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Blog Post: Thank You, Southwest Florida: Reflecting on Seven Remarkable Years

Posted on by Rachel Reed

As the Edison Awards celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, we’ve been doing a lot of looking back, and nowhere does that reflection feel more meaningful than in Southwest Florida.

For the past seven years, Fort Myers has been our home. Not just a venue for an annual Gala, but a genuine partner in bringing our mission to life: honoring the innovators shaping our world, and inspiring the next generation to join them. This year, we’re taking a gap year from hosting our gala event in the region. This is a deliberate pause, and we wanted to take this moment to say thank you.

Why Fort Myers, Of All Places

When we first started thinking about where to plant real roots for the Edison Awards, the answer was almost poetic. Thomas Edison came to Fort Myers in 1885, drawn by its climate and natural beauty, and built a winter estate and laboratory that became a home base for experimentation, and later a gathering place for fellow inventors, including his close friend Henry Ford. Decades before “innovation hub” was a phrase anyone used, Fort Myers already was one.

Seven years ago, we set out to reconnect that history to the present. Through the vision of former Mayor Randy Henderson, John Talmage and Tatum Walker, and the generosity and support from the Horizon Foundation, FGCU, Lee County and the City of Fort Myers, and so many other partners who believe in this community, we didn’t just tell that story, we built a stage for it. Southwest Florida became, once again, a place where the world’s innovators gathered. That’s a credit to the region as much as it is to us, and it’s something we’ll always be proud to have built together.

Bringing the World’s Innovators Home

Each year, we welcomed some of the most influential minds on the planet to Fort Myers. People whose ideas have reshaped entire industries and touched lives around the globe. Over seven years, that list included Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia; Jony Ive, former Chief Design Officer at Apple; Gwynne Shotwell, COO of SpaceX; Adam Silver, Commissioner of the NBA; Pat Gelsinger, CEO Intel; Carmichael Roberts, Breakthrough Energy Ventures; Bracken Darrell, CEO, VF Corp; and Reinhold Schmeiding, founder and CEO of Arthrex. The presence of thousands of innovators from more than 15 countries globally turned Southwest Florida into a meeting point for global innovation leadership, drawing international media attention and putting the region on the map alongside the world’s most recognized innovation hubs.

But the story was never just about who showed up for one night. It was about what stayed behind.

The Impact, By the Numbers

Beyond the headlines and the high-profile guests, our seven years in Southwest Florida delivered real, measurable impact. According to Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau, six years of Edison Awards events generated $30 million in new economic impact for Fort Myers and Lee County, supporting local hospitality, tourism, and small businesses while drawing visitors, media, and business interest to the region. Just as meaningfully, the program helped build something harder to measure but just as valuable: a stronger sense of regional pride, connecting students, entrepreneurs, and civic leaders around a shared identity rooted in Edison’s legacy of collaboration and  invention.

Investing in What Comes Next

From the beginning, our work in Southwest Florida was as much about the region’s future as its present. Through hands-on programming with high school and college students across the community, we worked to connect young people directly to innovators, mentors, and career pathways, the kind of connections that can shape a lifetime of achievement. We’re incredibly proud of the students who walked away from these experiences with a new sense of what’s possible for them.

That commitment extended to a close partnership with the Collaboratory, Southwest Florida’s hub for civic innovation and social impact, helping strengthen the pipeline that connects bold local ideas to the resources needed to bring them to life. It’s a partnership we’re proud of and we are thrilled to continue supporting the Collaboratory’s Lightbulb Series events, keeping that connection to the local innovation community alive and active.

We also left something behind that we hope will outlast any single event: the Lewis Latimer Fellowship Program and the inception of the Innovation Walk, a permanent public tribute celebrating the region’s innovators.  

Why We’re Pausing, And Why We’re Not Worried About It

As the Edison Awards marks 40 years of honoring the people and ideas moving our world forward, it felt like the right moment to pause, reflect, and reimagine what the next chapter of this program looks like. That’s why we’re taking a gap year from our gala event in 2027 to make sure the next one is even better. 

“We’ll be spending this time researching how best to present the Edison Awards from 2028 through 2035, and identifying strategies to grow the program’s economic impact by 40 percent,” said Rob Manes, Director of Business Development. “We’ll be working closely with our Steering Committee throughout this process to secure investors and shape what comes next, and look forward to continuing to bring together the people who are building the future, the way we have these past seven years.”

With Gratitude

To Babcock Ranch, Black & Veatch, Blue Waters Development Group, The City of Fort Myers, HBKS, The Horizon Foundation, FGCU, FPL, Lee County Economic Development, The Luminary Hotel, US Sugar, and every partner, sponsor, volunteer, student, and neighbor who welcomed us: thank you. You helped us tell a story about American innovation that grew from one inventor’s winter laboratory into something the world took notice of.

Happy 40th to us. And thank you, Southwest Florida, for seven years we won’t forget.

Healing From Within: How EmCyte’s Pure SupraPhysiologic™ System Is Advancing the Future of Regenerative Medicine

Posted on by Rachel Reed

2026 Edison Awards | Health, Medical & Biotech — Precision Health Technologies

The human body has always had the ability to heal itself. Bones knit, tendons repair, and cartilage regenerates. This sometimes happens slowly, or imperfectly, but it happens with a biological intelligence that medicine has spent decades trying to harness rather than replace. Regenerative medicine is the field built on that premise: that the most powerful healing agents are often the ones already present in your own blood, concentrated, targeted, and delivered where they are needed most. And few therapies embody that premise more directly than platelet-rich plasma (PRP) a biologic concentrate derived from a patient’s own blood and used across orthopedics, sports medicine, aesthetics, dentistry, and wound care to accelerate tissue repair and recovery.

The scale of need driving this field is significant. Musculoskeletal disorders now affect approximately 1.69 billion people globally, according to 2021 Global Burden of Disease data, representing the leading cause of non-fatal disability worldwide and generating 161.9 million disability-adjusted life years. Osteoarthritis alone affects over 500 million people, with prevalence rising sharply as populations age. Against that backdrop, the global PRP market is projected to grow from $647 million in 2025 to $1.76 billion by 2034, driven by rising demand for non-surgical, minimally invasive regenerative treatments — with autologous PRP, derived from the patient’s own blood, holding the largest share of that market at approximately 86%.

The challenge has never been the biology. The challenge has been the engineering: how to reliably capture, concentrate, and deliver the biologics that make PRP therapy effective, with precision and consistency in a clinical setting. EmCyte Corporation, a Fort Myers, Florida-based medical device company with two decades of experience in regenerative medicine, has spent years solving exactly that problem. Their Pure SupraPhysiologic™ Concentrating System with AspiraDome™ Technology was recognized with a 2026 Edison Award in the Precision Health Technologies subcategory, and it represents a meaningful leap forward in what point-of-care biologic preparation can achieve.

