Smart Lid Wins the Most Prestigious Packaging Award in the USA

Congratulations to Next Big Thing Award 2007™ finalist Nick Bayss of Smart Lid Systems. The colour changing coffee cup lids won the highest distinction, the "Best of Show" Award, at the AmeriStar Package Competition hosted by The Institute of Packaging Professionals in the USA.

The award reflects the one package that has received the highest judges scores in all 7 judging criteria, but more importantly over all 15 categories. Smart Lid Systems beat over 100 of the top US packaging firms to take the prize.

This could change the way we shop - By Belinda Scott,

PAUL Brockwell could change the face of food shopping.

His intelligent plastic technology is capable of telling you everything from how fresh the broccoli is on the supermarket shelf to whether you should throw out Saturday's leftover casserole.

His invention, low-cost plastics which can detect and display information about freshness and ripeness in a way anyone can read and understand, will go on display with other finalists at the Melbourne Museum from May 14 to June 22.

Imagine bottle lids that can monitor the freshness of milk and guide the cellaring of wine; a label that changes colour to tell you how long that package of prawns has before it goes 'off' and a band aid that changes colour when it is no longer effective.

Read more....

People's Choice Award - Online Voting Now Open

You can now vote for which finalist you think you should win the Next Big Thing Award™ 2008 People's Choice Award. All participants go in the draw for the chance to win an mp3 player. Simply visit the profile of your favourite finalist and enter your details in the People's Choice voting box to cast your vote. Alternatively, you can SMS* your name, state and choice of finalist to 0435 176 079. Voting closes on Monday 9 June 2008 and winners will be notified via email.

The winner of the People's Choice Award will receive:

• $2,500 cash & trophy
• $2,000 worth of IP services from Phillips Ormonde & Fitzpatrick
• 1 year subscription to Grant Guru - $295
• Australian Anthill magazine media profile
• MYOB Business Management Software package
• Use of INNOVIC’s Next Big Thing Award 2008 – People’s Choice Winner logo
• Plus ongoing media promotion, business books and other gifts

Big Ideas for Australia’s Future

“Ordinary Australians have lots of good ideas”, observes Joss Evans, CEO of INNOVIC. “You don’t need a degree to be curious or to see a problem that could be solved”.

INNOVIC’s Next Big Thing Award™ 2008 is a Victorian Government supported initiative to find and showcase new Australian innovations with the potential to become ‘the next big thing’. This year’s Award has attracted a large number of innovations from every Australian state and territory.

“To address the big environmental, social, medical, economic and other challenges we face as a nation, we need to encourage ALL Australians to be innovative“, says Joss.

“The calibre of the applications we have received clearly demonstrates that there is huge pool of creativity and ingenuity out in the wider community. With assistance, encouragement and support, from organisations like INNOVIC, many of these people will go on to become the new businesses of the future”.

The 21 finalists in INNOVIC’s Next Big Thing Award 2008 have now been selected and their innovations will be on display at the Melbourne Museum from 14 May – 22 June.

These year’s finalists include medical, environmental, sports and technology innovations.

The Victorian finalists include a Surgical Drilling Simulator to help clinicians practice sensitive and potentially dangerous medical drilling techniques on the skull. A WA finalist has developed a Multimodal 2D-3D Hybrid Face Recognition System. The Intelligent Plastic Sensor Technology from NSW reports on the freshness, purity and integrity on a range of products from food to blood, and the Cone-Head is a shock absorbing foam liner for helmets, developed by a Queenslander. Accuball, from South Australia, is a hand-eye coordination device to train sports and martial arts enthusiasts.

“People are really getting behind the Next Big Thing Award,” Joss says, “it has important economic spin offs and we believe there is huge potential to make it an international event”.

“Previous Next Big Thing Award finalists are already making sales of over $85.8 million p.a. and are exporting to 42 countries”, she reports.

“In Victoria we are lucky to have a State Government and a Premier that values innovation and supports INNOVIC to provide important services to innovators, particularly at the early stages. Without support, many good ideas, will simply be abandoned”, she says.

Finalists Announced!

We thank the many innovators nation-wide who submitted entries for INNOVIC’s Next Big Thing Award™ 2008. The applications were of a high calibre and we congratulate them all. It was a difficult task but our judges have now selected the 21 finalists. They are as follows:

Applications CLOSED

Applications for the Next Big Thing Award™ 2008 have now closed. Thank you to all those who participated, the judges will announce the 2008 finalists shortly.

Entries are now being accepted for INNOVIC’s Next Big Thing Award™ 2008.

Calling all Australian innovators and inventors! Is your new idea or innovation Australia’s Next Big Thing?

This prestigious annual event is a nation-wide competition to find, showcase and award leading-edge new Australian innovations – new ideas with the potential to become the 'next big thing'.

Winners receive over $50,000 in cash and prizes plus valuable media exposure.

An Exhibition of the 21 finalists’ innovations will be held at the Melbourne Museum between 14 May and 22 June 2008.

Accompanying activities will include a Young Entrepreneurs’ Week, to stimulate and encourage the next generation of innovative Australians.

Applications OPEN 21 November 2007 and CLOSE on 14 March 2008

Previous Next Big Thing Award™ winners include, V-Focus, a catheter system that delivers and ‘recycles’ sensitive cardiac medication directly to the beating heart of a conscious patient, mHITs, a free SMS payment and e-wallet system and ClinchA, a pneumatic device for tying concrete reinforcement bars together.

INNOVIC’s Next Big Thing Award™ is funded under a VicStart commercialisation contract with the Victorian Government.