First Innovation Awards recognize cutting-edge businesses ...

Published on Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Last updated on 03:05PM, Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Marquee on the Fox Theater where the award ceremony was held. Photo by Howard Dyckoff.

Sponsors of the first East Bay Innovation Awards recently threw a party at Oakland's Fox Theater to celebrate local cutting-edge innovators and businesses.

Although many Oakland companies were in the list of finalists and also helped sponsor the event, Berkeley, Emeryville and San Leandro also participated in the awards and were among the winners. Keeping with the theme of innovation, all of the award trophies were "printed" on a 3D printer at Studio Fathom in Oakland.? The Berkeley High School Jazz Combo provided improvisational music during the pre-ceremony reception.

The East Bay Economic Development Alliance spearheaded the Jan. 31 event with the SF Business Times and several of its major partners helped sponsor the inaugural event. These included Chevron, B of A, Wells Fargo, Bayer and Pandora.

The East Bay EDA is a public/private partnership serving Alameda and Contra Costa Counties? and working "to establish the East Bay as a world-recognized place to grow businesses, attract capital, and create quality jobs.

"We work with all of our partners to help make the East Bay a healthy and vibrant economy," Karen Engle, executive director of the East Bay EDA, said. "One of the ways we do that is by telling the story of companies and innovation right here in the East Bay. So the Innovation Awards are a way for us to find those companies that can help us tell that story."

She added that the Legacy Award that went to Novartis was based on the pioneering work of biotech firms Cetus and Chiron, which became part of Novaris over the last decade.

Here is a summary of the Awards and winners:

Legacy Award - Novartis

Catalyst Award - Berkeley Skydeck

Business and Education Partnership - Bayer HealthCare

Industry Category Winners -

Pandora (Information / Communication Technology)
Tesla Motors (Advanced Manufacturing)
Ecologic Brands (Clean Technology)
Livescribe (Engineering and Design)
Penumbra (Life Sciences)
St. George Spirits (Food)

Here are images from the awards gala:

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Howard Dyckoff has lived in Oakland for over 30 years and has been involved with many community groups, including Oakland Digital, Oakland Voices and Oakland Local. A New York transplant, Howard attended Laney College, where he wrote for the Laney Tower newspaper. He has served as the Berkeley Free Clinic?s Outreach Coordinator, and also worked as an information technology professional at several Fortune 500 companies. Howard supports Open Government and Open Data and participates in Tech Meetups and Hackathons. Howard has been a regular contributor to Oakland Local and Linux Gazette and also does event photography around the Bay Area.

Source: http://oaklandlocal.com/article/first-innovation-awards-recognize-cutting-edge-businesses-innovators

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