The Wall Street Journal Europe Launches Second Annual European Innovations Awards in Association with Accenture
London; Aug. 13, 2002 – The Wall Street Journal Europe, in association with Accenture (NYSE:ACN), the world’s leading management consulting and technology services organisation, has launched its second annual European Innovation Awards. Nominations are now open for individuals, companies and organisations throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa to submit original ideas, methods or technologies that demonstrably improve the quality of life or enhance productivity.
The Awards cover the two broad categories of “Technology Innovation” and “Business Innovation”. The Technology Innovation Award covers software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications, biotechnology, security and broadcasting, and the Business Innovation Award covers a wide spectrum of original concepts, including the business applications of technology and communications, management techniques, environment, transport and finance.
The deadline for nominations is 20 September 2002. The Technology winners will be announced in The Wall Street Journal Europe on 22 November while the Business winners will be announced on 29 November. All winners will be honoured at a special awards dinner at The Wall Street Journal Europe’s Entrepreneurship Summit to be held in Paris on 4 December 2002.
Nomination forms can be downloaded from www.wsj.com/european-innovation.
A blue-ribbon panel of independent judges will select the winners. Gold, silver and bronze awards are made in each category. Last year’s Technology Innovation Award winner was Swiss biotech company GlycArt Biotechnology for its ground-breaking anti-body enhancing technology designed to aid the treatment of cancer, auto-immune diseases and other illnesses. The UK’s 7E Communications and CNN won the Business Innovation Award; CNN used 7E’s technology for its revolutionary portable broadcasting system that allows the transmission of live images via a pair of satellite phones.
French start-up LTU Technologies SA won the silver award for Technology Innovation in 2001 for its software that can recognise, index and describe images according to their visual features. The French Patent Office uses LTU’s ImageSeeker to allow people to compare a proposed logo or product model to those already registered in its database.
"The Wall Street Journal European Innovation Award was an important milestone for us," said Chahab Nastar, LTU Technologies’ chief executive officer. "Our technology – and the award - only came about through teamwork. Being part of an award-winning team not only raised morale throughout the company, but also helped raise our company profile in a challenging marketplace and lead to business expansion."
Emphasising the importance of recognising innovation, Michael May, global managing partner of Strategy & Business Architecture at Accenture, said: “In this period of economic uncertainty, innovation is more crucial to growth – and perhaps survival - than ever. Companies that focus on new ideas, continue to innovate, and translate good ideas into commercial reality will break away from their competitors who are focusing only on cost reductions rather than sources of growth.”
Michael May and Chahab Nastar are members of the panel of jurors this year. Further details on the judging panel will be released shortly.
Notes to Editors
The Wall Street Journal Europe (www.wsj.com)
Founded in 1983, The Wall Street Journal Europe has a daily circulation of 100,216 (ABC July-Dec 2001) - an increase of nearly 20 percent from January 2000. It has more editors and staff reporters on the continent than any other pan-European business publication and access to the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,700 news staff – the largest network of business journalists in the world.
Its incisive, impartial coverage of leading business and financial stories has won many accolades including the Wincott Award for the UK Business Journal of the Year 2001.
The Wall Street Journal Europe has a highly influential readership with 74 percent holding top management positions (World Executive Summary 2000/The Wall Street Journal Europe) and the highest gross average salary of any European business publications (U.S. $149,677 – EBRS 2000).
The Wall Street Journal Europe is printed in six countries; Germany, Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, U.K and Spain and distributed in more than 50 countries in the region.
For further information, please contact: Helen Hawkins, Dow Jones & Company, Tel + 44 (0) 20 7842 9607, mobile: 07748 323 627, email: helen.hawkins@dowjones.com.
About Accenture
Accenture is the world’s leading management consulting and technology services organization. Through its network of businesses approach — in which the company enhances its consulting and outsourcing expertise through alliances, affiliated companies and other capabilities — Accenture delivers innovations that help clients across all industries quickly realize their visions. With approximately 75,000 people in 47 countries, the company generated net revenues of $11.44 billion for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2001. Its home page is www.accenture.com.
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Vicki Trinder
+44 (0) 20 7844 2094