Deadline for submitting noms for annual competition is March 15
Bestselling author Steven Johnson will deliver the keynote address at this year's INNOV8 Lafayette Awards Show luncheon on April 29.
The awards, a co-project of INNOV8, Lafayette's eight-day festival of innovation and creativity, and the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce, honor innovative products, programs, processes or services. This year's INNOV8 festival is April 23-30.
Johnson's most popular work on innovation is the bestselling Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation, which was a finalist for the 800-CEO-Read award for best business book of 2010 and ranked one of the year's best books by The Economist. He has authored or edited other books celebrating progress and innovation and also is a contributing editor to Wired magazine and has written for several publications, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
His writings have influenced a range of fields from cutting-edge ideas in urban planning to the battle against 21st-century terrorism. Johnson was chosen by Prospect magazine as one of the Top Ten Brains of the Digital Future. He offers keen insight into how ideas emerge and spread and how they affect the world today.
The author's work on the history of innovation has inspired a six-part series on PBS: HOW WE GOT TO NOW with Steven Johnson, which debuts this fall. As the host of the series, he will explore the power and the legacy of great ideas, why and how ideas happen, and their sometimes unintended results.
The luncheon will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Cajundome Festival Ballroom. Click here to nominate a local innovator. The deadline is March 15.
Read about last year's winners here.