Muskegon Innovation Hub to select ‘Lakeshore Innovator of the Year;’ submit your nomination through Jan. 31

Muskegon is teeming with entrepreneurs and inventors making our city, and world, a better, more interesting place.

Now, our region’s innovators have the chance to be recognized by Grand Valley State University’s Muskegon Innovation Hub—which is launching a new award program that will recognize and celebrate the most groundbreaking ideas on the Lakeshore.

Nominations for the Hub’s new “Lakeshore Innovator of the Year” award open today and can be submitted through Jan. 31 at 5pm. To nominate someone, visit the Hub’s website here.

“The Muskegon Innovation Hub is a place that helps businesses and entrepreneurs maximize their potential, so we want to highlight efforts to innovate across all kinds of businesses and organizations,” Muskegon Innovation Hub Director Kevin Ricco said in a press release.

The award will recognize the most outstanding innovative idea, and can be given to an individual or a team of people from any business, nonprofit, organization, or association in the Lakeshore area. 

Innovations that are eligible can include: creative new devices, ideas, inventions, processes, product enhancements, or solutions to problems.

Finalists for the award will be announced in February, and the winner will be selected at an event honoring all of the finalists on March 14. 

Organizations throughout Muskegon are doing everything from offering mentoring and co-working space to providing funding for business owners facing barriers to accessing traditional bank loans. Creativity is being born in places like the Muskegon Innovation Hub, the Muskegon Inventors Network, and Muskegon Community College’s Lakeshore Fab Lab, among others.

At the Muskegon Innovation Hub alone, the region’s entrepreneurs have found business incubation (essentially working with owners to transform their business from the idea stage to a successful company), coworking space, funding assistance, and business programming.

All of this is to say: innovation and entrepreneurship is driving much of the growth our city is experiencing. And now’s your chance to make sure the most innovative person, business or group you know is celebrated for their work in reshaping our lives.

Photos courtesy of the Muskegon Innovation Hub.