The Engineering Challenge Inside Every PRP Procedure

To understand what EmCyte has built, it helps to understand what PRP processing actually requires. A clinician draws a patient’s blood, spins it in a centrifuge to separate its components by density, and then aspirates the fraction known as the buffy coat. This is a thin, visually subtle layer sitting between the red blood cells below and the platelet-poor plasma above. That buffy coat contains the platelets, monocytes, and progenitor cells that give PRP its regenerative properties. Capturing it accurately, without contaminating the concentrate with red blood cells from below or diluting it with platelet-poor plasma from above, is the central precision challenge of every PRP preparation.

In practice, that capture has historically depended on the clinician’s experience and judgment, the quality of their visualization, and the limitations of the aspiration interface between the syringe and the separated layers. Small errors in aspiration angle, depth, or timing translate directly into variability in the biologic output, meaning fewer platelets, more red blood cell contamination, less consistent clinical outcomes.

What AspiraDome™ Changes

EmCyte’s answer to that challenge is a patented dome-shaped aspiration interface called AspiraDome™, which is a design innovation that transforms the aspiration step from a manual judgment call into a guided, reproducible process.

The dome geometry is the key. Rather than a flat or angled interface that can shift or tilt during aspiration, the AspiraDome™ maintains a consistent, centered contact with the buffy coat layer regardless of slight variations in tube angle or clinician handling. As EmCyte describes it, the design offers “better visualization, more accurate buffy coat capture, and less red blood cell contamination,” delivering each of those benefits not through technique, but through the physical design of the device itself.

The Pure SupraPhysiologic™ System pairs AspiraDome™ with a double-spin, single-device platform incorporating variable chamber technology and active disc displacement to standardize cellular separation across the full processing workflow. The result is a system where the variability that traditionally lived in the hands of the clinician has been systematically reduced by engineering. Platelet yields reach over 80% in leukocyte-poor preparations and over 90% in monocyte- and neutrophil-rich formulations. Red blood cell contamination in leukocyte-poor PRP is maintained below 1% HCT s— a level of purity that EmCyte notes “creates a clean, regenerative environment ideal for healing soft tissue and joints” and reduces the potential for post-treatment inflammation and oxidative stress.

Monocyte-rich PRP is a formulation that has attracted significant clinical research interest for its role in promoting M2 macrophage polarization, which shifts tissue environments from inflammation toward repair, angiogenesis, and regeneration, and achieves monocyte capture rates up to 90%. For clinicians treating conditions where modulating the inflammatory response is as important as delivering platelets, that precision matters enormously.

The system also eliminates the flip vent step that complicated earlier generation devices, a workflow simplification that reduces both processing time and the risk of user error, and makes the system more accessible to a broader range of clinical settings and experience levels.

From Variability to Consistency: Why This Matters at Scale

The implications of reducing PRP variability extend well beyond any individual procedure. One of the persistent challenges in PRP research has been the difficulty of comparing outcomes across studies and clinical settings, because PRP preparations vary so widely in platelet concentration, leukocyte content, and activation state depending on the device and technique used. A system that delivers consistent, high-yield, low-contamination biologics every time is not only better for the patient on the table, it is better for the field’s ability to generate reliable clinical evidence.

Autologous PRP therapies have seen a dramatic increase in use for orthopedic conditions over the past five years, expanding into knee arthritis, hip joint arthritis, shoulder arthritis, ankle arthritis, and a growing range of soft tissue applications. As clinical adoption accelerates globally — across Asia-Pacific, Europe, and Latin America, where regenerative medicine infrastructure is growing rapidly — the demand for devices that can deliver consistent, high-quality biologics at the point of care will only intensify.

EmCyte’s Pure SupraPhysiologic™ System is available in 60 mL and 120 mL configurations, with options to integrate the CORE™ Protein Concentrating System for enhanced biologic performance in cases where exosome and growth factor concentration is a clinical priority.

A Company Built on the Science It Sells

EmCyte is not a large-scale medical device conglomerate. It is a specialist, founded on deep expertise in autologous biologics and regenerative medicine, with a product portfolio including PurePRP SP™, PureBMC SP™, CORE™, and the Sapphire Centrifuge. This company is built around a single organizing philosophy: that the quality of the biologic concentrate is the foundation of the clinical outcome.

That philosophy extends into education. Through BioEdge Musculoskeletal Training and the Gulf Coast Biologics programs, EmCyte invests in helping clinicians not just use their technology but understand the science behind it — from buffy coat biology to growth factor delivery to the evidence base for different PRP formulations across different clinical indications.

Fort Myers, FL: Edison Awards 2026, Lewis Latimer Fellowship Program visit to EmCyte Corporation with Patrick Pennie

That commitment to the broader regenerative medicine community was on display at the 2026 Edison Awards, where EmCyte hosted attendees of the Lewis Latimer Fellowship Program at their Southwest Florida facility, an experience that gave the next generation of diverse innovators a firsthand look at how medical device innovation moves from concept to clinical reality.

 

The Future of Healing, Standardized

Regenerative medicine’s promise has always been its logic: use the body’s own biology, concentrated and precisely delivered, to accelerate healing that would otherwise happen too slowly or incompletely. The gap between that promise and clinical reality has historically been the variability of the tools used to prepare and deliver the biologics.

EmCyte’s Pure SupraPhysiologic™ System with AspiraDome™ Technology closes that gap. It does so not by introducing a new biology, but by building the engineering precision around an existing one — making high-yield, low-contamination, reproducible biologic preparation accessible at the point of care for a broad range of clinicians, in a broad range of settings, for a broad range of patients whose bodies already have the capacity to heal.

Learn more about the Pure SupraPhysiologic™ System and AspiraDome™ Technology at emcyte.com, and explore the full 2026 Edison Awards winners at edisonawards.com.

Nomination Guidelines 101: How to Select the Right Category for Your New Product or Service

Posted on by Rachel Reed

Every year, genuinely strong products lose ground in award competitions for a reason that has nothing to do with the quality of the innovation itself: they were entered into the wrong category. A judge evaluating enterprise software isn’t the right judge for a materials science breakthrough, and a nomination narrative written for one lens rarely translates cleanly to another. Category selection isn’t paperwork, it’s strategy.

This guide walks through how to choose the right category (and industry classification) for your 2027 Edison Awards nomination, with eligibility running for products and services launched and available to end users between January 2025 and January 2027.

What Causes Strong Products to Get Overlooked by Award Programs?

