Ladies Who Launch Colorado is proud to present the first annual Leading Lady Awards ceremony and luncheon, celebrating Colorado women entrepreneurs and benefiting Denver Dress for Success!

Thursday, November 5th, 11:30am-1:30pm at The Curtis Hotel
Purchase Tickets!

This one-of-a-kind awards ceremony will celebrate local women entrepreneurs of all ages, backgrounds, industries and stages of launch. The event’s purpose is to support Colorado small business owners through the Colorado Women Entrepreneurs Alliance, bring together the community of local women entrepreneurs and to provide these women with the tools, training and products they need to succeed.

The luncheon will include local presenters and awards including a grand prize package filled with coaching, marketing, technology assistance and a crucial set of business building tools and products. Packages will be awarded through our expert panel of judges and based on applicant passion, business model, potential and goals.

The application process and event itself has been designed for women entrepreneurs across Colorado who are launching (or have already launched) businesses. We are expecting 100-150 people to be in attendance from the Front Range area. This event is a great opportunity for you to make a connection with the women entrepreneurs of Colorado.

Please contact Olivia or Ricki with any questions you may have and to request sponsorship/partnership information.

2009 Applications
Thank you and congratulations to all those who applied!

All applicants will be honored at the luncheon on Nov. 5 from 11:30am - 1:30pm. Click here to purchase tickets.

Meet the finalists…click here!

Eligibility
1. This contest is open to women, current Colorado residents who are 18 years of age or older. Employees of Ladies Who Launch, its sponsors and partners, including judges are not eligible.

2. Ladies Who Launch Colorado will screen all submissions and pre-select the top 25 applicants. The top
25 applicants will be judged by a jury consisting of 6 expert panelists, based on a grading system with 100 available points. 10 finalists will be notified in advance and the final winner will be notified at the awards luncheon on Nov. 5. All applicants will also be honored at the luncheon.

All applicants will be graded on the following attributes:

A) have demonstrated a true passion for what they do;
B) have set strong goals to grow their business and are working hard to reach them;
C) have impacted their overall industry in some way;
D) have impacted their local community in some way; and
E) has a specific business element that makes them unique.

The Award Package
1. Prize(s) totaling over $10,000 in value as of Aug. 31:
One (1) woman will be awarded the following prizes that are non-negotiable, non-transferable and non-exchangeable for cash or substitute products/services.

- Business Investment – FirstBank ($2,000 cash)
Seed money for you to strategically invest toward your business growth goals.

- Ladies Who Launch Incubator Intensive Workshop ($325 value)
Business building workshops over the course of 4 weeks that will assist you define your target audience, create your vision and develop a year-long action plan to establishing and meeting your strategic business goals.

- One year Ladies Who Launch STRATA Membership ($425 value)
Receive exclusive local and national benefits, opportunities, discounts and resources including member-only PR opps, free entry into local LINC-Ups and member meetings, national online classified ads and much more.

- National Featured Lady on LadiesWhoLaunch.com (priceless)
Be a Featured Lady on the national homepage of Ladies Who Launch which receives over 10,000 unique visitors per month. Your feature will include your picture and information about your business and how/why you launched.

- Messaging & Positioning Session - Metzger ($5,000 value)
Develop key value propositions to specific audiences and understand your team’s current thinking on your SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), as well as developing and/or refining your product positioning for use in PR/social media activities. The Key Deliverables are the Messaging Document & Marketing/Communications Plan, including a complete Messaging Framework Document and Marketing Plan that outlines fine-tuned strategy, specific tactics, a timeline and custom performance metrics.

- Brand Auditing Strategy Session – Keziah Designs ($600 value)
A comprehensive brand audit to reveal the brand’s strengths and weaknesses, and to discover areas in which the branding effectiveness can be improved.

- Full Business Photography Session – Audreymichele Photography ($1,200 value)
Headshots of Leading Lady and up to 5 of her employees/associates if appropriate, editorial business photographs at place of business or other desired location (up to one hour of coverage), product photography if appropriate (up to 10 products), digital negatives delivered via DVD (photo shoot must take place prior to January 31, 2010)

- Reflections Assessment tool with Dr. Skip ($189.00 value)
This personality tool takes the profile of a successful woman entrepreneur and compares it to YOUR personality, noting areas of strength and limitations, with concrete suggestions for improving limitations.

- Social Media Consultation and Blog Setup/Optimization – Beckie Mostello ($350 value)
A two hour in-person social media consultation and training session in addition to one blog setup package and blog optimization using Wordpress.org (package does not include graphic design or the costs of domain and hosting).

- Virtual Business Assistance – Lonnie Tyler ($250 value)
10 hours of professional business assistance on any project that can include, but is not limited to data entry, bulk mailings, bookkeeping, online research, social media and blog maintenance.

Rules & Regulations
1. Ladies Who Launch, contest sponsors and partners may broadcast, publish and disseminate the winner’s name(s), city of residences, photographs, likeness, video and voice, in connection with any promotion or publicity, and/or for general news, entertainment and information purposes at no additional compensation to the potential winner, beyond the awarding of or participation in the Prize.

2. Winner(s) must accept the Prize as offered and releases Ladies Who Launch, contest sponsors and partners from any and all liability of any kind arising out of the winner’s participation in this Contest and receipt and use of the Prize. If a declared winner does not comply with these Rules, Ladies Who Launch, contest sponsors and partners will have the right to disqualify that winner and select an alternate
winner and the Contest Sponsors will be fully and completely released and discharged from any liability or responsibility in this regard.

3. By entering this Contest the entrants and participants automatically agree to accept and
abide by these Rules. All decisions of Ladies Who Launch, contest sponsors, partners and judges with
respect to any aspect of this Contest, including without limitation the eligibility of entries,
and selection of the winners are final and binding on all entrants in all matters as they
relate to this Contest.

4. This Contest is subject to all applicable federal, and municipal laws, regulations. Winner is responsible for paying all applicable taxes on winnings. Personal information collected from entrants will be used by Ladies Who Launch, contest sponsors and partners for the purpose of administering this Contest only. Each application is considered consent and opt in to receive additional information from Ladies Who Launch Colorado via email regarding offers, events and news. Entrants are then given the option to unsubscribe in the future. Ladies Who Launch will not share or otherwise disclose personal information of entrants with third parties, except contest sponsors and partners.

Sponsors & Partners

A special thanks goes to all of our generous sponsors and local business partners for making this event possible!

Please contact Olivia or Ricki with any questions you may have and to request sponsorship/partnership information.

Click here to purchase tickets!

Press

Melissa Vizcarra at Metzger Associates with press inquires at mvizcarra@metzger.com 303-786-7000 x5925