SXSW Interactive Announces 2017 Innovation Awards Winners

AUSTIN, TX — The South by Southwest Conference and Festivals celebrated the digital industry's most transformative achievements of 2017 with its SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards ceremony on Tuesday evening, organizers announced.

The 20th annual ceremony emceed by “Sleepy Hollow” actresses Janina Gavankar and Lyndie Greenwood, showcased evolving and broadening trends of the digital industry through its ever-widening variety of platforms, software, apps and devices.

At the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards ceremony, 13 awards and six special honors, including Best of Show, People’s Choice, Breakout Trend of the Event, Speaker of the Event, Meme of the Year and the David Carr Prize, were presented to esteemed innovators for exceptional work spanning categories from healthcare to sustainability, privacy & security, music, finance, communication integration and more, according to officials.

New to the Awards ceremony this year was the second annual David Carr Prize, awarded for the best essay submitted from writers, bloggers and journalists. Created last year to honor the late David Carr — whom organizers described as a friend and great contributor to SXSW and the journalistic community — the essay topic follows Carr’s interest in the convergence of new media, technology, and culture.

Mike Armstrong took home this year’s David Carr Prize for his essay “The Heart of Something Heartless,” about morality and emotions in Artificial Intelligence. Other finalists for this inaugural award were:

• James Brown – “Learning in a Community of Black Boxes”
• Megan Cole – “Untitled”
• Dan Murrell – “Gerald 1.0”
• Gabriel Wardell – “Untitled”

Carr, a New York Times media columnist, died February 2015 at the age of 58. In tribute, SXSW organizers honored his legacy at last year's conference with a screening of Page One: Inside the New York Times, a 2011 documentary in which the late writer figured prominently. The film was screened by the Knight Foundation.

The ceremony also inducted Kara Swisher into the SXSW Interactive Hall of Fame as the sixth inductee. During the ceremony, she stressed the importance of a free and inspired press. Swisher is the executive editor and co-founder of Recode, host of the Recode Decode podcast, and co-executive producer of the Code Conference series.

A panel of judges composed of industry peers and experts selected the winners based on four criteria: creativity, form, function and overall experience, except for the People’s Choice Award. SXSW Interactive attendees voted for the People’s Choice Award at the second annual Innovation Award Finalist Showcase on Sunday, March 12, where the 65 finalists had the opportunity to exhibit and demo their work.

“The Interactive community extends our sincere congratulations to this year’s winners for this esteemed industry accolade and well-deserved recognition,” Mason Stewart, SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards Coordinator, said in a prepared statement. “Over the next few years, we look forward to seeing many more outstanding achievements from the winners of the 2017 SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards."

2017 SXSW INTERACTIVE INNOVATION AWARD WINNERS:

HEALTH, MED & BIOTECH

Awarded for the new technology that best improves the quality, efficacy and cost-effectiveness of prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care in health and medicine

• PRIME Needle Free Injector by Portal Instruments, Cambridge, MA

INNOVATION IN CONNECTING PEOPLE

Awarded for the best new way to connect and communicate with others

• Blendoor by Stephanie Lampkin, San Francisco, CA

INNOVATIVE 3-DIY

Awarded for making 3D printing technology more accessible or affordable, or to the Maker using such technology in new and exciting ways

• 3Doodler PRO by 3Doodler, New York, NY

MUSIC & AUDIO INNOVATION

Awarded for 2016’s best device or service that changes and improves the way we listen to and enjoy music

• HOLOPLOT Wave Field Generator by Holoplot GmbH, Berlin, DEU

NEW ECONOMY

Awarded to those redefining the exchange of goods and services, from the sharing economy, to virtual currency, to micro-finance, to mobile-device-payment systems and beyond

• Blinker App by Blinker Inc., Denver, CO

PRIVACY & SECURITY

Awarded for 2016’s most progressive accomplishment in the way we go about securing our data and ensuring our privacy

• D3CRYPT3D by PADECA LLC, Chamblee, GA

RESPONSIVE DESIGN

Awarded for excellent digital design, creating the best-integrated interaction in terms of content, aesthetics, and functionality

• My Grandmother's Lingo by SBS Online Australia, Sydney, NSW, AUS

SCIFI NO LONGER

Awarded for the coolest scientific achievement or discovery that before 2016 was only possible in science fiction

• DuoSkin by MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA | Microsoft Research, Redmond, WA

SMART CITIES

Awarded for innovations in eco-friendly or sustainable energy, transportation, and IoT technology, making life in the connected world a smarter, cleaner, greener, and more efficient Internet of Everything

• V3 by Pavegen, London, UK

STUDENT INNOVATION

Awarded to the student with an exceptional interactive technology project or startup; both of which are the future

• BionicM - Powering Mobility for All by Xiaojun Sun | JSK robotics lab at The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, JPN

VISUAL MEDIA EXPERIENCE

Awarded for content creation and delivery that moves beyond passive viewership by providing a more immersive and engaging entertainment experience

• JourneyMaker by The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

VR & AR

Awarded for breakthroughs in augmented reality & virtual reality technology including the application of new hardware or software which truly make the Virtual a reality

• Tilt Brush by Google, San Francisco, CA

WEARABLE TECH

Awarded for the new hardware that revolutionizes the convenience, comfort, functionality, efficiency, and fashion of having a device literally “on you”

• Halo 2 Made for iPhone Hearing Aids by Starkey Hearing Technologies | Karten Design, Eden Prairie, MN

SPECIAL HONORS

BEST OF SHOW

Finalist from the competition, who, overall, best exemplifies the values of innovation, inspiration and creativity

• The Sensel Morph by Sensel, Mountain View, CA

PEOPLE’S CHOICE

Voted on by the SXSW Interactive community at the second annual Interactive Innovation Awards Finalist Showcase

• Johnson & Johnson CaringCrowd by CI&T and R/GA, New York, NY

BREAKOUT TREND OF THE EVENT

Trend that gained the most traction during SXSW Interactive 2017

• Deep Machine Learning

SPEAKER OF THE EVENT

Speaker from SXSW Interactive 2017 whose presentation makes the biggest impact on the digital community

• Joe Biden

Related Story: At SXSW, Joe Biden Recruits Others To Join Cancer-Fighting Mission

MEME OF THE YEAR

Most ubiquitous meme that went viral in calendar year 2016 and that we just can’t get out of our heads or off of our screens

• Prankster Joe Biden

For a complete list of SXSW Interactive Innovation Award finalists and winners, click here.

>>> Logo courtesy SXSW