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Employee Engagement

Employee Engagement

Do you want to gain new ideas and fresh perspectives by providing a forum for your employees?

  • In 2019, video game pioneer Activision launched the 5X5 Innovation Challenge.
  • The top 5 employee teams were given 5 weeks and a $5,000 research budget to create a pitch that addressed a real company challenge, such as enhancing a key franchise.
  • This challenge led to Fast Company naming Activision one of its 50 Best Workplaces for Innovators.

To Encourage Innovation, Make It a Competition - Harvard Business Review

Person in Crowd - Stand Out

Social Impact

Social Impact

Do you want to tackle some of the most important social issues facing both your brand and community by tapping into the collective energy of your very own network?

  • In 2017, Cisco launched its Global Problem Solver Challenge.
  • For the past 5 years, the company has used the program to recognize new business ideas that leverage technology for social impact that will reach 1 billion people by 2025.

Click here to see how the GPS 2020 winner is solving one of India’s most pressing problems.

Education & Training

Education & Training

Education & Training

Do you want to discover innovative new ways to upskill your organization or community’s most valuable people?

The Drucker Prize 

  • Leaders of organizations were invited to complete a series of mini-courses on The Drucker Prize learning platform, exploring different aspects of innovation and organizational effectiveness.
  • Each semifinalist then shared, in the second round of their application, how they might pilot or put into practice any new ideas they learned.
  • The winning organization was awarded a prize of $100,000.

The National Science Foundation

  • In 2018, The National Science Foundation launched Generation Nano: Superheroes Inspired by Science.
  • Students submitted an original idea for a superhero, using modern nanotechnology research to inspire unique gear. 
  • Submissions included a short written entry as well as a brief video or comic that illustrated the superhero’s nanotechnology-enabled gear.
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Accelerate Innovation

Accelerate Innovation

Do you want to hear pitches from the most progressive companies and teams in your industry — and invest in them? 

The Administration for Community Living MENTAL Health Challenge 

  • The ACL MENTAL (Mobilizing and Empowering the Nation and Technology to Address Loneliness & social isolation) Health Challenge set out to build an app that optimally connects socially isolated people and the disabled to the resources they need most.
  • With total cash prizes of $750,000, this event drew the brightest minds in mental health digital innovation.
  • The event also created a nationwide database for community health programs to help the growing population of socially isolated adults, which accelerated assistance during the pandemic.

The Zurich Innovation Championship

  • One of the largest startup innovation competitions in the insurance industry, The Zurich Innovation Championship was designed to identify new business ideas that have the potential to transform the insurance industry.
  • Now in its third year, the program has drawn participation from thousands of startups around the world, including 68 countries and territories. 
  • Each year, the program’s 3 finalists partnered with Zurich to bring their pilot plans to life in their chosen market or markets.
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Marketing & Partnerships

Marketing & Partnerships

Do you want to find a new way to generate authentic brand or product awareness, or to uniquely activate your brand’s partners?

Indy Autonomous Challenge

  • The Indy Autonomous Challenge is a $1.5 million competition among universities to create software that enables self-driving cars to compete in a head-to-head race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) in order to create future technology that will help drivers to avoid accidents.
  • The IMS and Energy Systems Network (ESN) partnered to not only create this technology, but also to underscore that the state of Indiana is a hub of tech innovation.
  • To date, more than 500 undergraduate and graduate students, PhDs, and mentors who excel in artificial intelligence software have responded to the challenge, representing 39 universities on 4 continents.

This competition will hold a qualifying simulation race during Indy 500 week in May 2021, and will culminate in a head-to-head, high-speed autonomous vehicle race on October 23, 2021, around the Speedway’s famed 2.5-mile oval.