The most common cause isn’t a weak product, it’s a mismatched category. When a nomination is filed under a category whose judges are evaluating for a different kind of value entirely, the strongest parts of the pitch can go unrecognized simply because they’re not what that panel is calibrated to weigh. A few specific patterns show up repeatedly:

  • Choosing the “closest” category instead of the “correct” one. A connected medical wearable filed under Consumer Solutions instead of Health, Medical & Biotech may read as a lifestyle gadget instead of a health innovation, even if health outcomes are the actual point.
  • Leading with the technology instead of the problem it solves. Judges across every category weigh Concept, Value, and Impact – but what counts as “value” or “impact” shifts depending on the category’s focus.
  • Entering a flagship product in a category built for volume plays, or vice versa, a niche industrial component competing in a broad commercial technology category can get lost next to platform-scale entries.

Getting the category right is the single highest-leverage decision in the nomination process, because it determines who reads your story and what they’re comparing it against.

A Quick Framework for Choosing Your Category

Ask these three questions, in order:

  1. What problem does this solve, fundamentally?
    Not “what industry are we in” but what does the product actually do for the person or system using it?
  2. Who would most credibly judge that claim?
    A cybersecurity platform’s real test is a security expert’s judgment, not a general software reviewer’s.
  3. Where do comparable innovations live?
    If you can name three products you’d consider genuine competitors, whichever category they’d enter is very likely yours too.

If the answers point in different directions, prioritize question 1. The category should follow the core value proposition, not the industry label your company happens to use internally.

Matching Your Industry to an Edison Awards Category

Because the 14 Edison Awards categories are built around real-world innovation types rather than rigid industry codes, most standard industry classifications map to more than one category depending on what the specific innovation does. Here’s a general guide:

Industry Likely Category Fit
Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing Water, Food & Agriculture
Mining & Quarrying Materials Science; Energy & Climate Resiliency
Manufacturing: general/industrial Manufacturing & Logistics; Materials Science
Manufacturing: pharmaceuticals, medical Health, Medical & Biotech
Manufacturing: computers, electronics, optical Commercial Technology; Engineering & Robotics
Manufacturing: motor vehicles, transport equipment Transportation, Aerospace & Flight
Electricity, Gas, Steam & Air Conditioning Supply Energy & Climate Resiliency; Critical Human Infrastructure
Water, Sewerage & Waste Management Water, Food & Agriculture; Critical Human Infrastructure
Construction Critical Human Infrastructure; Engineering & Robotics
Wholesale & Retail Trade Consumer Solutions; Software Solutions
Transportation & Storage Transportation, Aerospace & Flight; Manufacturing & Logistics
Accommodation & Food Service Consumer Solutions; Lifestyle, Entertainment & Design
Information & Communication Software Solutions; Commercial Technology; Cultural Impact & Education
Financial & Insurance Activities Software Solutions
Real Estate Critical Human Infrastructure; Consumer Solutions
Professional, Scientific & Technical Activities Commercial Technology; Materials Science; Engineering & Robotics
Administrative & Support Service Activities Commercial Technology; Software Solutions
Public Administration & Defence Public Safety, Security & Digital Integrity
Education Cultural Impact & Education
Human Health & Social Work Health, Medical & Biotech
Arts, Entertainment & Recreation Lifestyle, Entertainment & Design; Cultural Impact & Education
Other Service Activities Consumer Solutions

Treat this as a starting point, not a rule as the right column is “likely,” not “only.” A construction-tech platform, for instance, could credibly enter Critical Human Infrastructure, Engineering & Robotics, or even Software Solutions depending on whether its core innovation is physical, mechanical, or digital.

When Your Product Spans More Than One Category

This is the norm, not the exception. A few tie-breakers that consistently work:

  • Follow the primary buyer’s decision-making lens.
    If a hospital procurement officer would evaluate your product primarily as a health outcome, enter Health, Medical & Biotech, even if it runs on proprietary software.
  • Follow the metric your product is proudest of.
    If your headline result is an emissions reduction, Energy & Climate Resiliency likely outperforms a more generic technology category, even if the mechanism is software-driven.
  • When truly torn, enter the category with the more specific fit.
    A specific, well-matched category is judged more favorably than a broad one where your entry is one of many similar submissions.

Aligning Your Category Choice With the Judging Criteria

Regardless of category, every Edison Awards nomination is judged on the same three pillars:

  • Concept — the opportunity, development, and execution behind the innovation.
  • Value — differentiation, market advantage, and benefits over alternatives.
  • Impact — social, environmental, and long-term influence.

Once your category is chosen, revisit these three questions specifically through that category’s lens. A Materials Science entry’s “Impact” answer will emphasize different things than a Cultural Impact & Education entry’s — same three questions, very different expected answers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What major innovation award programs focus on commercial product launches? Programs like the Edison Awards, R&D 100, and CES Innovation Awards each evaluate new commercial products, though their scope differs as some focus on consumer electronics specifically, others (like the Edison Awards) cover a much broader span of industries through category-based judging spanning technology, health, materials, infrastructure, and more.

What are the top global awards for commercial product innovation? There’s no single official ranking, but the most-cited programs among B2B and B2C companies alike include the Edison Awards, R&D 100 Awards, CES Innovation Awards, and Fast Company’s Innovation by Design. Companies typically choose based on category fit, judging rigor, and audience — corporate buyer-facing innovations tend to gravitate toward programs with structured, criteria-based judging like Concept, Value, and Impact rather than public-vote formats.

Which product innovation awards are most respected by corporate buyers? Corporate buyers tend to weigh credibility signals: the size and expertise of the judging panel, whether criteria are published and consistent, and how long the program has operated. Programs with panels in the thousands (the Edison Awards’ judging body includes a large group of senior executives, academics, and past winners) carry more weight with procurement and enterprise audiences than smaller, less transparent competitions.

What is the best business award for new product manufacturers? Manufacturers should look for programs with categories built for physical products and industrial innovation specifically, not just software or consumer lifestyle categories. The Edison Awards’ Manufacturing & Logistics and Materials Science categories, for example, are built specifically around production methods, supply chain innovation, and advanced materials, giving manufacturers a category where their innovation is compared against genuinely similar entries.

Which business innovation awards accept nominations for best new product? Award programs branded specifically around new product recognition, like the Edison Best New Product Awards, are built for exactly this use case, as opposed to programs focused on branding, marketing campaigns, or company-wide achievement. Eligibility windows vary by program, so confirm your product’s launch date falls within the required window before nominating.

How do business product awards help validate new product launches? Independent, criteria-based recognition gives corporate buyers, investors, and partners a credibility signal that self-reported marketing claims can’t replicate. It’s particularly useful during a new product launch, when a company hasn’t yet built a track record with a given buyer. Third-party validation shortens that trust gap.

