No-go for Labo: Entrepreneurial award program discontinued after 25-year run

"It was extremely difficult for us to make this decision," said Elaine Hansen, director of the University of Minnesota Duluth's Center for Economic Development, which has organized and judged the annual award program.

She recalled a conversation with Duluth businessman Joel Labovitz prior to the creation of the business award in 1993. Labovitz is part of a family line of entrepreneurs. His father, Maurice Labovitz, launched Maurices, a business that grew into a national chain of women's clothing shops before the family eventually sold it. And Joel has made his mark on the national hotel scene.

"There had been a group of people who got together, and they were talking about the business environment in our region, and one of the things that Joel said was, 'We don't celebrate our entrepreneurs. How can we encourage entrepreneurship? How can we encourage businesses when there's nothing? There's no reward. There's no recognition.' And so this was started," Hansen said.

She noted that in recent years business recognition awards have proliferated throughout the region, making the Labo Award — as it is often called — seem less relevant and necessary.

"I think this is important with our staffing, the manpower it takes, the time it takes to put on an event like that, it's significant," said Hansen, suggesting some of those energies at the Center for Economic Development could be applied to more productive uses that directly assist area businesses.

Joel's son, Mark Labovitz, who now serves as president and CEO of Labovitz Enterprises, said he appreciates all the work that went into the award program.

"Those ceremonies were great, but they were huge productions with dozens of nominees, and somebody had to look at all the nominees, judge them, put together the program that summarized what these businesses are doing and make that all happen. It was a huge undertaking, and it was fantastically done for 25 years," Labovitz said.

"When it started, there really wasn't anything comparable," he said, but Labovitz noted that many other forms of recognition for business achievements have emerged since then.

"I'll miss it, but I understand. And 25 was a good number to end on, as opposed to 23 or 27," Labovitz said.

Labovitz said his father, Joel, who now lives in La Jolla, Calif., took the news well. "He said, 'I never imagined it would go that long.'"

Joy Herbert recalls attending the Labovitz Awards prior to launching Little Neetchers, the Lincoln Park business that she built around a cloth diaper line. She called it an "eye-opening" experience.

"It's kind of sad for me to hear that it's done, because that was where I got inspired to think, 'Maybe I should start a business,'" Herbert said.

She went on to win the 2011 Labo Micro-Entrepreneur Award and said she appreciated the support the event provided.

"It's encouraging to see and be in the community of other people who are trying to follow a dream without a path and being recognized and saying, 'Hey, we support that you're taking a risk.'" Herbert said.

Hansen credits the Labo Awards for helping build and strengthen a support network for entrepreneurs in the region.

"In Northeastern Minnesota, people talk to each other, and they do pull together and work together," she said.