Announcing the 2018 Winners of the Interactive Innovation Awards

Tonight the 21st annual SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards celebrated the 2018 Finalists and Winners. Two-time SXSW Innovation Award winner and Founder of the Nation of Artists Elliot V. Kotek announced the winners of the 13 categories and 6 special honors ranging from achievements in digital design to health technology and beyond.

Congratulations to all the 2018 winners!

AI & Machine Learning

Honoring digital systems which have the ability to adapt to changing data, stimuli, and circumstances; replicating learning, problem solving, and cognition.

Swarm AI by Unanimous AI, San Francisco, CA

Health, Med, & BioTech

Honoring the new technology that best improves the quality, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care in health and medicine.

  • MasSpec Pen by the Eberlin Lab at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Innovation in Connecting People

Honoring the best new way to connect and communicate with others.

  • Read To Me by The Electric Factory, Montevideo, Uruguay

Music & Audio Innovation

Honoring 2017’s best device or service that changes and improves the way we listen to and enjoy music.

New Economy

Honoring those redefining the exchange of goods and services, from the sharing economy, to virtual currency, to micro-finance, to mobile-device-payment systems, and beyond.

Privacy & Security

Honoring 2017’s most progressive accomplishment in the way we go about securing our data and ensuring our privacy.

Responsive Design

Honoring excellent digital design, creating the best-integrated interaction in terms of content, aesthetics, and functionality.

Scifi No Longer

Honoring the coolest scientific achievement or discovery that before 2017 was only possible in science fiction.

Smart Cities

Honoring innovations in eco-friendly or sustainable energy, transportation, and IoT technology, making life in the connected world a smarter, cleaner, greener, and more efficient Internet of Everything.

  • Jacques-Cartier Bridge Interactive Illumination Concept by Moment Factory, with: Réalisations Montréal Inc., Ambiances Design Productions, ATOMIC3, Éclairage Public / Ombrages, Lucion Média and UDO Design.Project directed by Jacques Cartier and Champlain Bridges Inc., Montreal, QC

Student Innovation

Honoring the student with an exceptional interactive technology project or startup; both of which are the future.

Visual Media Experience

Honoring content creation and delivery that moves beyond passive viewership by providing a more immersive and engaging entertainment experience.

VR & AR

Honoring breakthroughs in augmented and virtual reality technology including the application of new hardware or software which truly make the virtual a reality.

Wearable Tech

Honoring the new hardware that revolutionizes the convenience, comfort, functionality, efficiency, and fashion of having a device literally “on you.”

Special Honors

David Carr Prize

Amanda Gail

Meme of the Year

Savage Prince George

Breakout Trend of the Event

Globally Connected: we’re in this together

Speaker of the Event

Esther Perel

People’s Choice Award

The World’s First AI Financial Advisor by Pefin, New York, NY

Best of Show

Swarm AI by Unanimous AI, San Francisco, CA

Interactive Hall of Fame

Honoring those exceptional trailblazers whose work has helped shape the connected world and who continue to guide the direction of the digital industry. Learn about our 2018 Hall of Fame Inductee, President of Upworthy and GOOD Worldwide, Eli Pariser.

By Ari Roth

03/13/2018