“It is an honor to be here among so many outstanding leaders and innovators.
Congratulations to all of the winners – I am certainly inspired by the creativity and energy that you bring to your work!”
Chicago startups dominated the 10th annual Chicago Innovation Awards. Among the 10 winners brought to the stage of the Harris Theater on Tuesday night were:
* Appolicious, whose websites catalog apps for mobile devices
* Callibra, which provides translation software for hospital discharge instructions
* Narrative Science, whose software can write articles and reports from data
* Red Frog Events, creator of a brand new industry: offbeat races
* Trustwave, which makes antihacker software for credit card processors
* World Bicycle Relief, which provides bikes to the impoverished in Africa
In addition, Fresh Moves, which turned a retired CTA bus into a mobile green market on the West Side, received the “Peoples Choice” award, based on votes on the Chicago Innovation Awards’ website.
Miles White knows how to command an audience. But before making his keynote speech to the 1,300 attendees at the Chicago Innovation Awards, he found himself trying to lower expectations.
But could it have been? Narrative Science, a company whose algorithm turns data into narrative (and a Chicago Innovation Award winner), is being used more and more to write simple stories quicker and more cheaply than humans. Will robot newspapers cover the the robot revolution?
Buffalo bicycles—a winner of a recent Chicago Innovation Award—won’t break down for five years, and fit almost anyone: kids going to school, entrepreneurs to bring goods to markets, and health care workers who visit patients on their bikes. It’s a two-wheeled piece of social change.
The Chicago Innovation Awards’ 10th anniversary Tuesday night celebrated the city’s emergence as a brain trust bursting with successful entrepreneurial ventures, familiar companies’ technological breakthroughs and expanding capital commitments to back them up.
By Sandra Guy on November 9, 2011 4:12 PM
The Harris Theater buzzed Tuesday night as a full house of technology, business and entrepreneurial types cheered each other’s successes at the 10th annual Chicago Innovation Awards show.
 Pete Kadens Co-founder and President SoCore Energy The SunLock and Solar Rental Service |
“Customers drove this innovation. You can’t innovate in a vacuum. In our industry, it’s collaborative. I listened. I met people. I didn’t always know what I was talking about. I learned what not to do by listening to others. Being a competent listener is half the battle in innovation.”—Pete Kadens, Co-founder and President of SoCore Energy, which makes solar energy more flexible, accessible and affordable. |
 Tim Qualheim Vice President-US Business Unit S&C Electric Company S&C TripSaver™ Dropout Recloser |
“We constantly ask our utility customers about their needs. We want to know about their operating practices . . . what works for them . . . and what doesn’t work as they’d like. This product was developed as a result of such questioning. We listened to our customers and delivered what they needed.”—Tim Qualheim, Vice President, US Business Unit, S&C Electric Company⎯a century-old Chicago-based global provider of equipment and services for electric power systems. |
 Karan Goel Founder and CEO PrepMe LLC PrepMe – Personalized Online Test Prep |
“The college experiences that we benefitted from the most were teachers engaging us in dialogue or interaction—not just lectures. So, we are trying to let technology deliver the core instruction and let our people drive engagement and higher-order thinking.”—Karan Goel, Founder and CEO, PrepMe LLC, maker of customized test preparation software, acquired by Blackboard-buyer Providence Equity in August, 2011. |
 Adam Stanczak Global Product Manager Molex Molex Solder Charge SMT Technology |
“We made a number of products that use solder technology that’s common in industry, and we faced the same difficulties our customers faced. So we took a step back and asked, ‘What qualities in that technology do we still need, and what can we change?’ We were able to change the design of conventional soldering methods and create solder-charge technology.”—Adam Stanczak, Product Manager, Molex, Lisle, Ill., a leading supplier of connectors and interconnect components. |
 Kim Taylor Managing Director and President of CME Clearing CME Group Common Clearing Link |
“Two Chicago rivals entered into a historic partnership in 2004, saving the futures industry more than $1 billion and laying the groundwork for the CME/CBOT merger in 2007, which would become the world’s leading and most diverse derivatives marketplace, right here in Chicago.”—Kim Taylor, Managing Director and President of CME Clearing, the clearinghouse for CME Group’s Chicago-based global derivatives markets. |
 Jason Fried CEO & Co-founder 37signals Basecamp |
“Buzzwords, lingo, and sensationalized sales-and-marketing-speak have no place at 37signals. We communicate clearly and honestly.”—Jason Fried, CEO and co-founder, with Carlos Segura and Ernest Kim, of Chicago-based 37signals, which morphed from a web design firm in 1999 into a provider of online collaborative tools. |
 Howard Tullman President and CEO Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy |
“Great education isn’t about filling an empty vessel. It’s about lighting a fire and sustaining the passion that we all have to make a difference in the lives of others.”—Howard A. Tullman, President and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Media Arts Academy in Chicago, which made its debut in 2007. |
 Rhon Daguro Co-founder and CEO Touch Taste Technologies TouchLife Interactive Tables |
“We didn’t have to come up with the idea; the consumer already wanted it. The challenge was not whether there was a market for this, but if we could do it cleaner, better, faster, and simpler than everybody else.”—Rhon Daguro, Co-founder and CEO of Touch Taste Technologies, maker of interactive service products for the hospitality, entertainment, night life, and gaming industries. |
 Adrienne White Vice President of Health Initiatives and Advocacy American Cancer Society, Illinois Division, Inc. Patient Navigation Services |
“We designed a program that, regardless of social or economic status or geography, patients can enter from multiple portals: telephone, face-to-face, online. No matter where they enter, they all have access to the same system of a myriad of services, resources, and information.”—Adrienne White, Vice President of Health Initiatives and Advocacy, American Cancer Society, Illinois Division, Inc.
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Because innovation is the foundation of American prosperity, it’s good to see that Chicago is becoming ever more hospitable to new ideas.
 Qiang Yu Senior Research Associate USG SHEETROCK® Brand UltraLight Panels |
“In our industry, energy is two-sided. On one side, people exert energy when transporting and installing wallboard. On another side, processes consume energy in making the product. If we can reduce the amount of materials, we reduce the overall energy needed in the entire system.”—Qiang Yu, Senior Research Associate at USG, a leading manufacturer of building and construction materials. |
 Jake Nickell Founder skinnycorp Threadless |
“A big difference is how involved our customers are in our whole process. We were way ahead of crowdsourcing.”—Jake Nickell, Co-founder, Threadless, an online t-shirt vendor and creative hub featuring new designs submitted and rated by the Threadless community each week.
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