ESX starts TechVision Challenge for Innovation Award winners

BALTIMORE—The top 10 ESX Innovation Awards winners will compete in the new TechVision Challenge, what ESX Chair George De Marco describes as “a Shark Tank-style contest” at the show here June 23.

The Innovation Awards judges will decide which innovators move on to the TechVision Challenge, a separate honor.

Each contestant will have five minutes to present his or her innovative product to the TechVision Challenge panel of judges, or “sharks.” The number of judges for the challenge is still being debated and he declined to release any names.

The submission deadline for ESX Innovation Awards, is April 1. Read more about the awards here. “One of the changes this year to the awards program was to pre-announce the winners ahead of ESX 2015 to give them time to send out announcements: 'Hey! We won!'"

The winners will be notified at the end of April and featured in Security Systems News' June issue.

The title of “Best in Show” will be award during ESX, after the TechVision Challenge.

Previously, ESX has kept the names of the Innovations Awards judges secret. New for this year, ESX will announce who the judges were after the winners are announced, said De Marco. “These security professionals did a lot of hard work behind the scenes, judging the product and service submissions, and should be recognized for it.”

The event will not be public, though De Marco said the roughly two-hour event will be taped and then released.

ESX does not yet know how many Innovations Awards will be given out this year, as the deadline is still coming up, he said. Judges for the Innovation Awards will be different from the panel for the TechVision Challenge.