Time to Enter the Leading Lights Awards 2020!
Dreaming of fame and glory? Did your company have a stupendous 2019? Then the good news for you is that Leading Lights, Light Reading's prestigious annual awards program, is once again open for business and we're eagerly awaiting the industry's most compelling submissions.
The Leading Lights awards celebrates the innovation, hard work and business success of the communications industry's leading companies, teams and individuals. The make-up of the awards has changed over its 16-year lifespan to reflect the evolution of the communications networking and services industry, and this year is no different.
In addition to the ever-popular "Best Product/Service" awards and the range of categories that recognize outstanding developments in key areas such as 5G, network security, SD-WAN, telco cloud/virtualization, test & measurement, edge computing and more, we've added a new category:
- Most Innovative Private Wireless Networks Strategy: Awarded to the company that has devised the most innovative private wireless networks strategy during the past year.
In total we have 21 categories, so there's sure to be at least one that's relevant to your company. Check out the full list right here.
But that's not all. As ever, we're seeking nominations for the Light Reading Hall of Fame, which recognizes those individuals, both the famous and the infamous, who have made a notable contribution to the global communications sector. Among those inducted in previous years are Steve Jobs, Bob Metcalfe, John Chambers, Brian Roberts, Kris Rinne, Irwin Jacobs, Larissa Herda, James Crowe, Niklas Zennström, Hedy Lamarr, Bernie Ebbers, Basil Alwan, Mark Zuckerberg, John Legere and Lightworks Lou.
Check out our video announcing last year's Hall of Fame inductees:
You can see the full list of awards categories, details about how to enter, and a link to our FAQ document, at the Leading Lights 2020 home page.
Please pay close attention to the rules, and be sure to keep within the 300-word limit of the main pitch of your submission -- we'll be counting!
And here's a critical piece of information: Products, services and strategic directives must have been announced on or after March 1, 2019, to qualify for consideration. So if it was launched in 2017 (yes, you know who you are from last year…) or even in February 2019, then it won't qualify. So please be sure to read the guidelines and check the FAQ document too.
The awards are judged by the Light Reading editorial team with help from the Heavy Reading analyst team. The deadline for entries is Friday, March 20, 2020. The shortlists will be announced in early April and the winners announced at an awards dinner held at the Hackberry Creek Country Club in Irving, Texas, on Monday May 18, as a kick-off to our Big 5G Event.
To see who picked up the awards in 2019 and then over-indulged in Denver's delights, see:
With the advent of 5G accelerating the shift towards a more cloud-oriented, distributed, intelligent and ultra-broadband world, there's as much innovation in this industry as ever, and we look forward to discovering even more about the industry's efforts during the past year in your submissions.
So don't delay! There's even a discounted entry fee for those who can get their submissions in by Friday, February 21. But the most important thing to do is enter -- so get cracking!
— Ray Le Maistre, Editor-in-Chief, Light Reading
