Let's get innovative-ized!
CONTEST | Awards program opens call for entries for sixth annual event
That's been the driving force behind the Chicago Innovation Awards for five years, and it's what drives the 2007 program as it opens its call for entries for the sixth annual presentation.
If your business or organization has introduced a new product or service during the last two years and has rung up revenues -- but not necessarily profits -- it's probably a candidate for one of 10 Chicago Innovation Awards.
"In the past five years, we've learned that innovation comes in all shapes and sizes," said Dan Miller, business editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, co-founder of the Chicago Innovation Awards. "Past winners have included the region's very largest firms and some of its very smallest. High-tech companies have received Innovation Awards, low-tech companies, and companies with no technology at all have been honored. We've recognized non-profit organizations, for-profit and public-sector innovations."
Tom Kuczmarski, co-founder and name partner of new-product consultancy Kuczmarski & Associates, said, "We've discovered that the key ingredient in innovation is the Chicago area itself. It provides the combustible material for the innovators who make the flame, and for the spark-makers in the companies who nurture it."
The award honors innovations that:
Honorees of the 2007 award will be feted at a reception Oct. 22 on the main stage of the Goodman Theatre, profiled in a special section of the Chicago Sun-Times and featured on WBBM-AM News Radio 780.
For more information on the nomination process and the award program, go to www.chicagoinnovationawards.com.
Nominations for the 2007 Chicago Innovation Award will close on July 31.
The Chicago Innovation Award program is sponsored by the Chicago Board of Trade, InterOcean Financial Group, Microsoft Corp. and Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co.
Additional support comes from Slack-Barshinger, Boka/Landmark Restaurants, Maggiano's Little Italy, 4Door Films, Anheuser-Busch, Alice White Wines, the Market Strategy Group and the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.