Wireless Innovation Contest demonstrates mentorship is critical to success

Expert advice and media exposure trumps cash rewards for winners of the Wireless Innovation Contest (WIC). Entering its fourth year, the contest is gaining momentum and generating greater awareness of wireless products and applications – even though contestants aren’t vying for a cash prize or funding.Produced by the Wireless Innovation Network of British Columbia (WINBC), the contest aims to spur increased adoption of wireless technologies and solutions across North America. Contestants from across the continent are eligible to submit entries in one of six categories: taking care of business – private and public sector, taking care of yourself – home and entertainment and sports and recreation, taking care of the community, and the student category. Winners of the Wireless Innovation Contest must demonstrate that their solutions have not only advanced technology processes but have also provided customers with significant returns on their investment. Real-world solutions, and not lofty pie-in-the-sky visions, are rewarded. A panel of industry experts judges the entries, and provides a one-hour mentoring session for the winners in addition to targeted media exposure and inclusion in a special case study publication. WINBC estimates the prize value at $100,000. "Previous winners and finalists say that the exposure they got through the contest is second to none," WINBC’s executive director, Shana Korotash, says enthusiastically. "They just can’t say enough about it."Increased awareness and exposure seem to be the biggest changes over WIC’s four-year run. The number of submissions jumped from 42 in 2005 to 120 in 2006. Entries came form 23 different states and provinces. This year, the entries dropped to just less than 100, but Korotash is confident the additional media exposure will help the number of applications grow for next year’s installment. Last year, the contest and its contestants generated 53 million media impressions from press releases and blogs. Many of these news hits may be attributable to their recent marketing partnerships. In late 2005, several media publications agreed to publish details about the contest deadlines and winners lists, including RCR Wireless News and FierceWireless. The additional publicity appears to have worked. "Winning the WIC award was a great boon to us locally. It really helped to raise our profile with the wireless industry," says Rob Lauridsen-Hoegh, Tantalus Systems Corp.’s manager of marketing and communications. Vancouver-based Tantalus’ TUNet product won the 2005 Wireless Excellence Award in the public sector category. TUNet is a two-way, real-time data communications network that allows utility companies to monitor meters, control events and identify potential problems such as outages remotely. When they captured the award various utility companies, including French Broad Electric Membership Corporation and Ontario’s Chatham-Kent Hydro Inc., were already using or experimenting with TUNet. "Since the award we’ve been non-stop going out and getting customers, even turning some earlier pilots into full-scale deployments," says Lauridsen-Hoegh. Chatham-Kent Hydro has since turned their 1,200-unit pilot into a complete deployment for their 32,000 customers. WIC entries tend to mirror trends in the wireless industry. "It really depends on what’s hot. This year, we’re seeing a lot of VoIP entries," Korotash tells Report on Wireless. In the past, mobile fleet solutions and asset tracking were popular entries. Most of the entries are solutions for businesses but often incorporate entertainment into their products. Former winners include success stories such as Bellevue WA-based Vidiator Technology Inc., a mobile multimedia technology provider, and San Mateo CA-based Digital Chocolate Inc., a mobile game developer. Vidiator, which captured 2005’s Wireless Excellence Award in the business sector category, was founded in 2002 and helps wireless operators, broadcasters, and media and music companies deliver on-demand TV, radio and multimedia content to mobile handsets. At this year’s 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Vidiator announced a global distribution licence agreement with Ericsson. The wireless equipment maker will use Vidiator’s Xenom platform with its mobile TV solution.Digital Chocolate’s MLSN Sports Picks won the 2006 Wireless Excellence Award in the home and entertainment category. In the six months following its launch, the predictive sports game had 35,000 downloads. MLSN leverages application-programming interfaces for HTTP, SMS, address book access and billing. It includes a player-pairing mechanism that matches participants for head-to-head competitions based on sports interests, game seniority and previous performance across networks. Its games are deployed on Cingular, Sprint, Nextel, Verizon and Boost, and last year it was named one of FierceWireless’ top 15 emerging wireless companies.But not all are success stories. Last year’s student winner, Vaudreuil PQ-based MobSKY doesn’t appear to be making any headway with its project. MobSKY’S mobile greeting cards were supposed to enable users to send full-colour, personalized greetings to loved ones on specific dates. A year later, its website remains under construction.Korotash concedes that it’s difficult to accurately measure the impact a WIC award has on a company’s success. The award and exposure are only as valuable as a company makes them. Some, like Lauridsen-Hoegh, see the WIC as a stepping stone for future successes. "When you’re just getting started, reassurance and acknowledgement from a technology association really helps to prove the value of your technology within the industry." The judges’ high profiles strengthen the endorsement. This year’s judges include Nokia’s Tom Nyberg, Telus’ Chris Langdon, Alcatel-Lucent’s Ray Gilbert, Angel Strategies’ Oliver Starr, the 451 Group’s Tony Rizzo, 3rd Eye Consulting’s Madeline Duva, Sprint Nexel’s Joseph Averkamp and Webmobility Ventures’ Ken Blakeslee. The 2007 WIC winners will be announced at the CTIA Wireless conference taking place in Orlando FL from March 27 to 29.

Wireless Innovation Contest demonstrates mentorship is critical to success

News | 03/12/2007 4:00 am EDT

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