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2015 SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards

The SXSW Festival has re-branded its Interactive Awards competition to SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards and is currently accepting interactive work for 2015. With this competition, SXSW wants to honor the best and latest advancements in the digital industry, in 2014 and the people who made them happen.

The Awards competition includes fourteen (14) competition awards and four (4) Special Honors awards.

The SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards are all about the newest / freshest / most innovative trends, products and developments in the new media industry. All categories are open exclusively to developments or redesigns accomplished in the 2014 calendar year.

Here is a complete listing of the Awards categories, as noted on the official website:

  • New Economy: Awarded for a new technology, new approach, or innovation revolutionizing commerce. From the sharing economy, to virtual currency, to microfinance, and mobile-device-payment systems; this award goes to those redefining the exchange of goods and services.
  • Privacy & Security: Awarded for the year’s most progressive accomplishment in the way we go about securing our data and ensuring our privacy. From new products and services to methods for safeguarding ourselves and our information in the connected world, this award goes to 2014’s most positive achievement in preserving privacy and security.
  • Sustainable Technology: Awarded for innovation in power generation, power storage, eco-friendly or sustainable technology. (If a zero-emission, perpetual-motion-machine battery charger were possible to invent, it would probably win)
  • Transportation Advancements: Awarded for the development of technology that changes the way we move people and things, from smart cars, to mass transit, to spaceflight. This goes to the new product realized in 2014 that makes transportation more efficient and eco-friendly.
  • Health, Med & BioTech: Awarded for an innovation in health, medical or biotechnology in 2014 that improves the quality, efficacy, and/or cost-effectiveness of diagnosis, treatment, and care in the field of medicine.
  • Internet Of Things: Awarded for the best smart product that most seamlessly integrates into our lives to improve convenience and efficiency through its intelligence and interconnectedness.
  • Wearable Tech: Awarded for the new hardware (and/or software) that revolutionizes the convenience, comfort, functionality, efficiency, and/or fashion of having a device literally “on you.”
  • Innovative 3-DIY: Awarded to someone making 3D printing technology more accessible, to a company producing more affordable personal 3D printers, or to the Maker using such technology in new and exciting ways.
  • Responsive Design :Awarded for excellent digital design, creating the best-integrated interaction in terms of content, aesthetics, and functionality.
  • Innovation in Connecting People: Awarded for the best new way to connect with others, whether in social media, community gathering, or even online dating.
  • Music Discovery: Awarded for changing and improving the way we listen to and enjoy music. From content delivery, to file format, to new devices, to new ways of discovering live music, this is for 2014’s new advance in music discovery.
  • Visual Media Experience: Awarded for the best in film, TV and new media content creation and delivery which moves beyond passive viewership by providing a more immersive and engaging entertainment experience.
  • Student Innovation: Awarded to the student with an exceptional interactive technology project or startup; both of which are the future.
  • Sci-Fi No-Longer: Awarded for the coolest scientific achievement or discovery that before 2014 was only possible in science fiction. This goes to the breakthrough that resonates through both the scientific community and the cultural mainstream, making dinner party conversations and driving innovation in 2015 and beyond.

The early-entry deadline is 11:59 PM CT on 26th September 2014, although the organizers will continue to accept entries through 11:59 PM CT on 7th November 2014.

2015 SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards Entry Fee

The entry fee for the 2015 SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards competition is $15 per application.