24th annual Flying 40 awards to go live again in September
Application period opens today for tech companies wanting to participate
With the local economy fully reopening on July 1, this year’s Flying 40 awards for New Mexico’s fast-growing technology companies will go live again with an onsite celebratory bash at the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens on Sept. 22.
Last October, the annual awards ceremony took place online after being postponed by nearly six months because of the pandemic. But with the state now steadily progressing toward a safe, post-COVID-19 environment, the 24th annual celebration is ready to bust out of its online chains, said Sherman McCorkle, president and CEO of the Sandia Science & Technology Park Development Corp., the program organizer.
“As New Mexico comes out of almost 18 months of COVID, it’s important to recognize the people who provided leadership in maintaining New Mexico’s economy,” McCorkle said. “These private sector companies faced mind-blowing problems,
yet they stayed open and provided quality jobs for thousands of New Mexicans. A truly remarkable achievement.”
The Flying 40 awards, which launched in 1998, aim to celebrate the success of homegrown technology firms, while also drawing attention to the critical role New Mexico’s technology sector plays in diversifying the local economy.
The awards are divided into three categories: Top revenue-producing firms independent of their annual financial growth, top revenue-growth companies with more than $10 million in annual income, and fast-growing firms with between $1 million and $10 million in revenue.
The application period to participate runs from June 28-July 16. To be eligible, companies must have five or more employees and be headquartered in New Mexico. Both publicly traded and private firms are eligible, but they cannot be a subsidiary of a company headquartered outside the state.
Revenue figures showing growth over the five-year period from 2016-2020 will be used to rank the participating companies in a list that will be published in a special edition of the Journal’s Business Outlook prior to the Sept. 22 awards event.