Friday Night Lights: Celebrating the Business MVPs of Winona
- cransom94
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
When the lights go up at Visions Event Center on Friday, January 30, 2026, Winona’s biggest night for business takes the field. Our Annual Banquet is back, bold, electric, and ready to celebrate the teams, leaders, dreamers, and doers who move the ball forward for our community every single day.
This year’s theme, Friday Night Lights: Celebrating the Business MVPs of Winona, is all about honoring the strategy, grit, and championship-level teamwork it takes to build a thriving business in our region. From long-yardage growth to game-changing pivots, we’re spotlighting the businesses that show up, suit up, and score big for Winona.
🏈 A Night Built for Champions
Just like on the field, success in business is never about one player. It's about collaboration, vision, resilience, and the collective drive to move toward the end zone. Our banquet honors the spirit of competition wrapped in camaraderie — and celebrates the people who pour their passion into making Winona a stronger, more vibrant place to live, work, and play.
This year’s awards include:
MVP Award (Business of the Year) – Overall excellence, leadership, and impact.Sponsored by Hawkins Ash CPAs
WINNER: WINONA HEALTH
Touchdown Award (Outstanding Achievement in Growth) – Recognizing significant, strategic growth in size, service, or reach.Sponsored by Sugar Loaf Automotive
WINNER: OZ LIFTING
Rookie of the Year (Emerging Business Excellence) – Celebrating a standout business within its first 1–3 years.Sponsored by Watlow
WINNER: STAY TUNED!!
Main Street MVP Award (Main Street Business of the Year) – Overall excellence, leadership for our Main Street Program, and impact on success of Main Street Events .Sponsored by Old National Bank
WINNER: HBC, INC.
🎟️ Tickets & Tables: Join the Team
Tables and tickets are officially on sale, and they will sell out. (They always do.) Rally your colleagues, clients, and business friends and claim your seats under the lights.
This event is more than a banquet. It’s Winona’s annual pep rally for progress, a celebration of momentum, leadership, and the businesses shaping our shared future.
🎨 Table Decorating Contest: Bring the Heat
Ready to unleash your inner creative coach?
For just $50 per table (or $75 for two), you can suit up for our fan-favorite Table Decorating Contest. This is your chance to lean all the way into the Friday Night Lights theme — think playbooks, turf, team colors, helmets, goal posts, mascot magic… and more.
Extra points for football spirit.Even more for pure, unabashed fun.And bragging rights? Oh, they’re absolutely part of the trophy.
EMAIL INFO@WINONACHAMBER.COM TO DECORATE A TABLE OR TWO
🌟 Why This Night Matters
This event anchors our year — not quietly, but with a stadium-level roar.
It’s a night to:
Celebrate excellence across our business community
Recognize innovation, growth, and leadership
Inspire new ideas and connections
Strengthen the relationships that fuel Winona’s economic momentum
At its heart, the banquet is a reminder that our local economy thrives because of people — the ones taking risks, building teams, investing in bold ideas, and showing relentless commitment to community success.
📣 Ready to Suit Up?
Whether you're coming to celebrate, network, cheer on your peers, or show off your end-zone-worthy creativity, this is a night you won’t want to miss.
Friday Night Lights is calling — and the Winona business community is ready to shine.