The Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce is accepting applications for the 6th Annual Kruesi Award for Innovation. This prestigious award is presented each year to the local company that best exemplifies the inventive spirit in business. The deadline for entries is Jan. 31, 2006.

Last year's award recipient was Specialized Enterprises Inc., a Cleveland, Tn., company which originated an automated fluid exchange system to efficiently and rapidly change oil in vehicle engines.

The 2006 Kruesi Award recipient will be announced during the Chamber's Spirit of Innovation Award event in the spring at the Chattanooga Convention Center. Over 1,200 people attended the 2005 Spirit of Innovation event, featuring a keynote address by Ford Motor Company Chairman and CEO Bill Ford.

The Kruesi Award honors John Kruesi, who worked with inventor Thomas Edison on numerous innovations from the first phonograph to the light bulb. Mr. Kruesi's son, Paul, settled in Chattanooga, and the Kruesi Award is named in honor of this legacy of innovation.

"Innovation underpins our competitiveness," said Chamber President and CEO Tom Edd Wilson. "Through this award, we've found a way to identify and recognize the best examples of innovation. This event, the only one of its kind in the United States, is intended to draw attention to the most creative and inventive companies and individuals in our region."

Wilson said the award selection committee members approach the definition of "innovation" in the broadest sense.

"They look for new technologies and new ways of doing things," he said. "These innovations may originate on the manufacturing line, in the research lab, the marketing department, the training room, or the board room. Some innovations reflect a major breakthrough. Others result from an accumulation of small developments. All innovations influence positively a company's performance, productivity, quality or competitiveness."

Kruesi Award applicants will be reviewed based on the following criteria:

- The innovation is real, not hypothetical, and has been implemented internally (introduced to the applicant's production cycle, service delivery system, etc.) or launched in the marketplace such that it produced tangible results in the form of company profits, production productivity, sales or service contracts.

- The advantages of the innovation are tangible and require no specialized technical expertise or knowledge on the part of the judges to understand.

- The innovation has the potential to inspire change elsewhere, either within an industry or across a wider landscape.

- The innovation is relatively new, having been conceived and implemented within the past five years.

- By virtue of the innovation having originated in the Chattanooga region, the story behind it has the potential to reflect positively on the community as a place that nurtures the spirit of innovation.

Kruesi Award applicants may be:

- Companies large or small within the region
- Companies in any sector: manufacturing, service, retail, etc.
- For-profit and non-profit businesses, institutions, and organizations
- Individuals
- Government agencies
- Chamber members or non-members.

The Kruesi Award application can be accessed by logging on to www.chattanoogachamber.com and choosing "Nominations & Surveys."

For more information or to receive an application form, please call Lindsay Hiatt at 423-763-4337 or email her at lhiatt@chattanoogachamber.com.