LONGMONT - The Boulder County Business Report honored 10 innovative companies with IQ Awards at the business newspaper's 8th annual IQ Awards Wednesday night at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center in Longmont.
A crowd of more than 400 people attended the networking and awards event.
A special section featuring the 10 winning companies and the people behind the innovations will be included in the Business Report's Aug. 17 issue.
Winners in the following categories were:
Business - TechStars, Boulder. Innovation: Providing a combination of mentoring, education and seed-funding to 10 startups during the summer in exchange for 5 percent equity of the company.
Communications - Aztek Networks Inc., Boulder. Innovation: The Aztek 5000S Emergency Stand Alone switch is a small 911 emergency-backup voice switch that provides telecommunications carriers and their subscribers access to emergency services in the event of a natural disaster or other phone-line failure.
Computers - DPHI Inc. (dba DataPlay), Longmont. Innovation: MovieWriter, a DVD burner that lets consumers, retailers and distributors download and legally burn copy-protected movies on DVDs for playback on existing DVD players.
Consumer - AeroGrow International Inc., Boulder. Innovation: AeroGarden is a kitchen appliance that grows fresh herbs, tomatoes, salad greens and other produce indoors, all year-round with just water - no dirt, weeds or mess.
Internet - Lijit Networks Inc., Louisville. Innovation: The Lijit Search Wijit lets blog publishers allow readers to search their blog posts, bookmarks, photos and more all from one search box installed on their blog.
Medical & Health - Otologics LLC, Boulder. Innovation: Carina is a hearing aid implanted under the scalp that offers convenience, comfort, cosmetics and better sound quality than traditional hearing aids.
Nonprofit -Intercambio de Comunidades, Boulder. Innovation: Coordinates and manages English classes, resource education and intercultural events for more than 800 adult immigrants each year through the ongoing help of more than 300 volunteers.
Software - Lingoport Inc., Boulder. Innovation: Globalyzer is software that helps software development teams "internationalize" their products accommodating users' preferences for language, culturally appropriate interfaces, numerical formats, currencies and variations in distribution and legal conditions.
Sports & Outdoors - EarthRoamer, Broomfield. Innovation: EarthRoamer XV-JP is an off-road Jeep vehicle that lets campers have all the comforts of home including inside toilet and shower, queen-size bed and refrigerator-freezer.
Sustainable Business - Range Fuels Inc., Broomfield. Innovation: A two-step, thermo-chemical process that converts biomass (any plant and plant-derived material such as wood, switch grass, corn stover and miscanthus grass) into fuel-grade ethanol.
