When most people think of Vermont, a few associations come easily: fall foliage, mountain vistas, cows. “Manufacturing” is a lot farther down the list. Amy Spear, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, would like that to change.
Nearly 30,000 jobs in Vermont — about 10 percent of the workforce — are in manufacturing, contributing up to $2 billion in exported goods annually, Spear said on a recent phone call. “We really wanted to make sure that we were celebrating what was behind those numbers, because they are really remarkable stories: innovation, creativity, resilience.”
That’s why the Chamber has launched a new contest: the Coolest Thing Made in Vermont Awards. Anyone can nominate a Vermont product for the awards, now through October 1.
What kind of thing might be the coolest thing? Spear said anything manufactured here is eligible, “from fuel gauges to ice cream.” And there’s no requirement for the scale of production — nominees will range from prototypes to mass-produced products.
There are three award categories: Coolest Thing Made in Vermont; Coolest Thing Made by a Career Technical Education (CTE) or Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) program; and Coolest Thing Made by a Neighbor, which relates to the aerospace sector.
Vermont is part of an aerospace corridor that stretches from Ontario and Québec to Connecticut, Spear said, and having an award category for neighbors is one way of recognizing the “cross-border collaborations that we have, whether it’s cross-state or across into Canada.”
At the smaller end of the manufacturing scale, there’s a lot happening in Vermont schools, many of which have set up makerspaces and programs to teach kids how to build whatever they can think of. In addition to sparking imagination, tech education has a direct impact on Vermont’s economy, Spear said, adding that the Chamber launched the third award category as a way of “shining a light on the students and educators that are shaping Vermont’s future workforce.”
There’s no monetary prize for the Coolest Thing awards, but finalists and winners will be celebrated at the Chamber’s Manufacturing Summit Awards Dinner on November 19.
The awards are really a way of recognizing the thought and effort that go into every cool thing we make, Spear said, whether it’s a lens or a microchip or a block of cheese. “It’s more than just the products that people are making,” Spear said. “It’s all of the people behind the products.”
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