“Connect 3.0” Names San Diego’s Most Innovative Products of 2014
A security startup that detects anomalous cyber behavior and a life sciences company that makes 3D liver tissue for use in drug toxicity testing were among eight San Diego companies that won engraved Lucite trophies last night for the most innovative products of 2014.
The awards were handed out by Connect, the San Diego nonprofit organization that supports local innovation and entrepreneurship. It was the first time Connect has handed out its most innovative product awards at dinner since the event began in 1988.
“After 26 luncheons, this is the first time they’ve let you celebrate at night,” joked Maureen Cavanaugh, a San Diego broadcaster who served as master of ceremonies for the evening. The annual awards were conceived as a way to highlight the technical wizardry in new products introduced by San Diego companies over the previous 18 months. More than 600 people attended last night’s event at the Hyatt Regency La Jolla hotel.
Greg McKee
The break from the luncheon tradition was one sign that a new CEO is now running the show at Connect. Greg McKee, a former biopharmaceutical executive and financier was recruited to take over Connect nine months ago, following the untimely death of Duane Roth in a bicycling accident in 2013.
In a brief introduction, McKee put his own mark on the Connect franchise—referring to the venerable organization as “Connect 3.0,” and describing it as “a business accelerator that creates and scales great companies in the technology and
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
View all posts by Bruce V. Bigelow
