Stories of Innovation
INNOVATE® Milwaukee
HSA Bank
HSA BANK IS BUILDING A NEW ERA OF TECHNOLOGY-FOCUSED EXPERIENCES IN FINANCE
HSA BANK IS BUILDING A NEW ERA OF TECHNOLOGY-FOCUSED EXPERIENCES IN FINANCE Technology-driven experience and innovation have the potential to transform employee benefits from a traditional offering into a strategic differentiator for organizations. The benefits sector, traditionally not seen as a tech ‘powerhouse’, is undergoing rapid change as organizations leverage...
INNOVATION Manitoba
Winnipeg Boldness
Reimagining Community Wellbeing Through Indigenous-Led Innovation
In Winnipeg’s Point Douglas neighbourhood, a powerful and deeply community-rooted movement is redefining what innovation can look like. Winnipeg Boldness is an Indigenous-led social innovation lab that places community voices, lived experience, and Indigenous knowledge systems at the center of social change. Through collaboration, relationship-building, and systems thinking, the organization...
INNOVATE® Detroit
MiSide Community Impact Network
Bringing A Theory To Life
East Chadsey-Condon is a multi-cultural community that faces a unique set of challenges – high instances of crime among youth, a large percentage of residents without insurance, limited access to transportation, and low homeownership rates, among others. And yet hope remains as residents report having pride in their community, a...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
CONNECTPLUG
RETAIL AUTOMATION CAN BE MORE AFFORDABLE AND EFFECTIVE FOR EVERYONE
2014 doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but the technology was very different back then. AI was just science fiction, the internet was much slower — and retail software was expensive and unnecessarily complex. This scenario led to ConnectPlug’s creation by computer engineer Rafael Hasson. Hasson, who has worked...
INNOVATE® Maryland
Maryland Sports Commission
Our focus is ensuring that every event we pursue, leaves a lasting legacy.
When the Maryland Stadium Authority and Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (now the Maryland Department of Commerce) partnered in 2008 to create the Office of Sports Marketing, their goal was bold and unmistakable: position Maryland as an elite destination for sports and a national leader in sports tourism....
Global Innovation Spotlight
Agricultural Software Trends Transforming Industry in 2025 and Beyond
Agtech is changing farming in exciting ways by using smart digital tools and machines to solve old problems. Farmers today face higher costs, fewer workers, and more pressure to farm in ways that protect the environment. To handle these challenges, more farms are using agtech than ever before. At the...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
LE AFRIKA
DISCOVER THE HEALING POWER THAT IS CHANGING THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS AROUND THE WORLD!
The world is woke… going back to our roots. The new buzzword is #gogreen in terms of health and wellness. And we’ve been fortunate and blessed with the opportunity of being a part of this new era, introducing and promoting Le Afrika sustainably sourced 100% natural products with their...
INNOVATE® Milwaukee
DCI MARKETING
CELEBRATING ITS 80TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2024, DCI MARKETING FOSTERS A CULTURE OF INNOVATION FOCUSED ON SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS FOR FORTUNE 50 COMPANIES, MAJOR RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS.
As American forces crossed the English Channel to liberate France in June 1944, Milwaukee native Lloyd A. Sauer was thinking forward to a post-war era. Sauer purchased a small company called ColorPrint Products Printing and began producing window signage for shoe stores. But it was Cadillac and Harley-Davidson that propelled...
INNOVATE® Nashville
THNKS
SPARKING A MOVEMENT OF GRATITUDE
At Thnks, our mission is to leverage technology and the science of gratitude to help establish and build strong relationships for the modern world, through efficient, personalized, and thoughtful appreciation. Thnks has created a movement in workplaces with over 15,000 Thnks sent every week — helping business professionals improve their...
INNOVATE® Northern Virginia
Clark Construction
Building Better Through Proven Experience and Constant Innovation
Cities rise through ambition. Skylines shift as new towers rise, campuses expand, and transportation networks stretch further into the future. Behind many of these complex developments stands Clark Group, a company that has spent more than a century delivering assets that shape how communities live and work. With roots in...
