The Spirit of Innovation Contest 2007

Welcome to Prepared Foods' 2007 Spirit of Innovation Contest Home Page.

Thank you for your interest in submitting a nomination for this prestigious award. To assist you, you will find on this page:

What is the Spirit of Innovation Award?
The Spirit of Innovation Award is a unique opportunity to acknowledge your outstanding product development team, while providing your product and company with priceless worldwide exposure.

The Spirit of Innovation Award was conceived by Ventura Foods and Prepared Foods. It is designed to recognize innovative new products, and the inspirational teamwork and creativity that made these new products possible.

How many Categories?
There are two Spirit of Innovation Award categories, Retail and Foodservice. The winners of these two categories will be presented with an Award at Prepared Foods' New Products Conference 2007. Companies and individuals are encouraged to submit nomination for a new food product introduced during 2006-2007.

How to Submit a Nomination
To submit your nomination for the 2007 Spirit of Innovation Contest, please click on the appropriate category (Retail or Foodservice) ballot bar at the top of this page. The ballot provides text boxes in which you can summarize both your new product and the product development team.

You may submit more than one nomination per company. However, submit only one product per ballot.

Charitable Donations
Ventura Foods has graciously agreed to make a charitable contribution on behalf of each of the two Spirit of Innovation Award winning teams. The 1st Place Retail and Foodservice teams each can designate a University or College Food Science Department to receive a $2,500.00 donation.

Confidentiality
Your Spirit of Innovation nomination is not intended to divulge any proprietary or confidential company or product information. The information you provide is only intended to allow the judges enough description to differentiate between many innovative product development teams and their exciting new products.

Award Ceremony
The two 1st Place teams are asked to receive their Spirit of Innovation Awards at the prestigious 25^th annual New Products Conference. The Spirit of Innovation Awards ceremony will precede the Awards dinner on Monday evening, October 15, 2006, at Naples Grande Hotel, Naples, Florida.

The two 1st Place Spirit of Innovation Teams will need to prepare a brief 3-4 minute group presentation. This visual presentation should highlight the teams' major accomplishments and innovative aspects of the product. This presentation will be Monday evening, at the New Product Conference.

The two 1st Place Teams are strongly encouraged to provide samples so that the 300 attendees of New Products Conference are given the opportunity to taste your new product and gain a better understanding of the effort that went into it's development.
The two winning teams will be asked to assist Prepared Foods' editors in an article for the October 2007 issue.

Important Deadlines
The deadline for entering your Spirit of Innovation Award nomination is June 30, 2007. Submit your nomination today! Winners will be announced in August 2007.