This year at the Agent Summit show coming up March 4-6 in Las Vegas, there will be a new award handed out at the lunch session on Tuesday, March 5 – the Provider Innovator of the Year award.

The award seeks to identify the best product or service from the past 12 months – and the providers that brought those innovations to market. The catch? The nominations are coming directly from the agents themselves. Agent attendees have been invited to submit nominations for the provider and technology they feel are most deserving of the award, and then will be invited to vote on the winner from a pool of finalists. As of press time, there have already been more than 1,400 nominations.

David Gesualdo, show chair and publisher of F&I and Showroom magazine, said the Provider Innovator of the Year award will be an opportunity for agents to identify significant advancements in the dealer space. “New technology drives our industry,” he said. “This award recognizes that agents are in the best position to tell which innovations are making a difference for their dealers.”

What does this mean for you as a provider? It means you should take this opportunity to talk to your agents, and find out if they plan to attend Agent Summit. And if they are, encourage them to consider nominating your products for this brand new award. And when/if you make it to the final nominees, encourage them to vote for you. It is a great way to get tangible proof – from the agents who are selling and working with your products on a daily basis – that you are ahead of the competition.

This is the inaugural year for this award, but it’s going to give one provider the ultimate bragging rights. And for everyone who doesn’t win? It’s never too early to start campaigning for a nomination in next year’s ceremony!

Good luck to all the nominees, and we’ll see you at Agent Summit 2013!