The Innovation Award honors projects in a variety of regional development program areas, including economic development, regional innovation strategies, post-disaster economic recovery, small business finance, workforce development, environmental initiatives, and sustainable development. This award presents an excellent opportunity for members to promote their successes to a national audience and with their regional and local partners.  Award-winning projects are often used in congressional testimony and best practices reports, and serve as case studies to demonstrate the importance of regional development organizations in all aspects of community and economic development.

Don’t miss this opportunity to:

• Gain national recognition via your local media, NADO.org, and NADO News.
• Be recognized during a special roundtable reception in your honor, and network with other award winners during NADO’s 2012 Annual Training Conference in Las Vegas, October 13 – 16.
• Have your photo taken with NADO President Russ Cowley during a special photo session. You will receive this photo and a press release to distribute to local media!

Eligibility:

• The organization applying to receive the award must be a member of NADO. If multiple organizations collaborated on a project, they may apply jointly for an award, but the lead applicant must be a NADO member.
• Only three projects per organization may be submitted.
• Projects must show substantial quantitative or qualitative results in your region. For a competitive application, address one or more of the following issues: uniqueness/level of innovation; regional impact; ability to be replicated; long-term viability of the program and its impact; innovative partnerships and collaborations; and creative funding.

Submit your application online at http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22F44ZZZLRR by June 22, 2012. For more information, visit http://www.nado.org/awards/ or contact NADO Program Manager Matt Black, at 202.624.7809 or mblack@nado.org.

During NADO’s 2011 Annual Training Conference in Miami, four projects were selected from among the 60+ Innovation Award winners to receive Trailblazer Awards.  Two additional projects were selected as Trailblazer Award winners at the National Rural Transportation Conference in Washington, DC from among the16 Excellence in Regional Transportation Awards Winners.

The 2011 NADO Trailblazers are:

• Florida Regional Councils Association, Statewide Regional Evacuation Study Program
• Northeast Michigan Council of Governments, U.S. 23 Heritage Route
• Ohio Valley Regional Development Commission, Buckeye Hills-Hocking Valley Regional Development District and Ohio Mideastern Governments Association, Connecting Appalachia Middle-Mile Fiber Optic Network
• Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc., Southern Oregon Angel Investment Conference
• Lower Savannah Council of Governments (SC), Cross County Connection
• Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission (VA), Roanoke Valley Greenways

NADO would like to thank Lisa Dawson (Northeast Oregon EDD); Rick Hunsaker (Region XII COG, IA); Jeff Kiely (Northwest New Mexico COG); Bethany Remmers (Northwest Regional Planning Commission, VT); Gena McCullough, Bi-State Regional Commission, IL); Betty Riley (South Central Oregon EDD); and Shawn Seager (Mountainland Association of Governments, UT) for serving as 2011 Trailblazer Award judges.

• Click here for the list of Innovation Award winners (PDF)
• Click here for the project descriptions and contact information of the Innovation Award winners (PDF)
• Click here for the list of Excellence in Regional Transportation Award winners (PDF)
• Click here for the project descriptions and contact information of the Excellence Award winners (PDF)

NADO’s Innovation Award honors projects in a variety of regional development program areas. The Excellence in Regional Transportation Award, a program of NADO’s RPO America and the NADO Research Foundation’s Center for Transportation Advancement and Regional Development, recognizes noteworthy projects and practices in rural and small metropolitan transportation planning, programming and service delivery.  This year’s award winners encompass a vast range of program areas, and demonstrate unique partnerships, creative thinking, and strategic leveraging of resources to deliver results.

The 2011 NADO Innovation Award winners will be honored at the Showcase Reception at NADO’s Annual Training Conference, to be held in Miami, Florida from October 8 – 11, 2011.  The 2011 NADO Excellence in Regional Transportation Award winners will be honored at the Awards Reception at NADO’s National Rural Transportation Conference, to be held in Washington, DC from August 24 – 26, 2011.  Plan to attend these events to learn more about the winning projects!