Best of Dayton: How to get involved in this year's contest
May 24—It's time again to pick the Best of Dayton.
The Best of Dayton contest presented by the Dayton Daily News and Dayton.com is back for the ninth year of celebrating the best, brightest and most important things in the area.
We're in the process of choosing our finalists, and voting will begin on June 17.
Here's what you should know:
—CLICK HERE TO NOMINATE in this year's contest
Timeline
The contest will have a nomination period, for you to submit any people or businesses you'd like, followed by a voting period after a list of finalists is selected in each category.
The number of nominations a person or business receives will heavily determine the list of finalists.
—Nominations: May 13-24
—Then, we choose the finalists
—Voting: June 17-July 5
—Winners announced: Friday, Aug. 9
—Special section published in the Dayton Daily News: Sunday, Aug. 11
Categories
We have 182 subcategories this year in nine categories: Around Town, Auto, Beauty & Wellness, Food, Dining & Drinking, Health & Medical, Home Improvement, Professional Services, Recreation and Retail.
There are nearly three dozen new categories this year, so be sure to explore all of your options on the ballot.
How to nominate
1. Head to the page with the nomination ballot
2. Scroll down to the contest form
3. Find a subcategory for which you would like to nominate. You can click to expand the categories to see all of the subcategories within them.
4. Choose the subcategory by clicking on it.
5. In the pop-up box, enter the nomination name in the "Nomination" field. If it's a business registered with Google, you can choose it from the suggestions.
6. You can add additional subcategories for submitting that nomination by clicking "Add Additional Categories." All of the subcategories for which you're submitting that nomination will show at the bottom of the box. Click "X" next to any you want to remove.
7. When you're ready to submit, click "Submit Nomination"
8. If it's your first time nominating, you'll see a "Verification Required" box. Enter your first and last name and email address and check "Keep Me Updated" to receive more information about the contest later. Click "Verify."
9. You may receive a message to check your email to input a verification code.
10. Then, submit more nominations!
How to get winners first
We'll be releasing some information exclusively first throughout the contest in one of our newsletters. Sign up to get the winners before anyone else:
—Sign up for the Dayton Daily News Morning Briefing
Where to get more information
All things about Best of Dayton are at Dayton.com/best-of-dayton and DaytonDailyNews.com/best-of-dayton.
We'll also be releasing information daily on our social media channels.
—Dayton Daily News: Facebook — Instagram — Twitter
—Dayton.com: Facebook — Instagram — Twitter
How to promote yourself or your business
We've put together a website that people and businesses can use for information and tips about how to promote themselves in the contest.
Click here to visit that website, which includes:
—Downloadable logos and graphics
—Suggested language for social media posts
—A form to contact us for more information
How to advertise
Do you want to advertise to promote yourself or your business in Best of Dayton?
Click here to submit your information to us and get started in connecting your logo to our voting tool.
Last year's winners
Looking back at 2023, here are the winners:
Best of Dayton 2023 winners — Around Town — Auto — Beauty & Wellness — Food, Dining & Drinking — Health & Medical — Home Improvement — Professional Services — Recreation — Retail
