An international search is on for the world’s most ingenious design entrepreneurs looking to take their big ideas to market in the hopes of becoming the next Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg.
Organised in joint partnership between Good Design Australia and business accelerator CtechBA, the newly launched Design Entrepreneur Awards is an innovative commercialisation platform open to designers, engineers and entrepreneurs who have an idea for a new product or service that is at a pre-commercialisation stage.
CEO and founder of Good Design Australia Dr Brandon Gien said they are hoping to inspire the next generation of design entrepreneurs as well as providing them with a platform to help bring their ideas and businesses to market.
“This is the first time we are offering the Design Entrepreneur Awards. It’s a new concept and opportunity aimed at anyone with a great idea that has not yet reached the market,” he remarked. “It can be a product, a mobile app or an idea that solves a problem in a clever way. No matter the stage of development – if I can’t buy it yet – there’s a chance for you to enter.”
What is up for grabs at the Design Entrepreneur Awards?
Finalists and winners of the Design Entrepreneur Awards will be awarded $25,000 in professional services from CtechBA, who are leading experts in commercialising products and solutions to help get their idea to market.
Early entries to the Design Entrepreneur Awards include:
Bcompact Hybrid Stairs: a new and unique take on your standard staircase/ladder. This product can have all its steps flat up against the wall or feature it is attached to, the most obvious functions are to save space and or secure access to different levels.
Project Galada: an adaptable litter capture barrier designed to trap and contain floating litter.
Pooki: a toy designed for all children, but is particularly attractive to autistic children.
“It’s our mission to find the entrepreneurs who have design thinking as part of their DNA,” Dr Gien said. “Who are the inventors, innovators and creative thinkers who are making design the centrepiece of their products?”
“With the slowdown in the resources boom and the contraction of Australia’s manufacturing industries – design led innovation is destined to be the engine room of our economy in the future.”
The Design Entrepreneur Awards will be decided on Saturday 28 May 2016 at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney. It coincides with the opening weekend of Vivid Sydney. Finalists will be provided a unique opportunity to feature their ideas on the Design Entrepreneur Awards website and cross promoted through the annual Good Design Awards and Good Design Australia web portals.
Submissions to the 2016 Design Entrepreneur Awards close on 15 April 2016.