 

Nominations for the 2027 Edison Awards open September 1, 2026, and run through the end of the year. Products and services must have launched and been available to end users between January 2025 and January 2027. Start your nomination →

7 Factors for Choosing B2B Product Awards in 2026

Posted on by Rachel Reed

If you launched a new product or service in the last year or two, you’re likely sitting on a decision a lot of founders and product teams underestimate: which award program is actually worth your time, budget, and nomination effort. We put this guide together as the team behind the Edison Awards, a B2B and B2C innovation recognition program now entering its 2027 nomination cycle, because we see companies get this decision wrong from both directions: entering too many programs that don’t fit, or skipping the process entirely.

There’s no shortage of options. Design-focused programs like the Red Dot Award or iF Design Awards recognize aesthetics and usability. Consumer electronics innovation gets its moment at CES. Editorial lists like Time’s Best Inventions or Fast Company’s Innovation by Design coverage offer press exposure. But for B2B products (the software platforms, industrial systems, medical devices, and infrastructure technologies that don’t always get consumer-facing buzz) the calculus is different. You’re not just chasing a trophy; you’re looking for third-party validation that resonates with corporate buyers, investors, and enterprise decision-makers.

Here are the seven factors worth evaluating before you commit to a nomination.

1. Category and Industry Fit

The first question isn’t “is this a good award?” but instead it should be “does this award actually understand my industry?” A program with narrow or purely aesthetic categories may not have a judging lens built for, say, a critical infrastructure platform or a materials science breakthrough.

Look for programs with category structures broad enough to cover your sector but specific enough that your entry is judged against comparable innovations. The Edison Awards, for instance, organizes its 2027 cycle around 14 categories which range from Commercial Technology and Software Solutions to Health, Medical & Biotech, Engineering & Robotics, and Critical Human Infrastructure . These all map to real-world industry classifications rather than generic “best product” buckets. That structure matters because it determines who’s evaluating your submission and what they’re comparing it to.

2. Judging Criteria and Rigor

Award programs vary widely in how transparent and how rigorous their judging actually is. Some rely on public voting. Others use a small internal panel. Neither tells a corporate buyer much about whether your product was seriously vetted.

Programs worth entering typically publish clear evaluation criteria and back them with a substantial, credentialed judging body. The Edison Awards, for example, evaluates every nomination against three criteria: 

  • Concept: Opportunity | Development | Execution
    How did your innovation come to life? What problem does it solve, and how was it developed?
  • Value: Differentiation | Market Advantage | Benefits
    Why does your innovation matter? How is it better, faster, smarter, or more effective than alternatives?
  • Impact: Social | Environmental | Long-Term Influence
    What difference does your innovation make? How does it improve lives, industries, or the world at large?

Each nomination is reviewed by a panel of trusted senior executives, academics, and past winners who have real world experience in the field they are judging. That kind of structure is what turns a nomination into an actual credential.

3. Who is Part of the Network?

An award’s prestige is really a function of its audience. Ask who is part of their broader network, who sits on the judging panel, who is on the Steering Committee or Board of Trustees, and who follows the results. Programs that draw C-level executives, investors, and industry media create real networking and visibility opportunities beyond the trophy itself,  which matters if part of your goal is attracting partners, capital, or press.

4. The Value of Third-Party Review

One of the most underrated benefits of a strong award program is the expert feedback that comes with it, independent of whether you win. A rigorous third-party review of your Concept, Value, and Impact narrative can surface gaps in your positioning before your sales and marketing teams run into them with actual buyers. This is a big part of why product and innovation teams treat the nomination process itself as worthwhile, not just the outcome.

5. Eligibility Window and Timing

This sounds basic, but it trips up more teams than you’d expect: your product has to fall within the program’s eligibility window. For the 2027 Edison Awards cycle, that means the innovation must have launched and been available to end users between January 2025 and January 2027. Nominations open September 1 and run through the end of the year, with finalists announced in late January and winners recognized in the spring. Missing a window by a few weeks can mean waiting a full cycle to be considered.

6. Marketing and Visibility Rights

Once you’re recognized, what can you actually do with it? The strongest programs give nominees and winners usable assets — seals for your website and marketing materials, press kits, inclusion in media campaigns, and features across newsletters and social channels. If an award doesn’t give you anything tangible to leverage afterward, its long-term marketing value is limited no matter how prestigious the ceremony felt.

7. Cost Versus Realistic ROI

Every credible award program charges a nomination fee, and it’s fair to weigh that cost against the upside. But the ROI conversation shouldn’t stop at the entry fee. Consider the compounding value of expert feedback, media exposure, investor attention, and internal team morale — several past winners have pointed to award recognition as a direct contributor to sales growth and new partnerships in the year following their win. Judge the fee against that fuller picture, not just the sticker price.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best way to choose a new product award? Start with fit, not fame. Confirm the program has a category aligned to your industry, publishes clear judging criteria, and draws an audience — executives, investors, media — that matches who you’re trying to reach. From there, weigh the eligibility window, the marketing rights you’ll receive, and the fee against the realistic ROI.

Which business awards recognize breakthrough B2B products each year? Programs like the Edison Awards, and R&D 100 evaluate new product and service innovation, though their category structures, judging processes, and audiences differ. B2B teams should compare how each program’s categories map to their specific industry before nominating.

Why do companies struggle to get recognition for new product innovation? Often it comes down to positioning, not merit, and many nomination forms ask teams to articulate differentiation and impact in ways their internal marketing materials never had to, a gap that a structured judging framework (like Concept, Value, and Impact) can help close. There’s also a perception gap: research published in the Journal of Marketing by University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business found that B2B managers tend to assume third-party recognition carries little economic upside, so many never apply. The study’s authors found real, measurable financial gains for B2B firms following third-party recognition, even though switching costs make the effect less immediate than in consumer markets. In short: the awards that seem “not worth the effort” are often exactly the ones with the most unclaimed upside.

How do business product awards help validate a new product launch? Independent, expert-reviewed recognition gives corporate buyers, investors, and partners a credibility signal that self-reported marketing claims can’t. It’s one reason third-party review is often cited as a benefit distinct from winning outright.

The 2027 Edison Awards nomination season opens September 1, 2026, for products and services launched between January 2025 and January 2027. Learn more about entering →

Your DNA, Your Doctor: How Dr. Twin AI Is Rewriting the Future of Personalized Medicine

Posted on by Rachel Reed

2026 Edison Awards Silver Winner | Health, Medical & Biotech — Next-Gen Biotechnology Platforms

Medicine has always been practiced in the aggregate. Treatments are developed for populations, dosages calculated for average body weights, and diagnoses built on statistical likelihoods. For most of modern healthcare history, this was the best we could do. But it has always come with a fundamental flaw: no two people share the same genome, the same disease trajectory, or the same response to treatment. The future of intelligent healthcare is one where care is anchored not in population averages, but in the specific, irreducible biology of the individual patient.

