The Accenture Innovation Awards started in 2007 and has grown into the most important award for tech startups in the Netherlands. After 12 years of highlighting some of the most promising startups and innovations in the country, Accenture has decided to take the program to the next level. In order to achieve this, the multinational services company has decided to remove its name from the awards program, renaming the innovation competition to the Blue Tulip Awards. For your information, registrations for the Blue Tulip Awards are now open.
The Blue Tulip innovation competition
The Blue Tulip Awards is an ecosystem-driven program that runs throughout the year. It consists of eight issue-based themes that are inspired by global challenges. The challenge categories include:
- Climate
- Education
- Finance
- Health
- Living & Working
- Mobility
- Nutrition
- Security
The innovation competition’s primary goal is to help innovators accelerate, innovate and build collaborations. It connects these eight aforementioned issue-based themes with new ideas that are likely to have an impact on our future. The innovators that get in will also get to network with Accenture’s ecosystem of theme experts, tech partners, opinion leaders, and of course, fellow innovators. This means it is not merely a competition as the participants leverage their access to Accenture worldwide venture network to scale-up.
Check out the video below:
In addition, innovators get access to Accenture’s Scale-Up Academy where they gain insights and go through lectures and hands-on workshops. Through the events, entrants obtain knowledge from jury members through individual and group feedback on their business. Obviously, a participants concept holds the chance to get exposure through Accenture’s social channels, website, media partners (like Silicon Canals), and the entire ecosystem.
Why the Blue Tulip?
Accenture chose the Blue Tulip to represent the new awards and there’s a good reason why. The company believes that true innovation is not something that simply falls in your lap. It is a continuous pursuit, just like the blue tulip that has not yet been cultivated in the tulip rich Netherlands. The ‘Blue Tulip’ is said to represent the company’s quest to discover and nurture innovations that show promise of changing the world.
Previous winners
Like all great events, the Blue Tulip Awards program also selected some of the most memorable innovations in the past. The Netherlands-based Delft Hyperloop is one of them, which is making a name for itself around the world. They are also the winners of the first SpaceX Hyperloop Competition and were placed 2nd at the third instalment of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition. Also, the Dutch ‘Spotify’ of journalism, Blendle is another quite innovative startup with the unique idea of offering publishers an online revenue stream.
How to sign up?
As mentioned earlier, registrations for the Blue Tulip Awards are now open and you can register your innovation here.
This article is produced in collaboration with Accenture. Read more about our partnering opportunities.
