IndustryWeek is delighted to be the exclusive media partner of the Industrial Research Institute's TechTournament, which will be held as part of the organization's 75th anniversary. The goal: to have you help us identify the most meaningful innovation of the past 75 years.
IRI member organizations can download the complete Tech Tournament Guidelines Packet and begin preparing an entry for submission between June 1, 2013, and September 30, 2013.
Entries should highlight an innovation (you can submit a short video [30 seconds to 2 minutes] or a photo with a short description), that meets the criteria in one of the following categories:
- 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.
Public voting and judging will take place between October 1 and November 19, with the winner announced at the IRI's Future Summit, November 20, in San Jose, Calif.
But it's not too early to get started: Share with a comment to this blog what you think is the most meaningful innovation of the past 75 years.
