The winners of the first Self-Service Virtual Innovation Awards were announced yesterday during the Self-Service Innovation Virtual Summit.
While COVID-19 has placed a tremendous strain across many industries, those in the self-service kiosk and vending industries have accelerated innovation as a result. This was reflected in the announcement of winners in five categories during the Self-Service Virtual Innovation Summit being held Dec. 8-9.
The winners were honored during an awards ceremony Tuesday, the first day of the two-day summit. Carts Blanche sponsored the awards, honoring the most innovative solutions for kiosks, vending and facilities for adapting to the new normalcy of COVID-19 and its aftermath.
The winners are:
Innovation of the Year (B2B):
PicoCooler, submitted by 365 Retail Markets.
Innovation of the Year (B2C):
Freestyle Contactless Pouring on a Smartphone, submitted by the Coca-Cola Co.
Best COVID-19 Solution:
TouchFree, submitted by Ultraleap.
Reader’s Choice Award: Innovator of the Year (Company)
Chowbotics.
Reader’s Choice Award: Innovator of the Year (Person)
Krishna Vedula, COO, 365 Retail Markets.
Judges for the awards included:
- Christiana DiMattesa, director of in-store and experiential marketing, North America, at Under Armour.
- Rafik Hanna, vice president of IT at Taco Bell Corp.
- Michael Kasavana, Ph.D., professor emeritus at the National Automatic Merchandising Association.
- David Kepron, owner and principal, Retail (r)Evolution.
- Elliot Maras, editor of Kiosk Marketplace and Vending Times.
- Adam Pierno, associate VP of marketing strategy at Arizona State University.
Watch the video to learn more about the winners.
About Networld Media Group
Founded in 2000, Networld Media Group is a leading business-to-business (B2B) media communications company specializing in digital media, associations and events in the tech, banking, retail and food service industries. Online properties include ATMmarketplace.com, DigitalSignageToday.com, FastCasual.com, KioskMarketplace.com, MobilePaymentsToday.com, FoodTruckOperator.com, QSRweb.com, PizzaMarketplace.com, RetailCustomerExperience.com, VendingTimes.com and BiblicalLeadership.com. Annual events include the Fast Casual Executive Summit, the Restaurant Franchising & Innovation Summit, the Bank Customer Experience Summit (BCX), the Interactive Customer Experience Summit (ICX) and the Self-Service Innovation Summit.
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