Everyone loves a good award program: the thrill of competition, the conjecture around who will win and the mounting tension right up to the moment the winners are announced, followed by the burst of celebration and consolation.

But as fun as awards are, the business of recognizing excellence always poses a fundamental conundrum. How should the contenders be chosen and, from among them, the winners? A panel judges might be swayed; editors might play favorites. Almost inevitably, the validity of the selection process comes into question. So, designing a process that’s fair and equitable is harder than it sounds.

For EndeavorB2B’s EDGE Awards, that solution is to leverage the wisdom of the crowd. For example, the EDGE Awards open entry to anyone with confidence in the exceptional value of their industrial product or solution. Therefore, everyone has an equal opportunity to win and no one can claim they were overlooked or excluded.

Similarly, the EDGE Awards winners aren’t influenced by the biases inherent in any small group judges. Instead, they are chosen by a large community of invested readers from Machine Design, Electronic Design, Power & Motion, Microwaves & RF, Military + Aerospace Electronics, Automation World, Control Design and Control who vote for entries from 16 different categories.

Call it a popularity contest if you like, but things are popular for a reason. In the case of the EDGE Awards, that popularity stems from the real world experiences of users consistently deriving positive value in a domain where quality is, more often than not, mission critical.

So although you know how good your product or service is, and a plurality of the market agrees with you, it’s a constant slog to make that fact known to everyone else. That’s why the EDGE Awards are a unique opportunity.

And this year, that opportunity is as good as it’s ever been. In 2027, the winners and runners-up will be announced at Automate 2027 in front of one of the largest concentrations of industry decision-makers in North America. The chance to garner that level of external validation, and the publicity that comes with it, doesn’t come around often. And if that weren’t enough, there’s a newly designed trophy to go with it.

But, like any community-based endeavor, it requires community engagement to work. So if you’ve got great products and/or services, don’t miss the deadline to get your entries in. You can’t win if you don’t play. And if you’re a fan, let the community know with your vote for those industrial tools, widgets and services you’d be hard pressed to do your job without.