Nominations for the Coolest Thing Made in Iowa are open to the public. Anyone is welcome to submit a nomination, and all entries are reviewed fairly and without bias by the Iowa Association of Business and Industry (ABI). ABI does not favor any particular product, company, or industry.

Competition Rules

  1. The company manufacturing a nominated product does not need to be an ABI member to participate or win the contest.
  2. The company headquarters does not need to be in Iowa.
  3. The product must be manufactured in an Iowa-based facility, but does not need to be sold or marketed in the state.
  4. The product must be made using a manufacturing process. For example, a restaurant that makes “made-to-order” pizzas would not qualify, but a food manufacturer that mass-produces frozen pizzas would. ABI reserves the sole right to determine what products qualify for the contest.
  5. Companies may only have one product featured in the Top 16, so only one product nomination per company is encouraged.
  6. Winning companies are prohibited from participating in the contest for one year, while each winning product is indefinitely prohibited from being nominated again.
  7. Voting is open to the public. A person may cast one vote per device per day when voting is open. Once a device has been used to cast a vote, it cannot be used to cast another vote in the popular vote round or the same bracket match-up for at least 24 hours. Any attempt to circumvent the one vote per person per device per day restriction by using internet bots or any other means to increase vote totals artificially is prohibited and may subject the nominee or contestant to disqualification.

  8. The contest is operated under the complete discretion of ABI.