WEB: thecreativecoast.org/innovation-awards/2009/finalists

12 finalists spanning the categories of business, non-profit, government and sustainability

The Creative Coast Alliance (TCCa) is proud to announce the finalists for its second annual Innovation Awards. The 12 finalists, spanning 4 categories including Community, Education & Government; Small Business; Big Business; and Sustainability were selected from a field of nearly 100 applicants by an independent panel of local and regional judges that include State Representative Ron Stephens, former Commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development Craig Lesser, retired CFO/business consultant/angel investor Gordon Matthews, UGA Small Business Development Center Area Director Lynn Vos, WTOC General Manager Bill Cathcart, SCAD Professor of Graphic Design and Sustainable Design Scott Boylston, Executive Director of the US Green Building Council (GA Chapter) Leesa Carter, and a 2008 winner, Union Mission President/CEO Michael Elliott.

For the second year in a row, the Innovation Awards are presented by Lott + Barber – a leading commercial architecture, sustainable design and land planning firm headquartered in Savannah. On Thursday, October 22 at 6pm, TCCa and Lott + Barber will be “taking it to the street” – Broughton Street, specifically – blocking it off between Lincoln and Abercorn Streets in front of SCAD’s Trustees Theater for cocktails, conversation and hors d’oeuvres. The Awards presentation will follow inside the Theater promptly at 8pm.

In an effort to engage even more entrepreneurs and small business owners, TCCa and Lott + Barber are providing their own “stimulus package” and have lowered the ticket price from last year by 1/3rd to $50 per person, if purchased before October 1st. ($60 if purchased afterward.) Additionally, with the purchase of each ticket to the 2009 Innovation Awards, attendees will receive an additional 60% discount on the purchase of tickets to the upcoming Geekend 2009 Conference in November.

Proceeds from the Innovation Awards will be reinvested in ways the TCCa Advisory Board determines match its mission and vision. Last year’s proceeds supported the Savannah Science Seminar, the Savannah-Ogeechee Regional Science and Engineering Fair, Savannah’s Engineering Academy and middle and high school robotics competitions.

The 2009 Innovation Award finalists are as follows (in no particular order):

Small Business Category

Who: Music Intelligence Solutions, Inc.
What: uPlaya.com, an interactive online service that meets the growing needs of musicians and songwriters (both established and unknown in the marketplace), producers, music supervisors, mobile distributors and anyone who has an affinity for music.
Why: The recently released site, uPlaya.com, uses proprietary and patent-protected technology to power Hit Song Science™ and the Music Universe™, which allow for immediate, scientific market analysis and popularity ranking prediction of music worldwide. In addition to these industry-focused services, uPlaya™ has a suite of services for consumers, including online and mobile interactive games, a music discovery application, and a personalized streaming solution.

Who: Pure Spectrum, Inc.
What: High-performance dimmable ballasts for compact fluorescent lights and linear fluorescent ballasts, as well as a new wireless light dimming control system.
Why: Through careful market research, PureSpectrum identified the most frequent consumer criticisms of energy efficient lighting products (such as Compact Fluorescent Lamps) and addressed those performance areas through common sense engineering. Most notably, PureSpectrum designed technology to offer solutions for improving dimming for energy efficient lighting, building high Power Factor into CFL bulbs and lowering per unit cost for energy efficient lighting.

Who: Say It Right
What: The Entire World of R, a phonemic approach to R remediation
Why: Correctly pronouncing the R is one of the most frequently-found and most difficult to treat childhood articulation errors. In addition, school-based speech-language pathologists (SLP) most often rate treating the R-sound as one of the most challenging and persistent of errors. Say It Right discovered that the co-located vowel influences the pronunciation of R and uniquely organized the R-sound into 21 different vocalic combinations, creating The Entire World of R, the best selling R remediation program in speech-language pathology.

Big Business Category

Who: Coastal Logistics, Inc.
What: Internal Software Development and IT Strategy
Why: Through the use of carefully designed software and processes, Coastal Logistics fills a gap in the logistics market for providers that offer the sophistication of the big 3rd party logistics providers (3PL) while maintaining the agility and customer centric focus of the smaller companies.

Who: Chatham Steel
What: “Steel Fit” Wellness Program
Why: In 1999, when most businesses were preoccupied with the impact of Y2K, Chatham Steel was instead trying to get a handle on the company’s rising health care expenses. They realized the correlation between managing employees’ health and the impact that it made on the company’s health care costs. Chatham Steel collaborated with INTERxVENT to track chronic risk factors, i.e., obesity, smoking and high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose levels and provided lifestyle management programs to its truck drivers to modify those particular risk factors. Once the results were realized, this successful pilot program developed into a company-wide effort.

Who: DIRTT Environmental Solutions
What: Flexible, customizable walls for commercial office space
Why: DIRTT not only creates its walls using sustainable methods (best use of materials, all waste recycling, all water-based adhesives and finishes, carpool and hybrid car allowances) the DIRTT Walls also allow their clients to be environmentally sustainable. DIRTT Walls create little or no waste during initial construction and are open to easy changes, whether it be putting in a new electrical outlet or reconfiguring your entire office.

