VirTra was shortlisted for the Army Technology Excellence Awards in the category “Firm of the Year – SME” on September 30, 2021. VirTra’s Subject Matter Experts are the foundation of how we provide effective training to law enforcement and military, so scoring a higher-than-average rating from Army Technology is an honor.
Army Technology determines award winners by panel review and chooses companies/individuals that have had a particularly innovative achievement over the past 12 months. SME is a sub-category under “Firms of the Year” which focuses on achievements by specific types of companies, as stated by Army Technology.
While some companies chose to submit a case study or other innovation, VirTra was added to the shortlist for consideration without making any submissions. Army Technology combs through hundreds of articles outside of official submissions for winners and analyzes more than 1,000 articles and case studies. The full list of shortlist award winners can be viewed here.
VirTra’s SME’s assist all aspects of our operations, from content and curriculum development to testing hardware. This is all to ensure law enforcement and military members will receive the most pertinent and effective simulation training. Coming from diverse backgrounds such as former Army soldiers, firearms instructors, etc., the SME team is the core of VirTra.
As this is the first year Army Technology has chosen VirTra to be on the shortlist, VirTra hopes to submit case studies, articles and impressive innovations over the years in the future to continue to increase awareness in the military market. We will also be anticipating the outcome of the actual winners, hoping to be included in the lineup. Army Technology has not listed a specific date on which the results will be revealed.
In April, VirTra was announced as the winner of the Gold Stevie® Web Award in the Aerospace & Defense category. This is the second year in a row that VirTra has won a Stevie award from The 19th Annual American Business Awards® (ABA) – you may remember last year that VirTra won a Bronze Stevie for “Achievement in Web Design” thanks to the 2020 launch of our new website.
More than 250 professionals worldwide participated in the judging process to select this year’s Stevie Award winners. As stated by ABA’s website, “In each Stevie Awards competition, the top scoring qualifying entry in each category will receive a Gold Stevie Award.” Abiding by their usual procedures, judging takes place over a period of 2 months by a judging committee. Gold Stevie winners – such as VirTra – are listed on the ABA website.
Judges are able to leave comments detailing their thoughts and suggestions regarding the website entered in the ABA. Some of the following comments left by anonymous judges include:
“Great job launching the new website. The responsiveness of the website is amazing!”
“Very cleverly designed website. I like the vertical scroll as the main direction for content – a user builds more knowledge with scroll down. The DOS-like type action for the section headers is a nice, theme-true touch.”
“Options and workflow are well customized depending on user. The website is informational.”
VirTra will be obtaining a trophy to mark this achievement and will be participating in the ABA in the future, as well as other opportunities to showcase the work done on behalf of our customers – all in a great effort to ensure smooth transfer of information and user experience.