Who Will Be Named PIPELINE's Innovator of the Year?

A ukulele that grates vegetables.  Pants with a stool attached to them.  A place to store chewed gum.  Gloves that stop nicotine addiction.  A wind-powered coffee grinder.

These are just a few of the wacky (yet impressive) innovations that were created at the Dunedin Fringe Festival in 2010.  And it’s these types of innovations that leave us asking: where do people come up with this stuff!?

No, we’re not asking you to come up with the electronic Kleenex, or a device that washes your hands as you open the door (but wouldn’t that be nice?).  But if you’re a visionary, an innovator, or a creative thinker, you may be interested in PIPELINE’s “Innovator of the Year”.



PIPELINE's "Innovator of the Year" Competition takes place
on January 27th.



The PIPELINE Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program is hosting “Innovator of the Year” on January 27^th at the Overland Park Sheraton.  This competition caps off the final stage of the PIPELINE fellowship year—the nation’s premier technology entrepreneurship fellowship program, founded by the Kansas Technology Enterprise Corporation (KTEC).  At this event, PIPELINE Innovators are inviting you to take a moment to celebrate and encourage entrepreneurial success—and to recognize the people and organizations who are helping them get there. 

Last week, PIPELINE announced the judging team of the competition, which includes Dr. Kristina Johnson, Former Under Secretary of Energy; Peter Brown, Chairman and Founder of Grassmere Partners LLC; Bo Fishback, President of Kauffman Labs of Enterprise Creation, and Brian Gorbett, Microsoft Director of Startups Central Region.

The judges will have full participation in the day and evening events, and will share their insights with the crowd during a PIPELINE “Entrepreneurial and Innovation Trends” panel after the competition and before the evening event.

This competition to be the most anticipated event in PIPELINE’s 5-year history with more than 75% of tickets sold within the first week.

We’re excited to see what kind of innovations come out of PIPELINE’s “Innovator of the Year” competition!  No matter how wacky, inspirational, innovative, or revolutionary they may be, one thing is for sure—innovators and creative thinkers are uniting entrepreneurial communities by Thinking Big!

Written by Allison Way.  Allison is a writer and videographer for Think Big Partners, Kansas City’s mentorship-based business incubator and startup accelerator.  To read more of Allison’s work, please visit the Kansas City Entrepreneurship Examiner or her articles on Helium, Newsvine, BrooWaha and eZine.