Community, Education or Government

Who: Community Health Mission (lead agency) in consortium with St. Mary’s Community Center, Community Cardiovascular Council, and MedBank
What: The “Nobody is Left Behind Program”, an integrated community outreach and primary healthcare delivery program for the uninsured and under-served.
Why: These 4 organizations, collectively known as the Access To Healthcare Team (ACTH) offer a range of health services and ensure patients get appropriate treatment and follow-up, specifically for chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension. The program also works to modify unhealthy lifestyle choices like poor eating habits and smoking, as well as to increase the rate of early detection and prevention. The program accomplishes this through screening and identification, physical exams, lifestyle assessments and disease management, prevention and health promotion and access to free prescription drugs. By providing a regular source of care with the same healthcare provider (i.e. a “medical home”), the ACTH consortium produces better health outcomes and lowers the total cost of care. In 2008 alone, the ACTH consortium provided healthcare services for 2,372 uninsured individuals with 13,000 patient visits, $1.5 million in prescriptions, and $1.4 million in diagnostic tests, ultimately saving $3.3 million in emergency room visits.

Who: Healthy Savannah
What: Healthy Savannah Initiative
Why: At the initiative of City of Savannah Mayor Otis Johnson, the Healthy Savannah Initiative was formed in early 2007 with the purpose of establishing a community-wide collaboration to lead and support healthy lifestyles in Savannah. The collaboration accomplishes this by creating an environment that makes a healthy choice an easy choice; building a collaborative network that identifies and shares resources; collecting and disseminating information, promoting best practices and implementing innovative programs, and advocating for effective policies. The initiative is a community-wide, multi-sector collaboration of 104 partners in over 60 agencies that are comprised of local healthcare professionals, universities, business leaders, nonprofit institutions, faith-based organizations, schools, government and community leaders that work together to build a healthy community through policy change and community design.

Who: Savannah Music Festival
What: Off-season communications initiative
Why: Through new media programs and the organizational use of technology, the Savannah Music Festival has run an effective off-season communications initiative, more efficiently cultivated patron relationships, and streamlined production processes, allowing it to generate a 20 percent revenue growth in a down economy. While the technology itself is commonplace, the successful integration of PURLs (personal URLs), SMF live radio (broadcasting online on GBP statewide and across 8 other states), eBlasts, Ticketing/Patron Development (interfacing its ticketing and development databases to create specific audience target areas), and its substantial Production Database (data/content that ties together the artists/vendors involved in the festival, from agencies and managers to sound and light companies, to volunteers and interns) is an innovative approach that could soon be taken to market for other festivals and presenting organizations.

Sustainability Category

Who: IKEA Savannah
What: Pallet-free racking solution
Why: IKEA Savannah has implemented a pallet-free racking solution for their local distribution center that allows them to unload and transport goods directly from the truck and into the racking using only the paper slipsheets and other handling aids fastened to the unitized goods by their suppliers. Based in part on their local success, IKEA has made it a global mandate to eliminate all wooden pallets from the supply chain by fiscal year 2011. The local Savannah facility is regarded as the most significant innovator driving this process.

Who: Refuel Savannah LLC
What: Local WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) Business Operation
Why: Refuel Savannah collects waste cooking oil from local kitchens. After hauling, cleaning and filtering the oil, they then provide feedstock to local biodiesel plants with whom they have developed a Savannah-based blend of biodiesel – ultimately selling and delivering ASTM-certified biodiesel to clients in and around Savannah, including the River Street streetcar.

Who: Structured Green LLC
What: Eco-friendly product, process and community approach
Why: In addition to an original line of sustainable furniture, Structured Green’s specialty is in custom design work. From restaurants to hotels, boutiques to special event installations, Structured Green is dedicated to seamlessly bringing modern design and earth-sensitive practices to both individual and corporate clients.
Pieces are built entirely in Savannah, GA using CNC technology for material efficiency. When not built from locally sourced reclaimed or FSC-certified woods, pieces are built from rapidly renewable bamboo ply, which is grown and harvested in South America. All finishes and adhesives are LEED compliant, Green Guard certified, no and low-VOC.
Wherever possible they prefer to use FDA-sanctioned, organic, food grade, Tung oil from Pennsylvania and Savannah-local, organic beeswax finishes. All hand finishing is done on premises and whenever possible the company works with local welders and artisans for special projects.
With carbon-neutral, recycling and off-grid initiatives in place for this year, Structured Green hopes to be the paragon of the new “Eco-factory”.

To make reservations or secure sponsorships online, visit http://innovation.thecreativecoast.org. For more information about reservations, contact Leigh Lawless Acevedo at lacevedo@thecreativecoast.org, or (912) 447-9713. For more information on sponsorship, contact Yvonne Jouffrault at yvonne@jouffrault.com.

Note to Editors:
The Creative Coast Alliance (TCCa) is a 501© 6 organization dedicated to helping create, grow and attract higher-wage, knowledge-based businesses in the Savannah region. TCCa is currently funded by contributions from the Savannah Economic Development Authority (SEDA) and the City of Savannah. For more information, visit www.thecreativecoast.org.

A leading commercial architecture, sustainable design and land planning firm headquartered in Savannah, Lott + Barber excels at working with clients at every phase of a project, from site selection through grand opening events. Founded in 1990, the firm has been honored with numerous design awards over the years, including Historic Preservation Awards from Historic Savannah Foundation, Excellence in Architecture awards from the American Institute of Architects and a National Award for Outstanding Technical Merit in Metropolitan Transportation Planning from the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations. For more information about Lott + Barber, please call (912) 234-5230 or visit www.lottbarber.com online.