Business School to Host 2nd Annual New Product Innovation Awards Ceremony
George Davison, CEO of Davison Design, a company that specializes in cutting-edge product design and development, will address a group of young innovators and entrepreneurs at the 2nd Annual New Product Innovation Awards Ceremony on Friday, November 2, 2007, beginning at 6:00pm, at Suffolk University Law School (120 Tremont Street in Boston).
The New Product Innovation Competition was established by the Sawyer Business School in 2006 to encourage innovation among its students.
“Innovation is the key to everything we do,” said Sushil Bhatia, Competition Founder, and Executive in Residence at the Sawyer Business School, where he teaches entrepreneurship, global innovation and new product development. “It is essential to new product development, entrepreneurship and even in our relationships. Companies that do not innovate generally fail. By establishing the New Product Innovation Competition, we are teaching our students to embrace change and become better business leaders.”
Entries are submitted and judged by a team of entrepreneurs, intellectual property specialists and venture capital professionals. Students compete for cash prizes of $3,500 (first), $1,000 (second) and $500 (third). This year, the Urvashi Bhatia Green Product Award ($1,000) will be awarded for a new product idea that is environment-friendly. Also, this year, freshman students enrolled in the required business core course Business Foundations will have an opportunity to compete for a special $500 prize.
Corporate Sponsors for the 2007 event include: Bose Corporation, Davison Design, JMD Manufacturing, PID Analyzers LLC., Trigent Software and Suffolk University’s Alumni Association.
Last year over 100 students participated in the competition. Art Fry, inventor of the Post-it-Note Pad delivered the keynote address. The competition was judged by representatives from Motorola Labs, Merrill Lynch, and AmeriVault Corporation among others. Last year’s winning innovations included:
• First Prize: EMBA 900 Chair, a portable deck chair
• Second Prize: Close to Me, a child security device
• Third Prize: Insulin Voyager, a portable insulin device