The Austin Chamber of Commerce announces the finalists for the Seventh Annual Greater Austin Business Awards. Winners will be announced Wednesday, August 29, 6-9 p.m. at the Hilton Austin, 500 East Fourth Street.

Created in 2001, the Greater Austin Business Awards has grown to over 1,000 attendees each year and has sold out the past two years. With sponsorship from the Austin-American Statesman, this year’s theme is “Our Austin. Our World”, and will honor everything unique about our region and the businesses in it.

Award categories include Innovation, Customer Service, Community Service, Education and Environment. Each of these categories will recognize a small, medium, large, and non-profit business winner. In addition, Freescale Semiconductor, one of the title sponsors, will honor the most outstanding nonprofit organization with the $5,000 Freescale Not-For-Profit Award. A total of 21 winners will be announced on this prestigious evening.

Join us in congratulating these finalists:

Community Relations Award

Small: Community TechKnowledge, Inc., RunTex, Sweet Leaf Tea Co.
Medium: David Weekley Homes, KTBC Fox 7, SpawGlass
Large: Samsung, Temple-Inland, Wells Fargo Non-Profit: Greenlights for NonProfit Success, Impact Austin, Travis County Sherriff's Office

Customer Service Award

Small: Buffington Mortgage, HotLink, Inc., IntegReview
Medium: Bebo, Inc., Express Digital, Truluck's Seafood, Steak and Crab House
Large: Hilton-Austin, Lombardi Software, Wells Fargo Non-Profit: Austin Free-Net, Meals on Wheels and More, Small Business Development Program

Education Award

Small: Butterlily Publishing, Communicard LLC, $usan $peaks
Medium: ITT Technical Institute, Texas Cutting and Coring, University of Phoenix
Large: A+ Federal Credit Union, AMD, Austin Energy
Non-Profit: Austin Partners in Education, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Texas, College Forward

Environmental Award

Small: Advanced Insulation of Texas, LLC, Habitat Suites Hotel, The Natural Gardener, Inc. Medium: Balcones Recycling, The Crossings – Austin, Green Mountain Energy Company
Large: AMD, Applied Materials, Capital Metro
Non-Profit: Goodwill Industries of Central Texas, Hill Country Conservancy, Housing Authority of the City of Austin

Innovation Award

Small: Decision Critical Inc., Design Reactor, Falcon Storage
Medium: ID Theft Solutions of America, UT Advanced Computing Center, Pavilion Technologies, Inc.
Large: ATDF, Inc., Higginbotham & Associates, Inc., St. Edwards University
Non-Profit: Capital Idea, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Rawson-Saunders School

Freescale Award

Caritas of Austin, Lisa's Hope Chest, Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo