Boulder News

Innovation, Location, and Elections in Boulder County

7th Annual IQ Awards

By Mark Phillips, 8-17-06

The Boulder County Business Report hosted their 7th Annual IQ Awards this evening at the Stadium Club at Folsom Field. "I" stands for Innovation, and the event was intended to be a public acknowledgment of innovative businesses in Boulder County. I usually find myself hovering around the fringes of events like these. The stories are always better and the air always fresher (ironically) at the bar or with the embarrassed smokers huddled by the back door. Fortunately, the event was structured such and held in a place that eased some of the discomfort that I often feel in business gatherings like this. The BCBR did a laudable job of pacing the evening. We laughed at the emcee's jokes, applauded the BCBR's role in the event and in the community, congratulated the winners, had a beer or two, and still managed desert by 7:45! Secondly, the view from the Club Room was enthralling. The red Italian buildings of the CU campus popped out from the lush trees on campus and across Broadway and made me think for a moment that I was in Tuscany. And then there was the sunset!

Distractions/comforts notwithstanding, I did manage a few pleasant conversations with fellow attendees. I met Sol Halpern who ran the first Boulder Valley School Board campaign I ever followed. Apparently, a Daily Camera endorsement has meant victory for School Board candidates for the past 25 years. In Sol’s case, the endorsement went the other way and, true to form, so did voters. Halpern now channels his passion for schools into a NFP called Impact on Education, the board of which he recently joined, with or without the Camera's approval. Impact on Education rallied several other education-focused not-for-profits and put together a first-ever coalition called Crayons to Calculators which raises funds and materials for use in the classroom. Crayons to Calculators was one of the IQ Awards nominees.

I also met a gentleman named Yann who works with a company called Logisens. Yann was in hot pursuit of seed money for his company's own innovation. Logisens has developed a bio-metric suite which measures and reports on stress in the workplace. They make a small sensor which, when added to a run-of-the-mill mouse, will detect changes in body chemistry (namely additional sweat) and feed data back to a console for review by HR or productivity managers. Their goal is to track events in the workplace which decrease productivity and increase other costs like healthcare. Boeing is running a pilot of Logisens' flagship product Optimal Office.

The award ceremony (see winners list below) was quick and relatively painless. Outgoing Channel 9 business news anchor Gregg Moss emceed while the tech team offered up a distracting and misguided attempt at interlude music. The high point of the ceremony-besides a well-received offer of Buff's tickets for winners from CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn and heartfelt thanks from CEOs to their employees-was the intro and outgo video wherein the BCBR did their best not to bore the audience with sponsor messages. The video was an amusing send up of several science fiction classics, including the Planet of the Apes (monkeys arguing over the definition of innovative), 2001: Space Odyssey ("No height limits for your monoliths", courtesy of Longmont Area Economic Development Council*), Spaceballs, and the Simpsons.

Winners:
Business: Next Action, Westminster
Commercial and Industrial: Trap Tek, LLC, Longmont
Communications: SkyeTek Corp., Westminster
Computers: Spark Fun Electronics Inc., Boulder
Consumer: AllergyKids, Boulder
Internet: GroupSystems, Broomfield
Medical and Health: Analytical Spectral Devices, Inc., Longmont
Non Profit: Our Love of Children Foundation, Longmont
Software: Solidware Technologies Inc., Boulder
Sports and Outdoor: SkirtSports Inc., Boulder

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