Top 10 Most Innovative New Products and Services in Chicago Region Honored at Chicago Innovation Awards Ceremony

[John Patterson]

The ten most innovative new products and services brought to market or to public service in the Chicago region over the course of the past year were honored at the 8th annual Chicago Innovation Awards ceremony held at the Goodman Theatre on Tuesday, October 20.

World Business Chicago (WBC) Chairman, Mayor Richard M. Daley, welcomed the packed house with a “call to action,” emphasizing Chicago’s rich history of innovation leadership and our global obligation to continue to push our minds. The Mayor’s passionate comments drove home the point that our ability to create innovative products and services will be the driving factor in moving the economy forward. An exclamation to that point came as former Innovation Award Winner Dan Brown, of Chicago-based LoggerHead Tools, presented the Mayor with the Bionic Hydrant Wrench, named one of the “10 Most Brilliant Products of 2009” by Popular Mechanics. The origins of this product idea could be directly traced back to an annual innovation discussion held with previous winners in the Mayor’s office.

“The purpose of the Chicago Innovation Awards is to shine a bright light on the creative spirit of the Chicago region,” said Thomas D. Kuczmarski of the innovation firm Kuczmarski & Associates, founder of the awards with the prominent local journalist and foundation executive, Dan Miller. “One of the most important lessons of the awards is how many organizations of all sizes are engaged in innovation, bringing a strong and steady stream of new products and services to market or to public service each year.”

There were more than 250 nominations for the Chicago Innovation Awards this year, with more than 800 people attending the full-house event at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre.
The keynote speaker for the evening was Leo Melamed, the founder of financial futures and Chairman Emeritus of the CME Group, Inc.

The ten winners of the 2009 Chicago Innovation Awards are:

* Aircell for Gogo Inflight Internet Service—Bringing Internet service to passengers on commercial airline flights.
* comScore, Inc. for ComScore Ad Effx Suite—Showing the value of online advertising by quantifying an online campaign’s impact on sales.
* Groupon, for collective buying power—Bringing a new approach to group buying strategies on the Internet.
* EveryBlock, for local news feeds—Keeping people informed about the news right down to the block on which they live.
* Rescue Vac Systems, Inc. for the Rescue Vac 800 Series Rescue Kit—Giving rescue workers a swift system for saving people involved in trench collapse accidents.
* Suncast Corporation, for the No Crank Water Powered Hose Reel—Providing homeowners a swift water-powered system for reeling up a garden hose.
* The Art Institute of Chicago, for its new Modern Wing—Offering museum visitors a one-of-a-kind space for the viewing of modern art.
* The Robotic Surgery Program of the University of Illinois at Chicago—Expanding the ways in which robotic surgery is brought to bear in precise surgery with more rapid recovery.
* Tripp Lite, for its ECO Series Uninterruptable Power Supply System—Reducing the environmental impact of a home’s electrical system.
* Visible Vote—Providing citizens expanded access to their elected officials.


The First People’s Choice Award of the Chicago Innovation Awards
The global health care company Abbott was named winner of the first People’s Choice Award of the Chicago Innovation Awards, winning an open vote on the Internet that attracted more than 11,000 ballots. The Nutrition Division of Abbott was recognized for its innovation -- a new way of packaging Abbott’s well-known Similac baby formula to make formula preparation easier.

The InnovationVisionary Award
Chicago firefighter Lt. Michael Wielgat was named winner of the 2009 Innovation Visionary Award for his invention and development of the HERO Pipe, a system that is seen as having great potential for fighting fires in high rise buildings. The system has shown impressive capacity to rapidly knock down fires on floors that cannot be reached by ladders.

The Young Innovator Award
Matthew Morris and Michael McCoy, recent graduates of the Liautaud Graduate School of Business at UIC were awarded the 2009 Young Innovator Award for development of Heartsounds, a business that is developing sound separation technology developed at UIC to build highly sensitive and precise cardiac monitoring systems that can detect ailments of the heart. The device is on the verge of FDA approval.

WBC has been involved with the Chicago Innovation Awards since its inception. The ceremony is the culmination of a process that begins each spring with a call for nominations. All nominees are honored for their commitment to innovation, and receive a day-long executive education program at the Kellogg School.