30 New Ways to be More Creative in Business

What are you doing to promote creativity and innovation in your company, association or community? Boulder is doing a lot.

The Boulder County Business Report held its 8th annual IQ Awards last night in Longmont. The event honored Boulder and Broomfield county companies for creativity and innovation.

These awards don’t just focus on creativity and innovation alone, however. They recognize creative ideas that make businesses work. One of their few rules was:

“The idea should be one that can lead to a “sustainable” business – one that is not just a design on a napkin but a product or service that has the best potential to help build or grow a successful and profitable company.”

Pretty prestigious event. Previous winners include such easily recognizable brands as SpectraLink, Intelligent Office, GoLite, Nautilus, Crocs, Webroot, IZZE Beverage and Noodles & Co.

Last night there were 30 new nominees in 10 categories. All of them were winners, but 10 of them went home with awards. Want to learn how to be more creative and innovative? Spend time learning about any of these 30 companies.

I talked to Bill Schafer and Bud Klepper from Range Fuels. Oh, no big deal. They’re just making it possible to run your car on wood chips (they call it “cellulosic ethanol”), something that USA Today, Red Herring, Newsweek and others think is pretty creative.

In fact, just yesterday Red Herring featured their CEO, Mitch Mandich, in an article titled “Executing on Cleantech.” He said:

“I really wanted to do something to make a material difference in the world.”

And that was the theme for the evening. Creativity and innovation that is being put to use to make the world a better place, to improve our neighborhoods, our relationships and our planet.

There were too many companies to mention here, but the biggest applause of the night came for Lee Shainis of Intercambio De Communidades, a nonprofit company that not only teaches English, but also fosters understanding and builds community with their intercultural exchanges.

And virtually every winner mentioned the support of the communities of Boulder and Broomfield counties. Mark Elder from Aztek Networks said in his acceptance speech, “This is a community that really helps you get it done.”

That kind of support was on display last night with almost more sponsors than nominees. Vectra Bank’s Gary Gomulinski said they have supported the IQ Awards for years because of an affinity for the creative impulse. “Our company also likes to work outside the box to come up with creative solutions, so we support the event.”

The judges give their time also - interviewing, reading about and studying the over 300 applicants. Theresa Szczurek (who has had a few innovative companies of her own and now hangs out at Technology and Management Solutions) has been a judge since the very first IQ Awards. She told me “It’s such a worthwhile cause – and a chance for me to give back.”

Boulder may have once fiddled while its economy burned, but it’s now burning with colossal support for innovative and creative businesses – the good kind; the kind that want to save the world.

Susan Graf, executive director of the Boulder Chamber of Commerce, may have said it best in the Daily Camera just a few weeks ago:

Boulder’s a terrific place because it is so supportive of small business. We have more support services for small business than any community I’ve ever found, and between the Small Business Development Center and the Boulder Innovation Center, the Colorado Technology Incubator, Techstars — there are just all of these groups whose sole purpose is to help businesses start and grow and be successful here.

By the way, Techstars of Boulder was one of the winners last night. Correct that - everyone in Boulder and Broomfield counties was a winner last night.