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As a community, you’ve done your part to tell us who you think should be crowned the winners of the 2014 Silicon Prairie Awards. But now it’s time to share who will make up the second part of our voting process.

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This year we’ve incorporated the votes of two judges from each section of our region—six in total—as well as two national entrepreneurial leaders to help us determine the best of the Prairie. The voting will be weighted in a clean 50-50 split, 50 percent from the public vote and 50 percent from the votes of our judges.

Before we reveal the winners on stage next Thursday, we wanted to introduce you to the panel of judges who are helping decide which companies and individuals will take home a Golden Analog.

Join us for the Silicon Prairie Awards: We have an exciting evening of community celebration planned for Aug. 21 at the Midland Theatre in Kansas City. Tickets are still available for the event, which includes an opening reception, keynote talk by N3TWORK co-founder Erik Lammerding, awards ceremony and closing party. Purchase your tickets today.

	George Brooks, Cremalab Kansas City George Brooks is the founder of CremaLab, a small UX agency based in Kansas City.
	David Cohen, Techstars Boulder, Colorado David Cohen is the co-founder and managing partner of Techstars. While he has founded four other companies, David also is an active angel investor, nationally managing about $70 million in funding for early-stage web and software companies through his $5 million fund.
	Josh Cramer, FullStack Iowa City, Iowa Josh Cramer is the founder of FullStack, an Iowa City-based development firm formerly known as CramerDev. Josh also is an angel investor and has supported startups like ClusterFlunk and Higher Learning Technology.
	Tej Dhawan, StartupCity Des Moines & NestMint Des Moines Tej Dhawan is the co-founder and principal of StartupCity Des Moines and the co-founder of NestMint, a newly established fund to provide startups with early stage funding. Recently Tej was named a 2014 Passport to Prosperity honoree by the Iowa International Center.
	Nate Fryzek, Presage Analytics Lincoln, Neb. Nathan Fryzek is a well-known face around the 8th and P intersection, the hub of startup activity in Lincoln, where he was executive director of FUSE Coworking and helped organize several startup events. He recently changed jobs and is now in charge of business development at food safety startup Presage Analytics.
	Diana Kander, Kauffman Foundation & Mizzou Kansas City Diana Kander is a senior fellow at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and assistant teaching professor at the University of Missouri. Diana was a speaker at Big Omaha 2013 and her recently released novel “All in Startup” is a New York Times bestseller.
	Karen Linder, Linseed Capital & Tethon 3D Omaha Karen Linder is a businesswoman, author, artist, angel investor and co-founder of Linseed Capital and Tethon 3D, a 3D ceramics printing company in Omaha. She also helps with PIPELINE Entrepreneurs and won the Investor of the Year award at last year’s Silicon Prairie Awards.
	Sonal Mane, Microsoft Chicago Sonal Mane is the startup portfolio manager at Microsoft, where she works with incubators like Techstars Chicago and Catapult, group like 1871 and TechNexus as well as other major Chicago-area institutions like Built In Chicago.