INNOVATE™ Estonia
COMBAT READY
TURNING BATTLEFIELD LESSONS INTO EVERYDAY LEADERSHIP
Combat Ready emerged from a simple but urgent realization: while management courses abound, practical leadership training was missing in Northern Europe. Founded by veterans of elite military units, the company set out to close this gap by adapting the rigorous methods of Special Forces training to the realities of business...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
PARANÁ STATE
SECRETARIAT FOR INNOVATION, MODERNIZATION AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF PARANÁ
According to the Connected Smart Cities 2023 ranking, Paraná holds a prominent national position, with ten cities from the state, including Curitiba, among the top hundred in the overall ranking. Moreover, Paraná is recognized as a leader in sustainability and innovation in Brazil, as indicated by the renowned Bright Cities...
INNOVATION Quebec
CRISES
CENTRE DE RECHERCHE SURLES INNOVATIONS SOCIALES DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL (UQAM)
Fondé au Québec en 1986, le Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales (CRISES) fut un pionnier de la recherche sur les innovations sociales et il est aujourd’hui le principal centre de recherche francophone dans ce domaine à l’échelle internationale. Sa programmation scientifique actuelle étudie la contribution des innovations sociales...
INNOVATE® Puerto Rico
TALE+
A group of bilingual speech-language pathologists dedicated to helping others communicate better
TALE+ is a teletherapy company made up of a group of licensed, bilingual, speech language pathologists whose mission is to help others be more confident in their language of choice, while also supporting the professional growth of speech pathologists. Founded and based in Puerto Rico, TALE+’s focus is twofold: expanding...
INNOVATION Quebec
CINDERELLA'S
ELEVATING CLEANING STANDARDS FOR A PRISTINE SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The dynamic husband and wife team of Mark and Tracey Ferdinands, set out to disrupt the cleaning industry with their innovative Territory Management System. Armed with a strong hospitality background and a team of highly trained and caring professionals, the Cinderella’s team consistently delivers exceptional results. Larger organisations are flocking...
INNOVATE® Philadelphia: 250 Years of Innovation
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE
TODAY’S DISCOVERIES, TOMORROW’S CURES
More than 130 years after its founding, The Wistar Institute, the nation’s first independent biomedical research institute, is in the midst of its most consequential chapter yet. In December 2025, the National Cancer Institute awarded Wistar’s Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center an “Exceptional” rating, recognizing the Institute’s role as...
INNOVATION Quebec
ISEQ
THE PÔLE D’EXCELLENCE DE L’INDUSTRIE DES SYSTÈMES ÉLECTRONIQUES DU QUÉBEC (ISEQ)
It acts as a vehicle for collaboration to foster innovation, industry recognition, expanded opportunities, commercialization, and business competitiveness. Promote the export of electronics goods, services, and innovations to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the North American restructuring of electronic systems supply chains. ISEQ was created by the Ministère...
INNOVATE® Nashville
INSEQUENCE
INDUSTRY LEADER IN AUTOMOTIVE JUST-IN-SEQUENCE MANUFACTURING FOR OVER 25 YEARS
What exactly is innovation? It’s more than a brand new way of thinking, though that is definitely a key part of the equation. Genuine innovation also must have a practical application; that is, be impactfully useful. Sometimes the combination of novel idea and usefulness reach the summit and forge a...
INNOVATE® Seattle
First Mode
Accelerating a Diesel-Free Future - For People and Planet
ON THE PATH TO ZERO™ Decarbonization innovator First Mode develops and manufactures clean energy solutions for heavy industry, including the mining sector, which contributes 4-7% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. In 2022, First Mode in partnership with Anglo American debuted the world’s largest zero-emissions truck by retrofitting a Komatsu...
