Bart Taylor reviews Voormi wins colorado manufacturing award
Middle-market innovators steal the show at the inaugural Colorado Manufacturing Awards
Colorado's largest company was a finalist as were other signature manufacturing and supply-chain brands, but middle-market companies flashing process and product innovation stole the show at the inaugural Colorado Manufacturing Awards April 6 at Denver's brilliant ART Hotel.
The awards were organized and presented by CompanyWeek and Manufacturer's Edge with help from CACI, the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, and the Colorado Advanced Manufacturing Alliance (CAMA). I had a blast moderating the selection committee deliberations prior to the event and can share the 'insider' notes today.
Nine industry categories plus the supply chain were contested, and the upset theme materialized early in the evening when Boulder's electronics upstart Modular Robotics won Aerospace & Electronics over Colorado's high-profile satellite maker Sierra Nevada Corp.'s Space Systems and global storage powerhouse Seagate. Selection committee members cited Modular Robotics' groundbreaking efforts to establish a domestic manufacturing workforce from a new generation of 'alpha geeks and robot nerds' -- a STEM-connected smart workforce of the future.