At this year’s Brightspot Illuminate User Conference, we introduced the Aha Awards to recognize the innovation, creativity and impact of our customers.
Each award highlights how Brightspot users are pushing boundaries, solving problems and driving digital transformation.
Lisa Edwards, VP of Customer Success and Support, set the tone during the ceremony.
This is our way of celebrating the innovation, creativity and impact you’ve had as Brightspot customers. We’re making this an annual tradition — recognizing the remarkable ways you’re pushing boundaries and making Brightspot better.
Lisa Edwards, VP, Customer Success & Support, Brightspot
The Trailblazer: Matt Perkins, ALM (Law.com)
For the most unique or creative use case for solving a problem
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The headless architecture gives ALM’s development team freedom to create front-end experiences using modern frameworks. Brightspot’s flexible data model and cloud-ready infrastructure also support future growth.
Lisa Edwards, VP, Customer Success & Support, Brightspot
The Transformer: Jason Graening, Forum Communications
Recognizes amazing digital transformation outcomes
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Forum is leveraging Create with AI to generate a summary of articles to be featured in their print edition. The AI-generated summary will get passed through their existing print integration (Roxand) and precisely placed into the edition template. This integration will optimize the digital-to-print workflow and time to publish.
Lisa Edwards, VP, Customer Success & Support, Brightspot
The Evangelist: Alyssa Smith, The E.W. Scripps Company
Recognizing an outstanding advocate and Brightspot partner
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Scripps is a media company with local and national publications. They have a skilled dev team, and we work really well together... They’ve been fantastic partners, supporting events, giving referrals, and running with the platform.
Lisa Edwards, VP, Customer Success & Support, Brightspot
The Innovator: Matt Reid, Barbour EHS
Recognizes the most original creation built with Brightspot
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The Innovator Award went to a team that didn’t just migrate their old system — they reimagined and evolved the whole process.
Barbour’s Legal Register tool reimagines compliance management as an interactive, web-based experience. This interactive model goes far beyond a static compliance database. By blending content curation, tailored registers and built-in task management, the tool delivers a dynamic service that extends well beyond a typical CMS implementation.Lisa Edwards, VP, Customer Success & Support, Brightspot
The Groundbreaker: Sarah Guertin, Whelen Engineering
Recognizes setting new standards for innovation in the industry
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Taking the reins of a complex, aging web ecosystem, Sarah and her team modernized Whelen’s digital presence from the ground up — rebuilding the website, automating distributor and product updates, and empowering marketing to publish with speed and confidence. Their work has turned a 70-year-old manufacturer into a digital innovator, positioning Whelen for future growth while continuing to serve the first responders who rely on them every day.
Lisa Edwards, VP, Customer Success & Support, Brightspot
A tradition begins
The Aha Awards ceremony closed with this message of gratitude to the community from Edwards on behalf of the company.
“We’re so grateful to the Brightspot community — amazing brands across the globe shaping who we are and who we’ll become,” she said in closing. “Illuminate is about helping content leaders move fast, adapt smarter and orchestrate complexity with confidence.”