That future has arrived with Dr. Twin AI, the world’s first searchable DNA digital twin platform, developed by Predictive AI, Inc. A 2026 Edison Award Silver Winner in the Next-Gen Biotechnology Platforms category, Dr. Twin AI decodes each patient’s unique genetic profile to deliver personalized diagnoses and treatment insights at scale. Making evidence-based decisions with 98.6% accuracy, it enables fast, safe, and consistent care — and is already reshaping how patients and clinicians interact with genomic data to make personalized medicine available, on demand.

The Problem: A Healthcare System Running on Averages and Delays

Before understanding what makes Dr. Twin AI extraordinary, it helps to understand the system it is designed to fix. Despite decades of investment in digital health infrastructure, the average American patient still waits 31 days to schedule a new physician appointment — a figure that has surged 19% since 2022 and 48% since 2004, according to the 2025 AMN Healthcare Survey of Physician Appointment Wait Times. Specialist waits are even longer: cardiology averages 33 days, dermatology 36.5 days, and OB/GYN over 41 days. With the Association of American Medical Colleges projecting a physician shortage of up to 86,000 doctors by 2036, those numbers are only expected to worsen.

The bottleneck is not just logistical. Even when a patient reaches a clinician, the diagnostic process is often constrained by what a physician can hold in their head: symptom patterns, test results, general population statistics. What it rarely incorporates — at any speed, let alone instantly — is the patient’s unique genetic architecture: the specific variants that predispose them to certain diseases, determine how they metabolize medications, and define the biological risks quietly encoded in every cell of their body.

The global personalized medicine market, valued at approximately $567 billion in 2024 and projected to reach $1.2 trillion by 2033, reflects the scale of the unmet need and the enormous appetite for solutions that bridge the gap between genomic science and clinical practice. Yet for most patients, that bridge has remained out of reach as it is technically complex, prohibitively expensive, and disconnected from the tools their doctors actually use. Dr. Twin AI is built to close that gap.

The Platform: A Digital Version of You, Ready for Any Question

At its core, Dr. Twin AI does something deceptively simple and technically profound: it takes a patient’s genomic data and transforms it into a living, searchable digital twin. This virtual biological replica can be queried, analyzed, and interrogated by both clinicians and patients in natural language in real time.

The platform deploys 21 organ-specific AI specialists that collaborate simultaneously to analyze a patient’s genetic variants across every major body system. This is not a single generalist model making broad probabilistic guesses. It is a coordinated ensemble of domain-specific intelligence — one specialist for cardiovascular risk, another for oncology, another for neurology — each trained to understand how your specific genetic variants interact with the biological systems they govern.

The technical architecture behind this is equally ambitious. Dr. Twin AI employs Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) models, digital twin technology, and Google Multi-Agentic AI trained on over 347,000 medical records and expert publications, achieving a new level of diagnostic accuracy. Often, conventional clinical decision support systems fail to provide real-time data access, contributing directly to the appointment delays and emergency room bottlenecks that strain the current healthcare system.

The output is not a static report filed away in an electronic health record. It is a dynamic, conversational diagnostic experience — one where patients can ask questions and receive personalized insights drawn from their own genetic blueprint, and where clinicians can access organ-level risk profiles and treatment guidance grounded in that patient’s actual biology.

Predictive AI’s broader platform further extends this ambition. A single whole-genome upload unlocks risk quantification for 22,000+ diseases and drug responses for 210+ medications, enabling what the company calls “5P medicine” — Predictive, Preventive, Personalized, Participatory, and Precision. Their companion BestMed PGx Report applies that same genomic data to pharmacogenomics, predicting which medications will work best for a patient and which may cause adverse reactions — helping ensure, as Predictive AI puts it, “the right drug the first time.”

Why DNA-Based Digital Twins Are a Generational Leap

The concept of a digital twin (a virtual replica of a physical system that can be modeled, tested, and interrogated without touching the original) has transformed manufacturing, aerospace, and urban planning. Its application to individual human biology represents something categorically different from any prior use of the technology.

Research published in npj Digital Medicine describes the vision: a biophysical digital twin that integrates real-time and longitudinal data from an individual’s DNA all the way through to cells, tissues, and organ systems, capable of simulating, predicting, and optimizing health outcomes over a lifetime. The science supporting the value of genomic intelligence in clinical care has accelerated rapidly. Genomically guided therapies have demonstrated response rates up to 85% in certain cancers, significantly improving progression-free survival and reducing side effects compared to conventional treatments, according to a 2025 analysis published by health technology strategists at Talencio. Separate research published in PMC found that molecular profiling extended progression-free survival from 61 to 112 days in targeted oncology applications.

What Dr. Twin AI introduces is the infrastructure to make that level of personalization available not just in elite cancer centers, but wherever a patient and a clinician connect. This may be in a telehealth consultation, an AI-assisted triage system, or an insurance platform assessing risk and coverage. The personalized genomics market alone is projected to grow from $12.57 billion in 2025 to $52.58 billion by 2034, at a compound annual growth rate of nearly 18%. The question has never been whether personalized, DNA-grounded medicine would arrive. The question has been who would build the platform capable of delivering it at scale.

The Reach: From Telehealth to Insurance to Entire Healthcare Systems

One of the most consequential aspects of Dr. Twin AI is not just what it does, but where it can go. The platform is purpose-built for integration across the full spectrum of healthcare delivery, a design choice that dramatically expands its potential reach and impact.

In telehealth, where a clinician may have minutes rather than hours to assess a new patient, access to an AI-generated organ-level risk profile drawn from that patient’s own genome represents a fundamental upgrade to the consultation. Instead of relying on a brief patient history and population-level statistics, the clinician has a real-time window into the patient’s biological architecture to see which genetic variants are present, what conditions they elevate risk for, and how the patient is likely to respond to specific interventions.

In AI triage, the platform can intelligently direct patients to the right specialist before they ever enter an exam room, reducing the misdirected appointments and diagnostic delays that waste time for both patients and providers. In insurance, precise genomic risk stratification opens the door to policy structures that more accurately reflect individual health trajectories, providing downstream benefits for both pricing accuracy and patient incentives toward preventive care.

This multi-ecosystem applicability is not incidental. It reflects Predictive AI’s foundational conviction: that genomic intelligence should not be a boutique service available only to the affluent or the critically ill, but a standard layer of the healthcare experience for every patient.

Recognized for What It Is: A New Foundation for Medicine

The Edison Awards Silver recognition in Next-Gen Biotechnology Platforms places Dr. Twin AI in distinguished company, and reflects what the platform represents at a foundational level. Named for Thomas Edison, whose defining characteristic was not any single invention but a relentless drive to make transformative technology accessible and practical, the awards honor innovations that don’t just advance the scientific frontier but deliver it into the real world in a usable and beneficial way.

