Winning a Mira Award from TechPoint, Indiana’s technology growth initiative, can be very good for business.

Joe Melton, sales director for inbound marketing company, Slingshot SEO, can tie 4 new client sales and over $1 million in new business to their winning the 2011 Mira Award for Tech Company of the Year. Just as impressive, the company’s website, SlingshotSEO.com, peaked at the highest point in their history the day following their 2011 Mira Awards win. For context, that is more traffic than the day they achieved national press for ranking No. 58 on the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America list. Melton also pointed to the award as a strong recruiting tool. The recognition put Slingshot in the same conversation as previous winners like ExactTarget the year before, raising overall credibility of their brand.

As a result of IVM, Inc.’s 2012 Innovation of the Year Mira Award win and the news stories that followed, 14 prospective new customers contacted IVM in the week following the announcement.  Most notably, winning the award helped the vending and distribution solutions technology company land new customer Hewlett Packard, the $120.4 billion printer, personal computer, and software services provider. According to IVM President Michael Pitts, Hewlett Packard began serious contract negotiations with IVM following news releases that IVM had won a Mira Award.

TechPoint created the Mira Awards to recognize excellence and innovation and celebrate the many successes of Indiana’s high-tech community, including the contributions of businesses, startups, organizations, schools, departments, teams and individuals from all over the state. TechPoint’s leadership and board of directors believe that recognizing and rewarding excellence and innovation in our own community is critical to spurring more of it.

NOMINATE YOUR COMPANY – TechPoint’s 2013 Mira Award categories include:

Nominations have officially been extended to next Wednesday, January 30th. The simplified online nominations process is made possible through Formstack. Visit techpoint.org/mira to nominate.

Independent subject matter experts serve as Mira Awards judges who evaluate and score each submitted nomination, and the scoring determines which nominees become finalists. Finalists will be announced by February 12. Mira Award finalists will deliver presentations and answer questions in-person with one of the independent judging panels.

The 2013 Mira Award winners will be announced at a black-tie, “Oscars-style” award ceremony being held Saturday, April 20, at the JW Marriott Indianapolis. For more information about the Mira Awards Gala, visit https://techpoint.org/mira.