My daughter entered a national contest a couple years ago, did a paper on her job; had to follow an outline, took a fair amount of research to find all the required figures, and a lot of pictures. I think she worked on it for a couple months. She won the regional, something like 4 states, first in her company to do it. CEO of the company dropped in on her a couple days later, and the next paycheck was a fair amount larger - that kind of recognition was good for business. She and the company got write ups in some trade magazines and when I googled her, was surprised at how many websites here and in Europe mentioned her. Also surprised she got best in category in a Minnysota trade award that year, hadn't told me. Kind of amazing what some paper can do for you in the business world, give it your best shot.