We’re honored to be featured in Forbes as the Edison Awards announce the 2026 finalists. The article explores how this year’s honorees are pointing the way forward for innovation, highlighting emerging trends, breakthrough technologies, and the real-world impact shaping what’s next across industries. Read the full Forbes story to see how today’s innovators are defining the future.
Read the article: https://www.forbes.com/
Today, the Edison Awards reveals its 2026 Finalists: a curated collective of builders, disruptors, and visionaries whose work is already shaping tomorrow. This isn’t just recognition, it’s admission to an elite network where the world’s most consequential innovators connect, collaborate, and catalyze change.
For 39 years, the Edison Awards has been the proving ground for breakthrough innovation. Our finalists don’t just create products, they ignite movements. They don’t follow trends, they set them. From AI redefining creativity to biotech extending human potential, this year’s finalists represent the cutting edge of what’s possible when imagination meets execution.
“Edison built the world’s first true innovation lab, a place where brilliant minds could collide, collaborate, and create,” said Frank Bonafilia, CEO of the Edison Awards. “That’s what we’ve built here. Our finalists aren’t just competing for recognition; they’re joining a community where the connections made often become as transformative as the innovations themselves. When you bring together this caliber of talent, anything is possible.”
Being named an Edison Awards finalist is just the beginning. This community is built on the understanding that today’s emerging innovator is tomorrow’s industry disruptor. Past finalists and winners have gone on to secure billions in funding, launch category-defining products, and fundamentally reshape their industries.
This year’s Achievement Award honors Adam Silver, whose visionary leadership exemplifies innovation at the highest level. Silver has revolutionized professional sports through visionary leadership as NBA Commissioner, driving unprecedented growth across the league’s global ecosystem. Since 2014, he has launched the Basketball Africa League, introduced the NBA Emirates Cup to elevate in-season competition, advanced plans for NBA Europe, overseen landmark 11-year media rights deals with Disney, NBCUniversal, and Amazon, created the NBA 2K League as the first official esports league operated by a U.S. professional sports league, and spearheaded the WNBA’s most significant growth era with expansion planned to 18 teams by 2030. His vision has helped position basketball as the world’s fastest-growing major sport and set a modern blueprint for sports business and global engagement.
The Edison Awards ceremony will take place April 15–16, 2026, in Fort Myers, Florida—home to Thomas Edison’s winter estate and a city rapidly emerging as a hub for innovative enterprise. This year’s gathering brings together the names the world already knows and the ones it soon will. It is where emerging founders connect with established CEOs, where breakthrough ideas earn new believers, and where the next decade of innovation begins to take shape.
The Edison Awards finalists are selected from thousands of global submissions and evaluated by an independent panel of senior scientists, engineers, designers, and industry leaders who assess each innovation on their Concept, Value, and Impact. The result is a unique group that represents not just the best of the year, but the innovations that will go on to define the next generation.
The Edison Awards extends deep gratitude to our 2025 sponsors, whose commitment to innovation makes this platform possible: Babcock Ranch, Black & Veatch, Blue Waters Development Group, Cargill, City of Fort Myers, Collaboratory, Cushman & Wakefield, EmCyte, FGCU, 35 Mules, HBKS Wealth Advisors, Horizon Foundation, Lovesac, U.S. News & World Report, and U.S. Sugar.
Established in 1987, the Edison Best New Product Awards™ honor excellence in innovation, celebrating the products, services, and leaders transforming how we live and work. Inspired by Thomas Edison’s legacy, the program recognizes game-changing solutions across industries worldwide, offering global recognition, credibility, and connections that drive growth. The 2026 Edison Awards will be held April 15–16 in Fort Myers, Florida. Register at www.edisonawards.com.
As we close out 2025, one truth stands out: this was a year unlike any other in Edison Awards history. From record-breaking nominations spanning 20+ countries to an unforgettable celebration in Fort Myers featuring visionaries Jensen Huang, President and CEO of NVIDIA and Michael M. Crow, President of Arizona State University, the global innovation community demonstrated that breakthrough thinking knows no boundaries.
The numbers tell a compelling story, but behind every statistic is a team of innovators who refused to accept the status quo and instead asked “yes, AND?” and then built the answer.
This year’s nomination cycle shattered every previous record:
Why Innovators Nominate: The data reveals three primary motivations driving submissions:
Broad Representation: From emerging startups with 1-50 employees (40% of nominees) to established enterprises with 1,000+ employees (35%), the diversity underscores the Edison Awards’ credibility across the innovation spectrum. Whether you’re disrupting from a garage or transforming industries from a global headquarters, excellence finds recognition here.
Looking back at both the nomination data and the Fort Myers celebration, several themes emerge:
As our judges currently evaluate the record-breaking pool of 2026 nominations, we’re energized by what lies ahead. The finalists will be announced in mid-January, followed by another extraordinary gathering in Fort Myers on April 15-16, 2026.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been announced as our first 2026 Achievement Award honoree, with a second visionary leader to be revealed in January. The momentum is building, the innovations are groundbreaking, and the global innovation community is stronger than ever.
Join us in Fort Myers: Experience the 2026 Edison Awards on April 15-16, 2026. Register now to be there when we reveal the next generation of breakthrough innovations.
Ready to showcase your innovation? Nominations for the 2027 Edison Awards will open in summer 2026. Learn more about the benefits of nominating and explore our winners gallery to see the caliber of innovations we celebrate.
Complete the form below to download the 2027 Nomination Guide.
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