Dr. Twin AI does exactly that. The science of personalized genomic medicine has been building for decades, from the completion of the 13-year, multibillion-dollar international Human Genome Project to today, when a clinically certified whole-genome sequence can be completed in hours at a fraction of the original cost. What Predictive AI has built is the platform that converts that science into something a patient can ask a question of, and a clinician can act on — in real time, grounded in that patient’s own DNA.

The implications extend beyond any individual diagnosis. A healthcare system that can integrate genomic intelligence into routine care across telehealth, triage, clinical practice, and insurance is a healthcare system that can be more preventive than reactive, more precise than probabilistic, and more equitable than the one-size-fits-all model it replaces. Dr. Twin AI is not a speculative promise about what genomic medicine might eventually become. It is a working platform, recognized by the 2026 Edison Awards that is delivering on that promise now.

Learn more about Dr. Twin AI at www.predictiveagi.ai, and explore the full list of 2026 Edison Awards winners at edisonawards.com.

© 2026 Predictive AGI Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.

2026 Edison Awards in the News

Posted on by jbadmin

The 2026 Edison Awards generated global attention, spotlighting the innovations, organizations, and persons shaping the future. Explore a selection of press coverage and media features below.

 

Featured Coverage

Fortune: Exclusive: Adam Silver on winning the Edison Achievement Award: ‘Sports remind us that some of the most important forms of innovation are human’

Forbes: OpenAI Wants Its AI To Help Scientists Make Discoveries Faster

CNN: The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

U.S News & World Report: What to Know: AI-Powered Healthcare Innovations Shine at Edison Awards

The Hollywood Reporter: Rihanna to Receive Edison Achievement Award for “Reshaping the World Through Innovation”

Sports Business Journal: Names in the News

Sports Business Journal: SBJ 360: We took the NBA’s biomechanics evaluation

 

Business & Innovation Media

Boston Business Journal: Nine Boston companies earn Edison Awards for innovation in manufacturing, safety and climate tech

Medical Design and Outsourcing: Medical devices win 2026 Edison Awards for innovation

Gene Online: Axalta Coating Systems Wins Three Edison Awards for Advancements in Automotive Customization, EV Safety, and AI-Powered Color Technology

Gene Online: DuPont Wins Two Edison Awards in 2026 for Eco-Friendly Material and Advanced Manufacturing Innovation

Gulfshore Business: Adam Silver eyes SWFL for NBA G League expansion

Gulfshore Business: Rihanna to receive 2026 Edison Achievement Award

Fort Myers News-Press/Naples News Daily: Rihanna receiving Fort Myers award for Fenty, music, other innovations

Taiwan Plus: Taiwan Takes Home 16 Edison Awards

TN Global: ASTRI Tops Hong Kong Organisations with Five Awards at the 2026 Edison Awards

 

Broadcast & Event Coverage

Access Hollywood: Access Daily with Mario Kit

Gulf Coast News: Flying cars and humanoid robots showcased at Edison Awards in Fort Myers

Gulf Coast News: Jeb Bush visits Fort Myers, shares thoughts on politics and life after public office

WINK: Edison Awards shine global spotlight on Fort Myers innovation

WINK: Fort Myers Edison Awards spotlight innovation driving Southwest Florida’s future

The Floridant: Southwest Florida highlighted as ‘global hub for innovation’ at 2026 Edison Awards

 

Global & Cultural Highlights

Madame Noire: Work, Work, Work, Work, Work — Rihanna To Receive 2026 Edison Achievement Award For Her Billion-Dollar Brilliance

Face 2 Face Africa: Rihanna makes history as the first woman of color to win the Edison Achievement Award

Harper’s Bazaar Ukraine: Rihanna to receive Edison Achievement Award for innovation in fashion and beauty

Billionaires Africa: Rihanna, world’s youngest Black billionaire, becomes first woman of color to win the Edison Achievement Award

Barrett Media: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver To Receive 2026 Edison Achievement Award

Money Control: Rihanna becomes first female artist to hit 200 million RIAA single certifications

ABC Audio: Rihanna to be honored at 2026 Edison Awards

National Today: Rihanna to Receive Edison Achievement Award for ‘Reshaping the World Through Innovation’

Los 40: Rihanna will receive the Edison Achievement Award Honoree 2026, another milestone in her multifaceted career

Duke Magazine: Game Changer Adam Silver ’84 Honored for Transforming the NBA Into a Global Innovation Leader

 

Additional Coverage

US News & World Report: Healthcare of Tomorrow Bulletin

ABC Gulf Coast: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver honored with Edison Achievement Award at 2026 Edison Awards

Asaase: Rihanna to receive Edison Achievement Award for global innovation impact

The Herald Ghana: Rihanna to receive Edison Achievement Award for reshaping industries through innovation

La Opinión: Rihanna will receive the 2026 Edison Achievement Award for her global impact

El Diario: Rihanna will be honored with the 2026 Edison Achievement Award for her global impact

World Music Views: Rihanna Makes History As First Woman Of Color To Receive Edison Achievement Award

 

Building Tomorrow: How Babcock Ranch Is Rewriting the Rules of Resilient Communities

Posted on by Rachel Reed

When Hurricane Ian barreled across the Gulf of Mexico in September 2022, it made the kind of turn that forecasters dread. What had been projected as a strike on Tampa instead became a catastrophic Category 4 assault on Fort Myers Beach that then marched directly over Babcock Ranch. Sustained winds of 100 miles per hour with gusts reaching up to 150. A storm moving at a crawl, just three miles per hour, prolonging the punishment for hours.

And yet, when dawn broke over Babcock Ranch, something remarkable had happened: almost nothing.

“I remember when I got up and went through the neighborhood, people were walking around just staring,” said Syd Kitson, founder and CEO of Kitson Partners and the visionary behind Babcock Ranch, speaking at a 2025 “Building for Resiliency” panel at the Edison Awards. “There were just groups of people outside looking around because we had very little damage, and we never lost electricity through the entire night.”

In a state where catastrophe had become almost routine, Babcock Ranch had done the unthinkable. It had weathered one of Florida’s most destructive storms not with luck, but with deliberate, forward-thinking design. That story is increasingly urgent, and it carries lessons for every developer, investor, and community leader navigating an era defined by climate risk.

A Crisis That Demands Innovation

The numbers are stark. In 2024 alone, natural disasters around the world caused $368 billion in losses, and only 40% of that figure was covered by insurance, according to Aon’s 2025 Climate and Catastrophe Insight report. That same year marked the ninth consecutive year that global catastrophe losses exceeded $300 billion. Hurricanes Helene and Milton together accounted for more than $110 billion in economic losses with Helene alone racking up $78.7 billion, the largest single-event loss of the year. Since 1980, tropical cyclones in the United States have caused more than $1.5 trillion in total damages and 7,211 deaths according to NOAA, making them the costliest and deadliest category of weather disaster on record.

