____________________
Innovation Recognition
OIE - Innovation Excellence Awards Presented At Inaugural Innovative Gala
Kitchener/Waterloo - Six creative innovators were honoured as the inaugural Ontario Innovation Excellence Awards were presented at a gala banquet October 29. The event honoured the outstanding innovators across many fields; in all, judges selected from among 126 nominations to choose the award recipients in six categories, and ultimate the ³Most Excellent Innovation² of 2008.
The overall award was presented to a cultural innovator: Drayton Entertainment and artistic director Alex Mustakas. Mustakas had already picked up the RBC Ontario Innovation Excellence Award for Strategic Positioning.
Other recipients included:
- the Perimeter Institute, which received the OIE Award for Non-Government Organization Innovation;
- Dr. Paul Hebert and the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph, winner of the OIE Award for Government Organization Innovation;
- Mike Lazaridis of RIM, who received the OIE Intellectual Design Award;
- Integrated Gas Recovery Services, which picked up the OIE Award for Sustainable Development Innovation; and
- Manulife, for Income Plus, which received the OIE Award for Financial Innovation.
The only recipient not present at the event at Bingemans was Lazaridis, who was in Ottawa to be inducted into Canada's Telecom Hall of Fame alongside business partner Jim Balsillie.
Lazaridis Blackberried his acceptance of the award, saying, ³I am excited and honored to be recognized with the RBC Ontario Innovation Excellence Award for Intellectual Design and share this award with my colleagues at RIM. I consider myself as being incredibly fortunate to live and work in a country that supports innovation. Thanks to our universities and colleges, we have world-class talent here in Canada....²
The Ontario Innovation Excellence Awards are a cooperative program of Exchange Magazine for Business, Bingemans, and Straight Street Event Services. The OIE Awards Partner is RBC; OIE Title Partner is University of Waterloo Kitchener Downtown Health Science Campus, and keynote speaker at the event was Dr. Jake J. Thiessen, who heads both the new Health Sciences Campus and U of W¹s School of Pharmacy. Dr. Thiessen spoke about the focus on innovation in his field; he also commended the OIE organizers, because proceeds from the Gala were donated to the Downtown Kitchener Health Science Campus , for research concerning early stage development in autoimmune disease.
There were 18 finalists in the six OIE categories, also including Challenger Motor Freight, Covarity, Evergreen, Green World Solutions, Maplesoft, Mennonite Economic Development Associates, Region of Waterloo Transportation Division, Sentinelle Medical, Spirited Investors, St. Jacobs Country, Tersano, and University of Guelph physicist Dr. Carl Svensson.
An overview of all innovation will be featured in the January/February 2009 issue of Exchange Magazine for Business.
|