Global Innovation Spotlight
GreenGeeks vs. InMotion:
A Real WordPress Performance Comparison
GreenGeeks vs. InMotion: A Real WordPress Performance Comparison I spent the better part of 2025 months running WordPress sites on both GreenGeeks and InMotion Hosting. I tested load times, uptime, server response, and how each platform handled traffic under pressure. I also paid attention to the smaller things, like how...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
EVERYDAY SPEAK
CREATIVITY WILL MAKE THE 21ST CENTURY AFRICA’S CENTURY
Founded in 2017, by Melusi Tshabalala (creative professional, entrepreneur, author, speaker, humourist, language & culture activist), Everyday Speak is a culture, dialogue, language activism, advertising and design company. Driven by the ethos – Creativity can make the 21st century Africa’s century – Everyday Speak develops ideas and solutions that touch...
INNOVATE™ Alberta
W21C
W21C- Interdisciplinary collaboration to make care better
ABOUTW21C is a research and innovation centre based in the University of Calgary’s O’Brien Institute for Public Health in the Cumming School of Medicine and the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS). W21C conducts research to improve health services and systems to Make Care Better. OUR HISTORYW21C was created...
Global Innovation Spotlight
The Rise of Audiobooks and AI: Transforming the Way We Read
Once, reading was a quiet act. A private conversation between you and the page. Now? That’s changing. Audiobooks have crashed through the library doors, and artificial intelligence is riding shotgun. In 2023, the global audiobook market was valued at over $8 billion. By 2032, some projections place it above $35...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
INNOVATE™ Alberta
ENVOY
MAKES HIRING AND MANAGING AN INTERNATIONAL WORKFORCE A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE
Envoy is a global immigration services provider offering the only immigration management platform that makes it seamless for companies to hire and manage an international workforce. We combine expert legal representation and proprietary technology to bring efficiency and transparency to the immigration process for employers and employees. At Envoy...
INNOVATE® Milwaukee
HSA Bank
HSA BANK IS BUILDING A NEW ERA OF TECHNOLOGY-FOCUSED EXPERIENCES IN FINANCE
HSA BANK IS BUILDING A NEW ERA OF TECHNOLOGY-FOCUSED EXPERIENCES IN FINANCE Technology-driven experience and innovation have the potential to transform employee benefits from a traditional offering into a strategic differentiator for organizations. The benefits sector, traditionally not seen as a tech ‘powerhouse’, is undergoing rapid change as organizations leverage...
INNOVATION Manitoba
Winnipeg Boldness
Reimagining Community Wellbeing Through Indigenous-Led Innovation
In Winnipeg’s Point Douglas neighbourhood, a powerful and deeply community-rooted movement is redefining what innovation can look like. Winnipeg Boldness is an Indigenous-led social innovation lab that places community voices, lived experience, and Indigenous knowledge systems at the center of social change. Through collaboration, relationship-building, and systems thinking, the organization...
INNOVATE® Detroit
MiSide Community Impact Network
Bringing A Theory To Life
East Chadsey-Condon is a multi-cultural community that faces a unique set of challenges – high instances of crime among youth, a large percentage of residents without insurance, limited access to transportation, and low homeownership rates, among others. And yet hope remains as residents report having pride in their community, a...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
CONNECTPLUG
RETAIL AUTOMATION CAN BE MORE AFFORDABLE AND EFFECTIVE FOR EVERYONE
2014 doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but the technology was very different back then. AI was just science fiction, the internet was much slower — and retail software was expensive and unnecessarily complex. This scenario led to ConnectPlug’s creation by computer engineer Rafael Hasson. Hasson, who has worked...
INNOVATE® Maryland
Maryland Sports Commission
Our focus is ensuring that every event we pursue, leaves a lasting legacy.
When the Maryland Stadium Authority and Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (now the Maryland Department of Commerce) partnered in 2008 to create the Office of Sports Marketing, their goal was bold and unmistakable: position Maryland as an elite destination for sports and a national leader in sports tourism....