Florida sits near the epicenter of this vulnerability. Its coastline, its geography, and its population growth make it one of the most exposed places in the country. And yet people keep coming, and developers keep building in ways that repeat the same costly mistakes.

“Doing the right thing makes you more money,” Kitson said. “It costs more money up front, but the return that we got on our investment up front is tenfold. And so don’t kid yourself, anybody that tells you it’s too expensive to do it the right way, they’re wrong.”

Engineering Against the Storm

Babcock Ranch was conceived as proof that the right way is achievable. Located approximately 20 miles inland from Florida’s west coast and sitting 30 feet above sea level, the development began with a decisive geographic advantage: distance from storm surge, the most lethal force a hurricane carries ashore. When Hurricane Helene struck the Keaton Beach area, a storm surge of 12 to 16 feet destroyed roughly 80% of the buildings in its path. That same surge, dissipated by distance and friction from coastal mangroves and terrain, diminishes dramatically as it travels inland, making Babcock Ranch’s inland position not just a design choice but a life-safety decision.

But elevation and location were only the beginning.

The engineering team behind Babcock Ranch built its water management system around a foundational principle: work with nature, not against it. The surrounding region’s wetlands have historically absorbed storm runoff like a sponge had been largely eliminated by conventional grid-style development that paves over everything in the name of maximizing land use. Babcock took the opposite approach.

The development was built around the existing wetland systems, leaving them intact and allowing them to do what they were designed by nature to do. Beyond that, the team constructed an engineered complement to those natural systems: a network of lakes and ponds designed as interconnected bowls. Homes sit at the highest elevations; roads are built lower, intentionally, so that in extreme events they can channel water away from structures and into collection points. Each lake connects to the others through underground pipes, so that when one fills, it drains to the next — a cascading buffer against overflow.

Before a hurricane arrives, the team drains these bowls proactively, creating additional capacity to absorb the incoming rainfall. Water is then discharged slowly through a central drainage corridor that runs to a nearby river, with wetlands along the way slowing the flow and letting the land absorb what it can. In a modeled 100-year storm event — the kind that used to be considered a planning ceiling but is now happening with alarming regularity — the ranch would experience approximately 14 inches of rainfall and a four-foot rise in water levels. The homes would remain one foot above the waterline. The grocery store and office buildings, two feet above it.

The community has now weathered four hurricanes — Irma, Ian, Helene, and Milton — with no to minimal damage and no flooding within the development.

More Than Engineering: A Community Built for Life

Kitson’s vision for Babcock Ranch extended well beyond stormwater management. The community was designed from the ground up as a living laboratory for what sustainable, resilient development can look like across every dimension of daily life.

Babcock Ranch is powered entirely by solar energy, the first town in America to achieve that distinction. Florida Power and Light partnered with the development to install 150 megawatts of capacity (700,000 panels across 840 acres) that feeds the town directly before any surplus returns to the wider grid. A 10-megawatt solar-to-battery facility provides storage backup. All utilities are buried underground, eliminating the overhead lines that take down power across conventional communities in every storm. The result: during Hurricane Ian, as surrounding communities went dark for days or weeks, Babcock Ranch never lost power.

The community spans 18,000 acres in total, with half preserved as natural land. Of the original 91,000-acre ranch that Kitson Partners acquired in 2006, fully 90% is now in permanent conservation, a legacy Kitson describes as among the things he’s most proud of. A 17,000-acre mitigation area for the Florida panther has already paid dividends: a female panther and her kittens were recently documented there for the first time in 40 years, alongside a tagged 160-pound male. Curry Lake, drained by prior farming operations, has been rehydrated through a weir system and is now teeming with wildlife.

Every home and business receives gigabit fiber connectivity. Streets are designed with roundabouts instead of traffic lights, reducing congestion and eliminating another point of infrastructure failure. One hundred miles of trails connect the community, with extra-wide roads and dedicated bike lanes encouraging residents to move through the town on foot or by wheel. A K-12 school built on project-based learning sits at the literal center of the development, and at 3 o’clock each afternoon, hundreds of children pour out onto bicycles and scatter across the community.

The water management system itself is living and dynamic. Seasonal variation is built into its design: lake levels rise during Florida’s wet season and recede during dry months, and the team continuously monitors water levels year-round. This seasonal rhythm is a feature, not a flaw and this is a sign of a resilient water system working in harmony with the natural environment rather than fighting it.

The Future at Work

What Babcock Ranch represents is not a utopian experiment available only to the affluent. It is a demonstration that the future of development is viable, profitable, and replicable. This means that the argument against building this way falls apart under scrutiny. In fact this is a smart business that has invested in community, resiliency, and building for the future and has proved that it pays off in the long run. Resilient infrastructure, by that logic, is simply a premium product.

The innovation pipeline feeding into communities like Babcock Ranch is expanding rapidly. The climate adaptation and resilience investment space is estimated to represent nearly a trillion dollars in opportunity and spans early warning systems, flood barrier technology, wildfire response equipment, water generation systems, and much more. Some of those solutions are being tested in real time at Babcock Ranch, which has hosted Innovation Way, a dedicated program in which builders implement emerging technologies directly into homes and then measure performance through independent third-party assessment.

“We want to be a living laboratory,” Kitson said. “We want to be leaders, not followers.”

The spirit of building ahead of the disaster instead of reacting to it, of designing for the century rather than the code minimum, of seeing resilience not as a cost but as a return on investment is precisely the spirit that drives innovation. It is the spirit that asks: why wait until the storm comes to start preparing? Why rebuild the same way after a catastrophe when we already know a better way?

The answers are blowing in from the Gulf. Babcock Ranch is listening, and building accordingly.

 

Babcock Ranch is located approximately 25–30 miles north of Fort Myers, Florida, and is open for visits. For more information, visit babcockranch.com.

The Edison Awards honors innovation and innovators who are driving positive change across industries. Learn more at edisonawards.com.

The Power of Partnership: How Rabbi Israel Dresner and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Changed America

Posted on by Rachel Reed

In honor of Black History Month, the Edison Awards celebrates the untold stories of alliance and collaboration that shaped the civil rights movement, and how they parallel the innovation partnerships we honor today.

When journalist and filmmaker Avi Dresner recently spoke to the Latimer Fellowship Program, he drew a powerful parallel that resonates deeply with the Edison Awards’ mission: just as Lewis Latimer was essential to Thomas Edison’s groundbreaking work, Rabbi Israel “Sy” Dresner was a crucial ally to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the fight for civil rights. Both stories remind us that transformative achievements, whether in technology or social justice, are never the work of individuals alone.

