The Un-carrier is Un-conventional. So, it’s no surprise that T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) created an award to recognize and celebrate T-Mobile for Business customers who dare to innovate. The first-ever Unconventional Awards took place on September 29 at Mobile World Congress in Las Vegas, NV, honoring customers in three categories: Innovation in Customer Experience, Innovation in Employee Enablement and Innovation in Industry. T-Mobile awarded the first-place finishers in each category with a $25,000 in-kind donation to their charity of choice.
“We know a thing or two about innovating and transforming how work gets done, and we wanted to recognize that same spirit in the customers we support,” said Callie Field, President, T-Mobile Business Group. “We created the Unconventional Awards to honor organizations driving business and education forward with original thinking. This is more than just celebrating the winners’ accomplishments — it’s also a tribute to being bold and taking risks to advance business and education.”
Here are the first-place winners, recognized for their innovation in each category:
- Customer Experience: Tennessee State University (Nashville, TN) – Developed an academic Esports program using T-Mobile 5G to recruit and retain underserved students by creating pathways from gaming to STEM.
- Employee Enablement: Goodwill of North Georgia (Atlanta, GA) – Created a donation tracking program that utilizes T-Mobile’s network to digitize information that helps revolutionize employee productivity and satisfaction.
- Industry: Morehouse College (Atlanta, GA) – Launched the world’s first “Metaversity,” offering virtual reality classroom experiences, powered by T-Mobile 5G, that are changing the future of learning and education.
Second and third place finishers in each category were awarded in-kind donations of $10,000 and $5,000, respectively, to their charity of choice, and include:
- Customer Experience: 2nd — Amazon Explore, Inc.; 3rd — Motlow State Community College
- Employee Enablement: 2nd — Unifi; 3rd — Black & Veatch
- Industry: 2nd — Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools; 3rd — Uber
Award criteria was based on embracing unconventional DNA, demonstrating originality and measuring impact — decided by a panel of judges including Phillipa Leighton-Jones, Barron’s Group SVP, The Trust, The Wall Street Journal; Will Townsend, VP & Principal Analyst — Networking & Security, Moor Insights & Strategy; Matthew Griffin, Founder, 311 Institute; and Kimberly Wyman, VP of Customer Care for Business, T-Mobile.
“We were all blown away by the creative ways organizations are pushing boundaries and evolving experiences for their employees, customers and students across a wide variety of industries,” said Wyman. “At T-Mobile, we’re all about forward-thinking solutions, and it was incredibly inspiring to see so many of our customers taking an unconventional path to find new ways of doing business.”
To learn more about the T-Mobile for Business Unconventional Awards, visit www.t-mobile.com/business/unconventional-awards.
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