Global Innovation Spotlight
Agricultural Software Trends Transforming Industry in 2025 and Beyond
Agtech is changing farming in exciting ways by using smart digital tools and machines to solve old problems. Farmers today face higher costs, fewer workers, and more pressure to farm in ways that protect the environment. To handle these challenges, more farms are using agtech than ever before. At the...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
LE AFRIKA
DISCOVER THE HEALING POWER THAT IS CHANGING THE LIVES OF THOUSANDS AROUND THE WORLD!
The world is woke… going back to our roots. The new buzzword is #gogreen in terms of health and wellness. And we’ve been fortunate and blessed with the opportunity of being a part of this new era, introducing and promoting Le Afrika sustainably sourced 100% natural products with their...
INNOVATE® Milwaukee
DCI MARKETING
CELEBRATING ITS 80TH ANNIVERSARY IN 2024, DCI MARKETING FOSTERS A CULTURE OF INNOVATION FOCUSED ON SPECIFIC SOLUTIONS FOR FORTUNE 50 COMPANIES, MAJOR RETAILERS AND CONSUMERS.
As American forces crossed the English Channel to liberate France in June 1944, Milwaukee native Lloyd A. Sauer was thinking forward to a post-war era. Sauer purchased a small company called ColorPrint Products Printing and began producing window signage for shoe stores. But it was Cadillac and Harley-Davidson that propelled...
INNOVATE® Nashville
THNKS
SPARKING A MOVEMENT OF GRATITUDE
At Thnks, our mission is to leverage technology and the science of gratitude to help establish and build strong relationships for the modern world, through efficient, personalized, and thoughtful appreciation. Thnks has created a movement in workplaces with over 15,000 Thnks sent every week — helping business professionals improve their...
INNOVATE® Northern Virginia
Clark Construction
Building Better Through Proven Experience and Constant Innovation
Cities rise through ambition. Skylines shift as new towers rise, campuses expand, and transportation networks stretch further into the future. Behind many of these complex developments stands Clark Group, a company that has spent more than a century delivering assets that shape how communities live and work. With roots in...
INNOVATE™ Estonia
COMBAT READY
TURNING BATTLEFIELD LESSONS INTO EVERYDAY LEADERSHIP
Combat Ready emerged from a simple but urgent realization: while management courses abound, practical leadership training was missing in Northern Europe. Founded by veterans of elite military units, the company set out to close this gap by adapting the rigorous methods of Special Forces training to the realities of business...
INNOVATE™ Curitiba
PARANÁ STATE
SECRETARIAT FOR INNOVATION, MODERNIZATION AND DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF PARANÁ
According to the Connected Smart Cities 2023 ranking, Paraná holds a prominent national position, with ten cities from the state, including Curitiba, among the top hundred in the overall ranking. Moreover, Paraná is recognized as a leader in sustainability and innovation in Brazil, as indicated by the renowned Bright Cities...
INNOVATION Quebec
CRISES
CENTRE DE RECHERCHE SURLES INNOVATIONS SOCIALES DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DU QUÉBEC À MONTRÉAL (UQAM)
Fondé au Québec en 1986, le Centre de recherche sur les innovations sociales (CRISES) fut un pionnier de la recherche sur les innovations sociales et il est aujourd’hui le principal centre de recherche francophone dans ce domaine à l’échelle internationale. Sa programmation scientifique actuelle étudie la contribution des innovations sociales...
INNOVATE® Puerto Rico
TALE+
A group of bilingual speech-language pathologists dedicated to helping others communicate better
TALE+ is a teletherapy company made up of a group of licensed, bilingual, speech language pathologists whose mission is to help others be more confident in their language of choice, while also supporting the professional growth of speech pathologists. Founded and based in Puerto Rico, TALE+’s focus is twofold: expanding...
INNOVATION Quebec
CINDERELLA'S
ELEVATING CLEANING STANDARDS FOR A PRISTINE SOUTH AUSTRALIA
The dynamic husband and wife team of Mark and Tracey Ferdinands, set out to disrupt the cleaning industry with their innovative Territory Management System. Armed with a strong hospitality background and a team of highly trained and caring professionals, the Cinderella’s team consistently delivers exceptional results. Larger organisations are flocking...
