Cameras flashed, glasses clinked and pink paperclip trophies were dished out as 250-plus gathered for the 2011 NZ Innovators Awards ceremony at the HP/Intel Winter Garden in Wynyard Quarter last week. And, among the marketing-oriented winners, DraftFCB’s The Journal added to its already healthy collection of accolades and cloud-based POS system Vend, which has recently expanded into the US, took out the supreme and ICT awards.
Judges congratulated Vend’s founder Vaughan Rowsell on the company’s “spectacular” growth and tipped “great things globally” in its future.
The Journal beat out eBus Delivery, Mt Cook Alpine Salmon and TVNZ U to pick up the gong in the marketing and communications category for “crossing over from advertising and promotion into a treatment and support programme”. It also won the people’s choice vote for most innovative product.
Previously known as the Bayer Innovators Awards, the competition pulled in 124 entries, which a team of evaluators from academia and business whittled down to 24 finalists.
Teacher Steve Martin and his Virtual Lesson Project were voted both the most inspiring individual, as well as the People’s Choice Innovator of the Year, overtaking Rowsell at the eleventh hour.
In the pre-commercial and design/engineering categories, HaloIPT’s wireless car-charging technology prevailed. “An excellent idea and product,” judges said. “This market will become huge over time, and licensing this IP could be a textbook knowledge-intensive innovation success story.”
Magritek, which has developed a range of magnetic resonance (MR) spectrometers and imaging scanners, took out the health and science category, while the C-Dax Pasturemeter won the environment and agriculture field.
In manufacturing, the EnaSolar Converter solar inverter was named victorious, with judges praising the product innovation, quality and range, driven by a customer-led focus.
And rounding out the People’s Choice category, Serato’s Scratch Live, which lets DJs control their digital music library using special vinyl records, was voted most innovative product.
Supreme award
Winner: Vend. Finalists: EnaSolar Converter; Fisher & Paykel F&P Icon CPAP; Magitrek
Pre-commercial award
Winner: HaloIPT Finalists: PolyBatics; CRL Energy
Most inspiring individual award
Winner: Virtual Lesson Project Finalists: PolyBatics; (C-Dax) ñ PastureMeter; Rim-Pro Tec
Marketing and communications
Winner: The Journal Finalists: eBus Delivery; Mt Cook Alpine Salmon; TVNZ U
ICT
Winner: Vend. Finalists: Medtech Global, ManageMyHealth; Serato Audio Research, Scratch Live
Design and engineering
Winner: HaloIPT. Finalists: F&P Icon CPAP; KM Medical
Environment and agriculture
Winner: (C-Dax) PastureMeter. Finalists: Greentide; Expleco
Health and science
Winner: Magitrek. Finalists: The Journal; Smart Gels
Manufacturing
Winner: EnaSolar Solar Converter. Finalists: Meatvision; Stratis Ice
People’s Choice
Person: Steve Martin/Virtual Lesson Project. Product: The Journal/DraftFCB. Organisation: Serato
- This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on idealog.co.nz.
