Is eligible for the contest any organization:

• As part of the private, public sector and headquartered in Quebec;
• Who creates and / or markets products or services directly related to the technologies;
• Which is categorized as small or medium sized (less than 500 employees);
• Who is a member in good standing of AQT;
• Who undertakes, if selected, to register at least one participant in the BIG BANG 2018, including participation in the GALA PME en lumière;
• Not having been elected the SME in light of the year in the last 5 years;
• Not having been finalists of the PME en lumière contest in the previous year; on the other hand, candidate companies that have not been selected for the competition may run for re-election;
• The finalist firms must provide a descriptive 500-word descriptive text of the company, as well as a short 250-character version, in addition to providing the company’s logo in EPS or AI format;
• The winning company will be invited to present its achievements and success in commercialization at the next edition of BIG BANG in 2019;
• Who meets all the eligibility criteria and who will send the registration form duly completed no later than Friday, March 31, 2018 at midnight.

• Every month, starting in December 2017, a finalist company will be announced.
• In total, nine SMEs of the month will be determined throughout the process;
• Finalist firms must nominate a representative to participate in the filming of the promotional video of their application;
• To do this, an independent jury, composed of experienced representatives, business and ICT, will designate the companies to be proclaimed SMEs of the month;
• An SME application for the month that is not selected for a particular month may be re-evaluated by the jury in the following months;
• The company that wins the SME of the Year Award will be revealed after a second jury vote (75% of the final score) and with the participation of the public online (25%). the final grade);
• The winner will be unveiled at a sumptuous gala evening at the 16th Big Bang, an annual event dedicated to the commercialization of technology companies and organized by the AQT to be held in October 2018;
• The votes of two juries will be based on the same evaluation criteria.

To be eligible for the SME title of a month, an organization must apply quickly to the AQT to be eligible for a maximum of months between the start of the competition and the deadline of March 31, 2018. at midnight. The organization must download and answer all questions on the form. The jury attaches particular importance to tangible and measurable information, which demonstrates the exceptional and innovative nature of the achievements presented by the organization. Once the form is completed, the organization must return it to the TQA by email at concours@aqt.ca The organization can attach a maximum of two reference documents (graphics, tables or other relevant documents) in PDF or JPEG format. Press releases, press articles, company brochures and other such documents will not be accepted. There is no charge for submitting an application. However, the applicant companies must have their AQT membership active for the duration of the contest. Companies selected SMEs of the month agree to register at least one participant in BIG BANG 2018. If the application is not selected for a particular month, it may be reconsidered the following months until August covering the current year. It is therefore important that SMEs wishing to submit their applications take advantage of it quickly. Thus, the organization does not have to resubmit the same application during the year, because it will automatically be kept for re-evaluation by the jury.