Deadline for nominations is July 31, 2006
For the fifth straight year, the Chicago
Sun-Times
and Kuczmarski & Associates are presenting the
Chicago Innovation Awards
to honor the area’s
best
local
innovations.
Keep Chicago’s spirit of originality alive and thriving by nominating any
inventive new product, service or process you
have encountered. Nominations are welcome from
companies in the Greater Chicago area —
including
southeastern Wisconsin
,
southwestern Michigan, and
northwestern
Indiana. There is no cost to enter one or more
nominations.
The deadline for
nominations is July 31, 2006.
Nominees can
be high-tech, low-tech or no-tech; for-profit or nonprofit; big products from
large companies or small products from small companies. The key is
innovation.
The Chicago Innovation
Awards are looking for companies whose new products or services have experienced
success in a variety of avenues. Last year, more than 100 Chicago-area companies
were considered.
Typical nominees
created a whole new category of business like electronic stock trading, or they
triggered a “me-too” response from competitors, such as cell phones and software
applications that spurred competitors to keep abreast of racing technological
advancement.
Other nominees changed
customer expectations, as overnight package delivery revolutionized the speed
with which people could expect to send mail.
Last year’s nominees solved unmet
customer and consumer needs as well as generated revenues, although not
necessarily profits.
Receiving this
award will give winners a chance to showcase their past success and could serve
as a springboard for future endeavors.
This year, Chicago Innovation Awards winners will be
profiled in the Sun-Times
in October and honored at a
special awards ceremony at the Goodman Theatre in downtown
Chicago
on Oct. 30,
2006.
The 2006 awards are sponsored
by the
Chicago
Board of Trade, Microsoft Corporation, the Wrigley Company, the Goodman Theatre,
Maggiano’s, Slack Barshinger, and WBBM News Radio 780.
In addition, a dozen business and civic
groups have endorsed the program, including the Illinois Venture Capital
Association, World Business Chicago, Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, and the
Executives’ Club of Chicago.
For more information and a nomination form, go to www.chicagoinnovationawards.com.