Community awards season 2026 is underway! This year’s awards kick off with the nominations round for Kansas City Magazine’s “Best of KC 2026.” This year, there are at least 18 categories in which BNI Select member businesses can legitimately be considered the Best of KC. The nominations round will continue until March 1, 2026, after which Finalists will be announced and a Finalists round of voting will begin on March 9, 2026. Tip for all of our members whose businesses fit into a nomination category – once you’ve logged in to the Best of KC voting app, you’ll see in the bar at the top of the page a rather non-descript button that says “Ad Promote.” Click that button and step through the process of registering your business. There’s no cost, and the most valuable part is that you have the opportunity to identify other names by which your business is known. This helps ensure that you don’t lose out on votes that are intended for you, but wouldn’t otherwise be counted for you, because there’s a variation in the way your business is identified. (So, for example, for my business that I self-nominated in the Travel Agent category, I registered Fantastic Memories Travel, LLC as the business name, but listed Fantastic Memories Travel, Mouse Master Travel, and Aaron Rittmaster as other names by which my business might be referred). This is particularly important during this nominations round, since the entries are all free-form text. Below is a table of available nomination categories and member businesses that I recognized as good fits for the category. I apologize, in advance, if I missed anyone. Feel free to let me know if I need to add your business to the list, and what category you’d like to be promoted in.

Thank you for your support of your BNI Select colleagues. Stay tuned for more of awards season – the Kansas City Star’s “Kansas City Favorites” nominations open one week from today!