It's not too late to vote for the most meaningful innovation from the past 75 years, but the first round of voting at the Industrial Research Institute's TechTournament ends November 15. That's when the top two in each category will advance to the next round of live voting at the IRI's Future Summit, where the winner will be announced.
View a quick slide show of the Technology entries, then cast your vote at the Techtournament site. (You don't have to register to view the entries--many have videos--but registration is required to vote.)
The categories are:
- Product and service innovations: Enter into this category an innovation that significantly improved existing or created new products and/or services, e.g., the bottle cap.
- Business innovations: Submissions in this category will describe how an existing technology was used to create a new way of doing business, either new for the company or completely new and novel business model, e.g., the Drive-in movie theater.
- Innovations that created a new industry: Nominate a product that not only address a latent need, but establish a context for futher developments and innovations, e.g., the Guttenberg press.
- Innovations that enhanced a societal good: Innovations that significantly improved social goods, resulting in cleaner air, cleaner water, improved healthcare, reduced injury, improved education, and/or an improved quality of life, should be considered for submission. An example is the development and sharing of the 3-point safety harness for cars in 1959, by Volvo, which is credited for saving an estimated 1 million lives.
As well, the entry that receives the most votes in each category will be designated a People's Choice.
The entries are, quite simply, examples of foundational innovations that changed industries and, often, the world.
