SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards Named

AUSTIN, TX — The South by Southwest Conference and Festivals — known in the vernacular simply as SXSW — staged its 21st annual SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards ceremony Tuesday evening, recognizing what organizers billed as the most exciting tech developments in the world.

All told, winners were named in 13 categories, with six special honors also awarded. Two-time SXSW Innovation Award winner Elliot V. Kotek emceed this year’s ceremony, which celebrated finalists’ and winners’ multifaceted and diverse ecosystem of technological achievements and creative work, organizers said.

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 AI & machine learning, to the ever-evolving world of wearable tech, music & audio innovation, healthcare, responsive design, and more.

Awarded for the best essay submitted from writers, bloggers and journalists, Amanda Gail was this year’s recipient of the David Carr Prize. Created in 2016 to honor the late David Carr, a friend and great contributor to SXSW and the journalistic community, Gail’s essay focuses on the mind-blowing changes the future will bring, and how humans still need to figure out what to do with them, something that David Carr himself seemed to understand.

Honoring those exceptional trailblazers whose work has helped shape the connected world and who continue to guide the direction of the digital industry, this year’s seventh SXSW Interactive Hall of Fame inductee was Eli Pariser, author, online organizer and the President of Upworthy and GOOD Worldwide. During the ceremony, Eli stressed the importance of sharing one’s power to reinvent and reinvigorate a true democracy.

A panel of judges comprising 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 11, where the 65 finalists had the opportunity to exhibit and demo their work.

“The Interactive community would like to congratulate this year’s winners for their exciting work and break-through innovations,” said Hugh Forrest, Chief Programming Officer, SXSW. “We look forward to many upcoming achievements from the 2017 SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards winners.”

The 2018 SXSW Interactive Innovation Award winners are:

AI & Machine Learning

Honoring digital systems which have the ability to adapt to changing data, stimuli, and circumstances; replicating learning, problem solving, and cognition.

· Swarm AI by Unanimous AI, San Francisco, CA

Health, Med, & BioTech

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

• MasSpec Pen by the Eberlin Lab at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Innovation in Connecting People

Honoring the best new way to connect and communicate with others.

• Read To Me by The Electric Factory, Montevideo, Uruguay

Music & Audio Innovation

Honoring 2017’s best device or service that changes and improves the way we listen to and enjoy music.

• Hands-Free Music Project by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA

New Economy

Honoring 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.

• Autonomous Operations Platform for Selfdriving Fleets by Ridecell, San Francisco, CA

Privacy & Security

Honoring 2017’s most progressive accomplishment in the way we go about securing our data and ensuring our privacy.

• Ghostery Privacy Ad Blocker by Ghostery, New York, NY

Responsive Design

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

• The Coca-Cola Times Square Billboard by space150, Atlanta, GA

Scifi No Longer

Honoring the coolest scientific achievement or discovery that before 2017 was only possible in science fiction.

• The Dermal Abyss: When Tattoos meet Biotechnology by MIT Media Lab, Harvard Medical School and UC Davis, Davis, CA

Smart Cities

Honoring 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.

• Jacques-Cartier Bridge Interactive Illumination Concept by Moment Factory, with: Réalisations Montréal Inc., Ambiances Design Productions, ATOMIC3, Éclairage Public / Ombrages, Lucion Média and UDO Design.Project directed by Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc., Montreal, QC

Student Innovation

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

• Facebook Messenger Blood Type Bots by Ryan Leckie and Jakub Straka, Miami Ad School Europe, Hamburg, Germany

Visual Media Experience

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

• LEGO House Fish Designer by LEGO House / Trigger Global, Los Angeles, CA

VR & AR

Honoring breakthroughs in augmented and virtual reality technology including the application of new hardware or software which truly make the virtual a reality.

• Maestro: Empowering VR Storytelling Through Social Collaboration by Penrose Studios, San Francisco, CA

Wearable Tech

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

• Jacquard™ by Google, Mountain View, CA

Special Honors

David Carr Prize

· Amanda Gail

Meme of the Year

· Savage Prince George

Breakout Trend of the Event

· Globally Connected: we’re in this together

Speaker of the Event

· Esther Perel

People’s Choice Award

· The World’s First AI Financial Advisor by Pefin, New York, NY

Best of Show

· Swarm AI by Unanimous AI, San Francisco, CA

For a complete list of SXSW Interactive Innovation Award finalists and winners, visit https://www.sxsw.com/awards/interactive-innovation-awards/.

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