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2026 EDAC Awards Call for Nominations

Every day, Economic Development Officers (EDOs) across Canada quietly build the future—driving investments, supporting local businesses, and shaping resilient communities. The annual EDAC Awards celebrate the brilliant strategies, collaborative partnerships, and outstanding individuals moving our profession forward.

Whether you represent a rural township or a major metropolitan hub, we want to celebrate your impact.

Submissions are evaluated across two population segments to ensure fair comparison:

  • Small/Rural Communities (under 35,000)

  • Large/Urban Communities (over 35,000)

There will be one award presented per category, per population tier.

Key Dates

  • June 1: Applications Open

  • June 30: Applications Close

  • July 1–31: Judging Period

Fees

  • EDAC Members: $119.99 per submission

  • Non-Members: $169.99 per submission

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Industry Award Categories

Strategic Marketing & Digital Storytelling

Recognizes creative and effective marketing campaigns that enhance a community’s profile. This includes print, digital media, and social campaigns aimed at investment or talent attraction, relocation, or BRE.

  • Key Criteria: Innovation, reach, engagement, and clarity of the community brand.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: Rebranding initiatives, investment attraction websites, social media “influencer” campaigns, or high-end video storytelling.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: Great entries don’t just show beautiful creative work—they connect the dots. The judges look for submissions that show how a creative story translated into a meaningful spark in inquiries, website traffic, or qualified leads.

Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) Excellence

Focuses on programs that support existing local businesses. This includes “business walk” programs, survey-driven support initiatives, and efforts to help local companies scale or prevent them from relocating.

  • Key Criteria: Number of businesses assisted, jobs retained, and measurable impact on local business stability.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: “Business Walk” programs, industrial site intensification, business or industry retention in a community, export development activities, or specialized BRE software implementation.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: The judges appreciate submissions that move beyond data collection (like survey counts) to demonstrate real-world outcomes—such as illustrating how an EDO’s direct intervention helped a local company overcome a hurdle to stay or grow in the region.

Excellence in Workforce Development (Attraction & Retention)

This category recognizes comprehensive strategies that address the full talent lifecycle. It honors programs that not only recruit skilled workers to the region but also focus on upskilling the existing local workforce and improving “livability” factors that encourage residents to stay.

  • Key Criteria: Collaborative partnerships between industry and post-secondary institutions, measurable success in filling high-demand roles, and innovative initiatives focused on worker housing, childcare, or quality-of-life enhancements.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: Upskilling partnerships with colleges/post-secondary, international talent recruitment missions, immigration programs, medical delivery support, or housing/childcare incentive programs for workers.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: Judges love to see intentionality. Elevate your entry by showing how your project specifically bridged the gap between a local employer’s critical vacancy needs and a specific underrepresented or external talent pool.

Tourism Marketing Campaign of the Year

This award honors excellence in promoting a region to external visitors. It focuses on campaigns that drove measurable increases in hotel occupancy, foot traffic, or “off-season” visits.

  • Key Criteria: ROI on marketing spend, creative use of multi-channel media (video, social, influencer), and impact on the local hospitality tax base.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: Seasonal travel campaigns, sports tourism bids, “Shop Local/Visit Local” initiatives, or culinary trail marketing.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: To stand out, go beyond “vanity metrics” like social media impressions. Judges look for a clear narrative connecting your marketing spend to real economic drivers, like hotel occupancy shifts or municipal accommodation tax revenue.

Destination Development Award

Unlike marketing, this honors the physical or structural improvement of a tourism asset. This includes the development of new trails, the restoration of a historic downtown district, or the creation of a new landmark/attraction that makes the area a “must-visit.”

  • Key Criteria: Improvement in infrastructure, long-term sustainability, and the ability to attract repeat visitors.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: New trail systems, revitalization of a waterfront, cultural landmarks, or large-scale event facility improvements.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: The strongest entries highlight the “dual-impact” of a project. Look to demonstrate how the physical asset serves as both a vibrant economic engine for tourism and a meaningful quality-of-life enhancement for the people who live there year-round.

Resiliency, Recovery & Mitigation

Recognizes leadership during economic shocks. It rewards strategies that help a community bounce back from natural disasters or major industry closures and build long-term economic durability.

  • Key Criteria: Speed of response, effectiveness of the recovery plan, and cross-agency coordination.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: Wildfire/flood recovery coordination, transition plans after a major plant closure, pandemic-era business stabilization funds, or tarrif/trade response.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: In times of crisis, agility is everything. The judges are looking for narratives that highlight rapid-response timelines and showcase how the economic development office seamlessly integrated with emergency services to protect the business community.

Regional & Community Collaboration Award

This category recognizes formal or informal alliances between multiple municipalities, non-profits, and community groups to solve regional challenges. These partnerships may include partner organizations like Community Futures, BIAs, Chambers, DMOs, other Economic Development organizations, industry groups, regional or federal governments, etc.

