Every year, Light Reading hands out more than 20 awards chronicling the best new products, services, strategies and companies in the communications space. Many of them are driven by women behind the scenes, but this year, we’d also like to recognize at least three women who are very much front and center.

To celebrate the launch of Light Reading's Women in Comms not-for-profit in 2016, we will have three Leading Lights awards reserved for the women in our industry who are helping pave the way for their fellow females, pioneering technology innovations and leading the way at a startup with the potential to be disruptive. The awards will include:

These three categories are in addition to the usual impressive list of awards and will be announced alongside the famous -- and often infamous -- Light Reading Hall of Fame.

Peruse the full list of awards categories, details about how to nominate a worthy woman and a link to our FAQ document, at the Leading Lights 2016 home page.

The WiC awards will be judged by our esteemed Board of Advisors, made up of 18 top female executives in the industry, with help from the Light Reading editors and Heavy Reading analysts. The deadline for entries is Friday, March 25, 2016. The shortlists will be announced in late April/early May and the winners announced at an awards dinner in Austin (further details to follow) on Monday, May 23, following a full day of Women in Comms activities, including an expanded networking luncheon, women's jobs fair and coding workshop.

— Sarah Thomas, , Editorial Operations Director, Light Reading