INNOVATE® Philadelphia: 250 Years of Innovation
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE
TODAY’S DISCOVERIES, TOMORROW’S CURES
More than 130 years after its founding, The Wistar Institute, the nation’s first independent biomedical research institute, is in the midst of its most consequential chapter yet. In December 2025, the National Cancer Institute awarded Wistar’s Ellen and Ronald Caplan Cancer Center an “Exceptional” rating, recognizing the Institute’s role as...
INNOVATION Quebec
ISEQ
THE PÔLE D’EXCELLENCE DE L’INDUSTRIE DES SYSTÈMES ÉLECTRONIQUES DU QUÉBEC (ISEQ)
It acts as a vehicle for collaboration to foster innovation, industry recognition, expanded opportunities, commercialization, and business competitiveness. Promote the export of electronics goods, services, and innovations to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the North American restructuring of electronic systems supply chains. ISEQ was created by the Ministère...
INNOVATE® Nashville
INSEQUENCE
INDUSTRY LEADER IN AUTOMOTIVE JUST-IN-SEQUENCE MANUFACTURING FOR OVER 25 YEARS
What exactly is innovation? It’s more than a brand new way of thinking, though that is definitely a key part of the equation. Genuine innovation also must have a practical application; that is, be impactfully useful. Sometimes the combination of novel idea and usefulness reach the summit and forge a...
INNOVATE® Seattle
First Mode
Accelerating a Diesel-Free Future - For People and Planet
ON THE PATH TO ZERO™ Decarbonization innovator First Mode develops and manufactures clean energy solutions for heavy industry, including the mining sector, which contributes 4-7% of global greenhouse gas emissions annually. In 2022, First Mode in partnership with Anglo American debuted the world’s largest zero-emissions truck by retrofitting a Komatsu...
Global Innovation Spotlight
GreenGeeks vs. InMotion:
A Real WordPress Performance Comparison
GreenGeeks vs. InMotion: A Real WordPress Performance Comparison I spent the better part of 2025 months running WordPress sites on both GreenGeeks and InMotion Hosting. I tested load times, uptime, server response, and how each platform handled traffic under pressure. I also paid attention to the smaller things, like how...
INNOVATE™ South Africa
EVERYDAY SPEAK
CREATIVITY WILL MAKE THE 21ST CENTURY AFRICA’S CENTURY
Founded in 2017, by Melusi Tshabalala (creative professional, entrepreneur, author, speaker, humourist, language & culture activist), Everyday Speak is a culture, dialogue, language activism, advertising and design company. Driven by the ethos – Creativity can make the 21st century Africa’s century – Everyday Speak develops ideas and solutions that touch...
INNOVATE™ Alberta
W21C
W21C- Interdisciplinary collaboration to make care better
ABOUTW21C is a research and innovation centre based in the University of Calgary’s O’Brien Institute for Public Health in the Cumming School of Medicine and the Calgary Zone of Alberta Health Services (AHS). W21C conducts research to improve health services and systems to Make Care Better. OUR HISTORYW21C was created...
Global Innovation Spotlight
The Rise of Audiobooks and AI: Transforming the Way We Read
Once, reading was a quiet act. A private conversation between you and the page. Now? That’s changing. Audiobooks have crashed through the library doors, and artificial intelligence is riding shotgun. In 2023, the global audiobook market was valued at over $8 billion. By 2032, some projections place it above $35...
INNOVATE® Chicago Vol.1
INNOVATE™ Alberta
ENVOY
MAKES HIRING AND MANAGING AN INTERNATIONAL WORKFORCE A SEAMLESS EXPERIENCE
Envoy is a global immigration services provider offering the only immigration management platform that makes it seamless for companies to hire and manage an international workforce. We combine expert legal representation and proprietary technology to bring efficiency and transparency to the immigration process for employers and employees. At Envoy...