In North Texas, innovation is aerospace and biotech, sports and culture, AI and energy—all on the same stage.
At last year’s Innovation Awards, the winners proved it. A 90-year-old aerospace manufacturer shared the spotlight with a biotech startup working to bring back extinct species. A rap legend joined forces with a Dallas technology executive to teach coding in Southern Dallas classrooms. The Dallas Stars, facing the same media pressures as every pro team, broke with industry practice by offering for free what others charge for.
Those stories weren’t exceptions. They reflect the breadth of a regional economy where Bell is developing tiltrotor aircraft to replace the Black Hawk, Aurora is launching fully autonomous 18-wheelers, and Worlds is teaching AI to “see and sense” the physical world for the Pentagon and companies such as Chevron.
Now, with The Innovation Awards 2026, the next wave of innovators will be revealed. D CEO and Dallas Innovates are searching for the entrepreneurs, executives, and trailblazers driving meaningful change in the region.
More room for boundary-breakers
For the sixth year, we’re teaming up to honor the disruptors and trailblazers shaping North Texas. The 2026 awards include 23 categories—8 individual and 15 company honors—making more space for the people and organizations pushing boundaries.
This year, Chief AI Officer joins the individual categories, and Innovation in Law enters the company awards as legal tech has its moment. CIO/CTO awards also break out by company size—from “small” under $50 million to “mega” over $1 billion—because scale changes the game.
Whether you’re in banking or biotech, cybersecurity or transportation, real estate or robotics, there’s likely a category that fits.
Recognition for 2026 honorees
Finalists will be featured in D CEO’s January/February issue. Winners will be revealed at a special event in early 2026 and showcased on Dallas Innovates.
There are no fees to enter, just recognition for the honorees.
“The accessibility of leadership, being able to have ideas come to life—that’s something uniquely Dallas,” Jennifer Sanders told the crowd at last year’s awards. Sanders runs the North Texas Innovation Alliance and travels from Barcelona to Japan explaining why this region matters.
The winners she was talking about don’t follow templates. For example, SilverStone Health’s Alfonso Montiel started at 49, volunteering in hospice care, then built a company serving 2,000 patients daily. Another innovator, tech company AirSight, detects and tracks drones, securing critical airspace for prisons, oil and gas infrastructure, and the Houston Ship Channel, a cornerstone of Texas’ economic output.
Apply before midnight on Sept. 12, 2025
The Innovation Awards, presented by D CEO and Dallas Innovates, is a chance to join a roster of companies and leaders who see the world differently and build accordingly.
“We’re not just celebrating 90 years of innovation,” a Bell representative said at January’s recognition event. “We’re daring to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”
To nominate for The Innovation Awards 2026, submit before midnight on Friday, Sept. 12, 2025. For details and to submit, go here.
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R E A D N E X T
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D CEO and Dallas Innovates' Innovation Award winners are working to resurrect extinct species, launching autonomous trucks, reinventing military aircraft, and bringing AI into the physical world—and that's just the beginning. The 2025 awards showcase game-changing achievements—including Texas' first newly minted decacorn—across 17 categories of innovation. Here’s a look at the innovators leading the way.
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