Nominations Now Open for the 2016 ABMA Innovation Excellence Award

The American Brush Manufacturers Association is pleased to accept nominations for of the "ABMA William A. Cordes Innovation Excellence Award" which is to recognize outstanding innovation of manufactured products, components or services in the Broom, Brush, Mop and Roller Industry. The award is named after William A. Cordes, who served as the Association's first President from 1917-1928. This award serves as a constant reminder that all new and exciting endeavours have beginnings that connect with real people. 

This award is to be an annual competition whereby any interested parties may submit nominations to ABMA during any calendar year for consideration. All nominations must be readily available in the marketplace during the year in which they are to be considered. Please see the contest rules for specific details.

Mr. Mark Fultz, ABMA President encourages companies to enter the competition and says: "The ABMA Innovation Award competition is a great opportunity for companies to showcase their innovative products, components and services to the industry, and to the larger audience served by customers, users and consumers as well. It gives the greater industry a wonderful opportunity to see just how innovative, creative and vibrant we are as brushmakers."

Nominations will be exhibited at the 2016 ABMA Annual Convention. The 2014 award winner was Borghi's Jupiter Machine with "e-stroke and KERS".

As Peter Drucker says, "Invention is one of the critical keys to success." The "ABMA Innovation Award" recognizes those companies and individuals who pursue the path of creation and innovation in order to stay ahead of their competition in this most competitive world.

Winner of ABMA's William A. Cordes Innovation Excellence Award in 2011, Sanderson MacLeod first introduced their revolutionary patented medical brush tip, the Z-Tip, at the 2011 ABMA conference held in Austin, Texas. Recently, the company offered a retrospective look at what winning the award has meant to the company. "Winning Innovation Excellence Award has had a very positive impact on our organization," said Mark Borsari, President of twisted-in-wire contract manufacturer Sanderson MacLeod.

"Since winning the award, our Z-Tip technology has become actively utilized in key markets such as medical, aerospace and cosmetics. The market reception has been beyond our expectations. Many of our customers are considered innovators in their markets, and knowing we received the Innovation Excellence Award from the ABMA has enhanced our credibility as a top tier design and supply partner." Borsari said.
When asked to list the top three benefits winning the award provided, Borsari offered the following:

"First, winning ABMA's innovation award gave us the ability to share our innovation and receive vitally important feedback from our trusted fellow brush association members. Second, the award has become a source of tremendous pride to our development team...a real acknowledgement of the long hours and dedication it took to make our concept a reality," reflected Borsari. "Finally, it reinforced the importance of bringing new technologies to the brush making industry. Today, when considering future projects, we ask ourselves if our concepts would be worthy of another Innovation Excellence recognition."

For us, the ABMA and the William A. Cordes Award has made innovating new ideas challenging and purposeful. I'd recommend to any company that they submit any qualifying product for consideration...You never know where it may take you."

Entries for the award will be accepted until November 30 and the award presentation will be made at the ABMA Annual Convention in March 2016 at the Hyatt Coconut Point Resort & Spa in Bonita Springs, FL. For more information, rules and nomination forms please visit http://www.abma.org/innovationexcellenceaward