small Business Incubator Awards!

The last eight years have seen the success of the Small Business Incubator Awards and it’s that time again.  The Awards are to be held again this year, so start preparing your entry!

The BIIA Incubation Awards provide a forum for the business incubation industry to celebrate excellence in client assistance, innovative ideas and outstanding business management.  The award process provides recognition and acclaim to the winners at the Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony at the national Small Business Development Conference to be held in Melbourne from 12-15 October 2008.

Winning a national award can also put you in a great marketing position to showcase your incubator’s achievements.  In particular, you may want to take advantage of the world first Global Incubation Day to be held on 8^th December 2008.  Put yourself on the international stage, develop global incubation contacts.   Find out more about how to promote your incubator and (hopefully), your Australian Incubator awards, by following the link; http://www.idisc.net/en/Article.38736.html

Be sure to read the information thoroughly and note the nomination deadline on your calendar.  To be considered, entries need to be received in electronic format only, by Friday 12^th September 2008.  If you have any questions about the information being requested, please contact BIIA, emailadmin@businessincubation.com.au

For details about the Conference you can visit the Small Business Development Conference website on:

www.sbdc.org.au

Regards and Good Luck with your nominations!

Bob Waite

Chairperson

BIIA

7^th July 2008

Background

Since 1999 government and industry groups have undertaken several national reviews of business incubators.  Key findings consistently show that business incubators are an effective and valuable economic development tool, if established and managed according to best practice principles.  In order to encourage the adoption of best practice, BIIA introduced an awards program in 2000 to acknowledge excellence in the performance of business incubators in Australia.

The Awards reflect outstanding achievement or improved performance as judged by an independent panel.

We invite all incubator managers to nominate their incubator and the successful businesses that they have supported.  The BIIA Awards process culminates in the Gala Awards Ceremony at the joint BIIA, BECA and NNA Small Business Development Conference, to be held in Melbourne from the 12-15 October 2008.

The two major categories for awards are:

      i.    2008 Australia:  Business Incubator of the Year

     ii.    2008 Australia:  Incubator Client of the Year (this may be a current incubator tenant, a current virtual tenant or a business that has graduated  within the period July 2007 to June 2008)

Multiple entries are welcome for the Client of the Year: The nomination criteria for each award are detailed in this package.

The awards’ criteria emphasise quality measures: the strength of the relationship between clients and incubator, overcoming obstacles, success in fulfilling goals and innovative approaches to service

Award winners become a part of history, receive wide recognition for their accomplishments, gain an impressive selling point for marketing their business or Incubator, and have the opportunity to shine before their stakeholders and communities.  The benefits are long lasting and this year, will afford the opportunity to shine on the world stage as part of Global Incubation Day on 8 December 2008.

All nominations received by the due date will be forwarded to a panel of independent judges, who will assess the nominees for all awards.  The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will entered into on completion of the judging process.  All entries are confidential and will be treated as Commercial in Confidence.

The whole process happens electronically.  To apply you need to:

1.    Record all your nominations on the one BIIA Awards application form.

2.    For each nomination, provide only the information asked of you in the section headed Nomination Documentation, sticking to the requested word counts (nothing extra please!)

3.    Send your application form together with your documentation electronically to the following email address –admin@businessincubation.com.au

REMEMBER!

1. Application Form and Nomination Documentation must be sent electronically (hard copies will not be accepted) to admin@businessincubation.com.au by close of business on Friday 12 September 2008.