  • Key Criteria: Evidence of shared resources (funding or staff), complexity of the coalition, and the “multiplier effect” the partnership had on the region’s competitiveness.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: Multi-municipal industrial parks, regional investment attraction, collaborative marketing campaigns, workforce development, BRE, or Indigenous-led economic partnerships.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: True collaboration is more than just sharing a logo on a flyer. Standout submissions clearly articulate how a shared budget and shared governance model allowed the partners to achieve a regional outcome that no single community could have pulled off alone.

Digital Transformation & Technology Adoption

This category recognizes an EDO or partnership that has successfully integrated advanced technology to improve service delivery or regional competitiveness. This includes the use of AI for data analysis, GIS mapping for site readiness, or digital “concierge” platforms for businesses.

  • Key Criteria: Measurable increase in operational efficiency, innovative use of data visualization to “sell” the region, and successful adoption of new technology by local SMEs through EDO-led programs.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: AI-powered lead generation, interactive GIS site-selection dashboards, or digitized business licensing portals.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: Technology is only as good as its implementation. Judges are looking for practical impact stories—specifically, how the adoption of a new tool directly reduced “time-to-answer” for external investors or removed a long-standing manual bottleneck for local staff.

Individual Awards

Small Community Economic Development Award (Population under 7,500)

Recognizes excellence in economic development specifically tailored for Canada’s smallest municipalities and rural townships. It celebrates high-impact results achieved through grassroots organizing, localized partnerships, and the creative use of limited municipal resources.

  • Key Criteria: High-impact results in small municipalities achieved through grassroots organizing and creative resource use.
  • Examples of Eligible Projects: Main Street revitalization, micro-business incubators, and hyper-local agri-tourism initiatives.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: The judges aren’t looking for massive budgets here; they are looking for resourcefulness. Standout submissions showcase ingenuity, highlighting how a community leveraged volunteerism, local passion, or unconventional partnerships to overcome a lack of traditional capital.

Emerging Economic Developer of the Year

This award is designed for a high-performing professional with less than 4 years of experience in the industry. It recognizes an individual who has made a significant impact in a short time, demonstrating exceptional promise, adaptability, and a commitment to the professionalization of economic development.

  • Key Evaluation Considerations:
    • Project Impact: Did the nominee play a lead or primary supporting role in a successful project (e.g., a BRE visit program, a successful grant application, or a marketing launch)?
    • Professional Growth: Evidence of a fast learning curve, such as pursuing industry certifications (like the Ec.D. or CEcD pathways) or attending advanced training.
    • Innovation: Examples of where the nominee introduced a new tool, technology (like AI or advanced GIS data), or a fresh approach to a legacy process.
    • Peer/Community Recognition: Letters of support from senior leadership or community partners highlighting the nominee’s reliability and leadership potential.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: A great nomination goes beyond a strong resume. The judges look for stories of initiative—moments where the nominee didn’t just follow instructions, but actively stepped up to solve a problem, introduced a new efficiency, or showed a deep hunger for professional development.

Economic Developer of the Year (Leadership Award)

Nominees for this pinnacle award must demonstrate leadership that has fundamentally moved the needle for their community or the profession over the past year (or throughout a distinguished career).

  • Key Evaluation Considerations:
    • Pinnacle Project Leadership: Evidence of the nominee leading a “once-in-a-generation” project or a high-stakes negotiation that resulted in significant capital investment, job creation, or regional repositioning.
    • Strategic Vision & Complexity: Ability to navigate highly complex political, social, or environmental landscapes to achieve economic goals, such as brokering a difficult multi-municipal industrial park or an Indigenous-led partnership.
    • Mentorship & Legacy: A documented commitment to building the next generation of economic developers, including mentoring staff, supporting “Emerging” professionals in their office, or contributing to industry education.
    • Professional Advocacy: Recognition for advancing the profession at a provincial or national level, such as serving on industry boards, influencing economic policy, or championing the Ec.D. designation standards.
    • Innovation in Senior Management: Evidence of leading an organization through a significant evolution, such as a full digital transformation or a successful pivot in regional strategy during a recovery period.
  • Judges’ Insider Tip: This award honors the complete professional. While a massive project win is impressive, the strongest nominations weave a narrative that balances economic outcomes with a commitment to the profession itself—specifically highlighting mentorship, regional diplomacy, and long-term ecosystem building.

Application Process

Section A: Applicant Profile
Provide organizational details, population category, and primary contact information.

Section B: Executive Summary (Max 500 Words)
Outline the project goal, the problem or opportunity addressed, and how the initiative was executed.

Section C: Scoring Pillars
Submissions are evaluated across four weighted criteria:

  • Impact (30 points): Measurable outcomes such as jobs, investment, or growth

  • Innovation (25 points): Creativity and use of modern tools or approaches

  • Collaboration (25 points): Strength and diversity of partnerships

  • Portability (20 points): Replicability and lessons for other communities

Section D: Supporting Evidence
Include visuals, video links, and at least one letter of support from a stakeholder or partner.

Section E: Payment
Upon submission, you will be redirected to the payment page.

*Applications Are Now Open!*