“Nobody does it alone,” Avi told the fellows. These aren’t “savior stories,” but examples of “game recognizing game,” or a mutual recognition of each other’s contributions and a commitment to shared goals that transcend individual acclaim.

A Legacy Born from Tragedy

Rabbi Dresner’s journey toward civil rights activism began in tragedy. Born in 1929 in a Manhattan tenement to East European immigrant parents, one of his earliest memories at age four or five was hearing Hitler speak on the radio while his father wept. Young Sy understood, even then, what would happen to their family in Europe. His father would eventually lose over 30 first cousins in the Holocaust.

Raised with strong Jewish values, Dresner internalized the commandment “justice, justice shall you pursue” and the Torah’s repeated reminder to “remember the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt,” a phrase that appears 36 times in Jewish scripture. His first arrest came at age 18, during a sit-in protesting Britain’s refusal to allow Holocaust survivors into Palestine. When his mother said it was “a shame for a Jewish boy to get arrested,” he responded with pride, the first sign of the moral courage that would define his life.

The Freedom Rides: Where It All Began

In June 1961, Rabbi Dresner participated in the very first interfaith clergy Freedom Ride from Washington, D.C. to Tallahassee, Florida. The group of 18 (four Reform rabbis and 14 Protestant ministers) faced immediate danger. In Tallahassee, ten members were arrested at an airport restaurant when the manager locked the door, claiming they were “closed.” While in jail, other white prisoners set their mattress on fire.

This arrest became Dresner et al. v. City of Tallahassee, the first Freedom Rider case to reach the Supreme Court, with Rabbi Dresner as lead defendant. Three years later, as the Civil Rights Act had passed, the “Tallahassee 10” returned to complete their sentences, but this time they could eat in the same airport restaurant where they had been arrested. A photograph captured this powerful moment of progress. 

Meeting Dr. King Under Unfortunate Circumstances

Rabbi Dresner and Dr. King first met in August 1962, shaking hands through jail cell bars in Albany, Georgia. This was before King’s major victories, as the Birmingham campaign was eight months away, and the a year to the day before the March on Washington. At Dr. Anderson’s home in Albany, surrounded by the White Citizens Council (described as “the Klan without the hoods”), King spent an hour calming the anxious rabbi with conversation.

During that conversation, King shared his admiration for how Jews celebrated being descendants of slaves, not just kings—building a whole holiday around this identity. Dresner’s response was sobering: Jews had been slaves by the millions less than 17 years prior in Nazi concentration camps. This wasn’t ancient history; it was living memory.

King asked Dresner to recruit clergy for what would become the largest mass arrest of clergy in U.S. history, 75 clergymen arrested in Albany. On January 18, 1963, King delivered what was possibly his first sermon during an actual Shabbat service at Rabbi Dresner’s synagogue in Springfield, New Jersey.

St. Augustine: The Turning Point

In 1964, Dr. King sent a letter from jail in St. Augustine, Florida, calling it “the most lawless community in which we have ever worked,” describing shootings, beatings, and house burnings. He specifically requested that Dresner bring a “task force from the reform movement” to witness for “self-respect and human dignity.”

Rabbi Dresner recruited 16 rabbis, the largest arrest of rabbis in U.S. history. When they entered a mass meeting, King announced “Moses’ children are here” and called Dresner to the pulpit. Dresner spoke so long that the other rabbis shouted “Genug!” (enough!) in Yiddish to get him to stop.

The rabbis’ arrest at the Munson Motor Lodge created a strategic diversion: while they were arrested at the front entrance, activists integrated the pool in the back. The hotel owner’s response—pouring muriatic acid into the pool while swimmers were still in it—made the front page of the New York Times. That single photograph helped break the Senate filibuster and led to passage of the Civil Rights Act.

From jail, the rabbis wrote a letter explaining their motivations: “We came because we knew that second only to silence, the greatest danger to man is loss of faith in man’s capacity to act. We came as Jews who remembered the millions of faceless people who stood quietly watching the smoke rise from Hitler’s crematoria.” This powerful statement will serve as a framing device in the upcoming documentary “The Rabbi & The Reverend,” read by prominent Americans including Senator Cory Booker, Congressman James Clyburn and Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Selma and Beyond

Following Bloody Sunday on March 7, 1965, Dr. King called for a “ministers’ march” two days later. Of all the clergy present at the foot of the Pettus Bridge, King asked only two people to deliver the prayer: Rev. Ralph Abernathy and Rabbi Dresner. They didn’t know King would turn them around after the prayer—Dresner was prepared to face the same troopers who had beaten activists just 48 hours earlier.

The partnership continued until King’s final year. They saw each other one last time in 1967 when King spoke against the Vietnam War at Riverside Church, exactly one year before his assassination. King inscribed his book “Where Do We Go From Here?” to “my good friend, Si Dresner, for whom I have great respect.”

A Forgotten Alliance

The Black-Jewish partnership that Rabbi Dresner embodied was once central to American progress but has largely been forgotten. At the turn of the 20th century, Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears Roebuck, and Booker T. Washington founded over 5,000 schools that educated two-thirds of African American children in the South, including future civil rights leaders like Maya Angelou. Jewish organizations helped fund the early NAACP. This history of solidarity deserves to be remembered and revived.

Bending the Arc Together

Avi Dresner shared a profound insight during his presentation: “The arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, but the arc of human civilization bends toward innovation, and both require people to actively bend them.” Unlike technology, which progresses linearly, social progress can go backwards without constant vigilance. Rights we now take for granted—integrated dining, transportation, housing—were crimes during the civil rights era and required tremendous sacrifice to achieve.

This message resonates powerfully with the Edison Awards’ mission and the Latimer Fellowship Program. Just as we celebrate innovation and the partnerships that make it possible, we must remember that progress in any field requires allies who recognize each other’s contributions and work together toward shared goals.

The documentary “The Rabbi & The Reverend,” currently in production with Avi Dresner as executive producer, will bring this crucial story to wider audiences. Rabbi Dresner and Avi are also featured in the third episode of Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s PBS series “Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History,” airing February 17th.

As we honor Black History Month, let us remember that the greatest achievements in innovation and justice alike require us to stand together, recognize each other’s contributions, and actively bend the arc toward a better future, because nobody does it alone.

Learn more about the Latimer Fellowship Program and its mission to support diverse innovators at latimerfellows.com

Edison Awards Unveils 2026 Finalists: Where the World’s Next Breakthrough Begins

Posted on by Rachel Reed

Commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver to Receive Prestigious Achievement Award

Fort Myers, Florida – January 20

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.”

Where Excellence Meets Elevation

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 Advantage

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.

Building the Future, Together

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. 

About the Edison Awards

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.

 

Media Contact:
Rachel Reed, Marketing Director
rachel@edisonawards.com

 

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