The WA Innovator of the Year Awards is one of Western Australia’s most prestigious business and innovation awards programs.

We were selected to produce 9 creative and informative background video stories for each of the finalists. This was broadcast on the awards night as well as used to further promote the finalists achievements to an international audience online. The production included the express turnaround of the videos (production taking place between the finalist announcement and event date) and also included the video graphics production for the multimedia display at the event.

Category winner Kanopy receiving their award. You can see the Master of Ceremonies – Susannah Carr off to the side

The media area for the Awards presentation at Crown Perth. Kristen at the ready!

As entertaining and amazing as all of the finalists were, I won’t go into detail about all of them, just my favourites!

Finalist – Wireless Underwater Communication System

Interviewing Paul from L3 Nautronix about the underwater communications technology his team created

Working with Paul at L3 Nautronix in Fremantle, He has recently returned from Hollywood director, James Cameron’s Deepsea Challenge dive to the earth’s deepest point. Paul’s team created the underwater communications technology here in WA to survive the 11km decent to the ocean floor! James Cameron’s 3D documentary about the dive should be out early next year.

Finalist – A Floating Droplet Solution to Oil Spills

Filming Dr Chi working on his solution to break down oil spills at Curtin University

Dr Chi & Prof Moses from Curtin University have invented a solution to break down oil spills in the ocean which is environmental friendly compared to the current use of solvents. It makes water droplets float on top of the oil which capture the sunlight to degrade the oil. Go WA innovations!

Finalist – The HIVAP Airconditioning System

Interviewing Graeme who has invented over 80 things in his lifetime!

Who remembers the DirtSurfer? (Pictured Bottom Right, in the above image) It made world news and was invented by Graeme here in the late 90’s. We discovered this when filming his new high efficiency evaporative air-conditioning system, HIVAP. Turns out he has invented over 80 things including a lot of well known windsurfing and surfing technology. What an inspirational conversation… and guy! Kristen had to drag me away to the next shoot in the end.

Winner – Novel Treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Professor Steve Wilton from the University of Western Australia has developed a novel treatment for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – a genetic disorder that affects boys and results in muscle degeneration and eventually death. A very humbling and awe inspiring interview. A very worthy winner.

To watch all the finalists and winners click on this playlist.