Coastal Entrepreneur Award nominations due Monday

UNCW’s Cameron School of Business and the Greater Wilmington Business Journal have joined together to shine a spotlight on up-and-coming entrepreneurs in the Cape Fear region.

The mission of the Coastal Entrepreneur Awards is to help foster more entrepreneurial activity – and higher paying jobs – in the region. The category winners will be profiled in a special Coastal Entrepreneur Awards section in the April 30 Business Journal and honored at a large awards breakfast May 21 at UNCW’s Burney Center .

Eligibility: Any company in New Hanover , Brunswick or Pender county is eligible for the Coastal Entrepreneur Awards. The company can be a start-up or a more established business, but must be actively engaged in entrepreneurial activity – creating new products or services for people in the Wilmington region or beyond. Companies can fill out the applications themselves or be nominated by others.

Judging Process: There will be two rounds of judging. First, the category winners will be selected by a diverse group of judges representing the competition’s sponsors and other business leaders in the community. Each category winner will then appear before a panel of some of the region’s most successful entrepreneurs and distinguished business people. After meeting with each category winner , that group will determine the 2010 Coastal Entrepreneur of the Year . The winner of this overall award will not be announced until the May 21 event.

Deadline is 5 p.m. on March 8. For more information, contact
Jenni Harris at (910) 343-8600 x213 or jharris@wilmingtonbiz.com.